I have to take issue with some of the comments that were made in this e-mail.  I am what one would consider part of Generation X and I would have been more than thrilled to get a job that paid the salary offered to the ungrateful intern.  I am a recent graduate of a Public History program and right now I am taking any internship I can obtain so that I am  able to gain valuable experience.  I have no aspirations at this moment to be a director of any institution.  I am very happy doing work as a registrar and/or some curatorial tasks.  

I went back to school after realizing that working in the public history sphere was in my heart.  I gave up a well paying investment administrator position to pursue a career I knew was not going to pay me even half as much as what I made in my investment job.  I know that most of the people I went to school with don?t expect to make a lot of money either. Most of us would just like to be able to support ourselves and enjoy our work  

I am sorry that the intern in this case obviously left a bad impression, but I don?t think that the rest of our generation should be lumped into the same category.  I consider myself to be very hard working. I realize I am going to have to struggle in the beginning before I am established in this field.

Please, in the future, do not judge an entire generation on a few arrogant people.  There are many of us that put ourselves through school and are very hard workers.  We do not expect high salaries and we are very aware of the hard work and determination it takes to succeed in this field.

Tracy Leach 



>From: Deborah Barlow Smedstad <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Thu Aug 25 09:59:06 CDT 2005
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Glut of graduates

>"In addition to lower than expected salaries, I've also known graduate 
>students who didn't think they had to have any experience to get a job.
>In 
>fact, they expected upon graduation to walk right into a director's job 
>because they have a master's degree in museum studies.  And the few that
>did 
>"luck into" such a job ended up leaving the field within a year, because
>
>reality didn't match classroom teachings."
>
>
>I've never responded to a post on this list, but this one caught my eye.
>
>In my experience of the last ten years, I have come to the conclusion
>that this is what I call "Gen X arrogance" is a generational thing.  I
>encountered the very same thing with several recent MLS graduates in
>that age group.  I had several 'interns' who thought they should be able
>to step right into a museum or art library director position right out
>of graduate school.  Needless to say, this didn't sit too well with
>those of us in the baby boomer generation who worked for paltry salaries
>for 10 years or more before getting that coveted yet still low-paying
>head position.  I had one intern about ten years ago tell me that he
>wasn't happy with his starting salary of $36,500 annually for a two-year
>internship he was taking.  The rest of us raised our eyebrows and
>concluded that he was in for a rude awakening down the line.
>
>I don't gripe that much about my salary since "I" am the only one
>responsible for it.  I didn't go into the field with blinders on.  I
>'did' choose to get my MLS after my MA and it was the best decision for
>me.  I figured out the 'reality' of the jobs in the museum field and
>walked across the park to apply for that MLS.  
>
>I tell people interested in the art library field that the current
>demographics are actually in their favor since many library directors
>will retire in the next 5-10 years.  There has in fact been turnover
>that did not exist in 1985 when I was trying to get my foot in the door.
>
>
>Debbie
>
>Deborah Barlow Smedstad
>Head Librarian
>William Morris Hunt Memorial Library
>Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
>465 Huntington Avenue
>Boston, MA  02115
>[log in to unmask]
>(617)369-3107
>
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