My stock advice is to keep your options open.  You have to keep in mind that since the museum field is so glutted right now, you are competing with people with just as much schooling as you who probably have at least 5+ years of experience. This makes it a lot tougher to get into even the entry-level jobs.

If you are willing to travel anywhere in the country and accept a low salary (under 20K). For some people, this is no problem and they love the adventure. I, personally , like having an annual salary that is above what my student loan debt and benefits like health care so I chose to find jobs in my field that weren't necessarily with museums.  Experience is experience and the more you can get, even if it is not in a museum, will get you that much closer to a good museum job.

Look at your field of interest and see what fields are similar to it.  If you are interested in curating, look for jobs at auction houses, private collections or embassies.  If you do education, check out jobs in the local school district, libraries, adult ed centers, corporate training or tutor.  Also look at the non-profit sector.  Consider taking a job on the weekends or volunteer as a docent, collections researcher or behind the scenes at a museum.  I find that small museums are more willing to take on volunteers and give them more responsibility than larger institutions, which usually have a huge volunteer pool and more red tape to wade through.  Still, at someplace like the Smithsonian, you can usually find a curator or educator who is willing to let you more professional type work as opposed to "office" stuff, you will have it made.

Local clubs like scouts, art appreciation societies and retirement centers usually look for people to help out and provide cultural experiences.  You could organize tours to museums or do a short course on an interesting topic. Local community centers usually have continuing ed classes or fun classes where you can get experience as well. If your subject is chinese art, propose a class on chinese art and see if people take it.

Meanwhile, find a job, any job, and stick with it for as long as possible.  Even a corporate-type job that you hold on to and can learn valuable workplace skills is better than a string of part-time jobs that go nowhere.  It will also pay your students loans and bills off.  It will also allow you some breathing room to look for museum jobs without feeling like you are under the gun to get work when your student loan payments kick in.  Plus you could learn some skills that are valuable to museums like web design, multimedia design, budgeting, team planning and project management.  Those skills are directly applicable to a museum world and I know there has been much discussion about how museum professionals can benefit from a little business training.

Also look for freelance gigs you can do on the site or on the weekends.  They open doors and get you contacts.  If you apply for a job and don't get it, ask if they can take you on freelance or on an as-needed basis.

Before you know it, you will have a resume full of experiences that will get you further than just a degree and an intership.  It will also get you better positions than office grunt.  Even in a museum, office grunt is still office grunt.  I went that way for a while and decided it wasn't worth it.  I got a corporate job that allowed me to learn new skills and pick up more responsibility and worked at the Smithsonian on the weekends and did freelance gigs.  Now the two top things on my resume are 2 years at the National Air and Space Museum and being a curriculum writer for NASA in addition to my instructional designer corporate job which I think is more impressive than office manager for a museum firm. I learned a lot as an office manager but I was still an office grunt.

Good luck!!

Deb

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