Something to keep in mind is that when one enters the museum career field,
it is often because of a love of working with the collections. Later on when
you are successful in being promoted to management positions, you will be
called upon to use skills that you may or may not have acquired along the
way as they may not have seemed relevant to dealing with collecting,
researching, preserving, exhibiting, and educating  e.g.

- Dealing with Boards
- Fundraising and grantsmanship
- Budgeting and money management
- Advertising/marketing
- Overseeing museum related business aspects such as gift shops, site
rentals, restaurants, movie filming on site etc.
- Human resources issues for paid and volunteer staff (hiring staff, leading
staff, scheduling staff, disciplining staff on occasion, negotiating with
unions, firing staff)
- Overseeing the construction of a new building (or renovation /restoration
of an old one)
- Master planning
- Business planning
- Drafting policy with the Board
- Dealing with politicians (municipal, state/provincial/county and national)
- Dealing with the media as the spokesperson for the popular or
controversial exhibits
- Design
- And last, but by no means least, time management

If you can, acquire some of these skills before you jump into the swamp to
start clearing out the alligators. Another way of looking at it is that it
helps if you have had at least some swimming lessons, as the "sink or swim"
school is kind of hard on those who don't make the grade.

Colin Macgregor Stevens,
Curator,
Burnaby Village Museum,
Burnaby, BC, CANADA

 ===========================================================================
====
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Steven S. Yalowitz
Sent: March 27, 2000 13:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Master's/PhD issue (full circle)
... As for the academic vs. museum world decision, the reason I initially
asked the question is because I finish up in a year and am looking to
get a museum position rather than an academic position. Why? Because I
want to work in the museum world to get a feel for both museum and
academic jobs and make an informed decision on which would be a better
fit for me. ...

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