Well...

1.  I volunteered as a teen at a children's museum one summer.
2.  In college, I interned all over the place in our Art Museum.
3.  My first paying, professional job was at the Children's Museum I
volunteered at.  It was certainly a novelty to the Director that I was a
volunteer as a teen (I was a talk piece to "visiting dignitaries" i.e. Board
Members and potential Donors), and while I'm certain that my past with them
gave me an edge, I doubt they would have hired me if I hadn't had the
continued experience to back it up.

Bottom Line: I cursory glance at an AVISO tells you that most museum
positions require 3-5 years experience.  Unless you luck out, how will you
get that experience unless you intern or volunteer?

LET ME TELL YOU:  I currently work for a small museum where I am the only
staffer with previous museum experience.  Yes, everyone is fabulous at their
job, but they come from different, applicable backgrounds (PR/Marketing,
Education).  If you are willing to work for peanuts and wear a zillion hats,
then look in to small museums... and I hate to say it, many of even our
staff started as Volunteers (our current Director of Education followed this
path: High School Volunteer->Special Exhibit Staff->Weekend Supervisor
(while she attended the University)->Education Staff->Director of
Education... and she is fantastic!).

Good luck to everyone!
--
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not
to think at all." - Hypatia
--
Robyne Miles
Director of Operations & Volunteers
The Science Factory
www.sciencefactory.org
phone: 541-682-7882  fax: 541-484-9027
reply to: [log in to unmask]



> From: Jerry Fahey <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 10:39:56 -0600
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Getting a job *without* volunteering
>
> I'm not sure if you would classify me as having been a volunter or not. After
> a B.A. in ceramics I returned to school for a M.F.A. in drawing and landed an
> assistantship with the university museum. At the time I just figured "great, a
> free ride"! However once I got into it I
> found out this was the life for me. It was a 20 hour a week gig, but I began
> putting in 40 to 60 hours a week doing everything I could think of to try to
> make myself irreplaceable. Luckily for me the museum was just getting started
> making reproductions from their architectural
> ornament collection. With my background in clay I knew a bit about making
> plaster molds. And with my 10 years of bartending I knew how to deal with
> people pretty good so the director put me in charge of the student workers.
> To make a long story short, about 6 months after I finished with school the
> director called me back and offered me a job. He couldn't afford to pay me
> much so for 5 years I was a "material". No benefits, no sick leave, no
> vacation, you get the picture. Well 20 years later it has all
> payed off. I have what I consider the best job in the universe and I'm making
> a decent wage. Paying your dues are a bitch but if it works out it's well
> worth it.
>
> Jerry Fahey
> Exhibits Designer
>
> PS I didn't know what I'd do with a B.A. in ceramics either!
>
> Ehr Nine wrote:
>
>> Michael A. Lewis asked:
>>
>>> Show of hands... how many of you got a job through
>> volunteer work?
>>
>> What I'd like to know is how many (if any!) of you got
>> jobs *without* doing any volunteer work (including
>> unpaid internships), whether for the institution that
>> hired you or somewhere else. If you didn't have
>> volunteer experience, did you have other applicable
>> experience? Has anyone found it possible to get a job
>> without *any* experience of some sort?
>>
>> My volunteer work helped me "sample" different aspects
>> of museum work, including collections and education
>> (with a paid internship adding exhibit development).
>> Most importantly, it put me ahead of every other
>> candidate with the same education, but less
>> experience. In a field this competitive, I can't even
>> imagine trying to find a job without some kind of
>> experience on my resume, paid or not.
>>
>> Oh, and to answer Michael's question: In my volunteer
>> orientation at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield
>> Village, I met a member of the education department
>> who hired me for a part-time position a couple of
>> months later. It wasn't a permanent position, but I'm
>> sure it helped to have it on my resume. It helped that
>> it was an evening position, as I also had a full-time
>> job and another part-time job during that time. You
>> gotta do what you gotta do... (Unfortunately, I hadn't
>> been available when the full-time position had been
>> open -- I'd had to go back to school to wrap things up
>> for my MA...)
>>
>> M. Ehr
>>
>> __________________________________________________
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>>
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