Hi Christina,

In addition to the other good advice you have been given:

1. Having a Masters in Museum Studies seems to be a pre-requisite these day, so recruiters will be looking for other qualities that make you stand out from the crowd.
 
2. Go talk to someone who works in Marketing. They will almost certainly tell you to concentrate on your Unique Selling Points (USP's). If you don't have any right now, then you need to get some by the you complete grad school!

3. Don't get too obsessed with becoming a " museum person". Sure, museums need curators, conservators and collections managers but they also need accountants, marketers, HR managers, project managers, etc. Just like anywhere else.  If you have skills in these areas, talk them up!

4. I don't know how long you have been a member of this listserv, but there was a recent discussion thread where a number of people said they wished had more budget experience when they started. As an accountant I agree with that! Can you set a budget, phase one and work out forecasts? If not, get these skills under your belt and improve your chances.
 
5. Talk to some museum directors and managers and ask what skills they lack in their museums. think about whether you could fill those skill gaps. 

hope that helps

Jerry Symonds - Senior Internal Auditor
Historic Royal Palaces
Surrey, England    

Sent from my iPad

On 13 Aug 2010, at 05:47, Christina Garretson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi listers,
>     I'm getting ready to go to grad school for museum studies, and I'm wondering, does a big-name grad program pay off in the museum field? I'm very close to what I understand is a strong (but not big-name) program, so there's certainly some pragmatic incentive to go there. I'm also looking into schools like George Washington, Oxford, Columbia, etc., but the cost and logistics involved are difficult if not prohibitive. I did a very expensive undergrad degree for the sake of the program's ranking, and I don't want to do that again unless I'm sure it's worthwhile. So now I'm wondering to what degree (if any), a bigger-name grad program could open doors for me that a smaller-name program couldn't. 
>     So, my question is to you, how helpful to your museum career is the prestige of your grad program? Is it worth the expense?
> Any thoughts much appreciated!
> 
> Best,
> -Christina
> 
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