Thanks for the additional information Jim.  It's good to see that your
graduates have had success in finding museum employment.  Does your
program offer job placement assistance (job fairs, posting job
announcements, etc.)?  I'm just curious if this accounts for your high
success rate.

I started my job hunt a year before graduation with no assistance from
my graduate program here in the US.  With the internet in it's infancy,
finding jobs was bit harder then too.  Although the university had a
career placement office, it didn't offer targeted assistance with
finding museum jobs.  Job fairs offered by the university rarely (if
ever) included cultural organizations.  I felt fortunate to have secured
a job at the Smithsonian Institution upon graduation even though it had
little to do with my actual degree (many of my fellow students were
still looking for jobs on graduation day).  Although the program may
have improved in the 8 years since I graduated, little effort was made
in posting job announcements or providing career guidance when I was a
student there.  As far as I know, my graduate program has never
conducted a survey like yours either (at least I don't recall ever
receiving one).  In summary, I was very pleased with my education, but
was disappointed with the total lack of assistance for finding jobs.

For anyone considering pursuing a gradate degree in museum studies, I
encourage you to look at the graduates of the program (both recent and
not-so-recent) to see how many of them were able to obtain museum jobs.
Seek out those alumni and ask them about their impressions of the
program.  Also, don't count on much help from the general university
career placement office -- be sure to ask about what specific career
placement assistance is offered by the program itself. 

Laura

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