Hi Ashley, 



I noticed that your internship experience was completed at the Smithsonian. Many of my colleagues and I also interned and volunteered at the Smithsonian at one point in our careers. It is an incredibly popular place for internships. It is a great institution to gain experience, however when it comes to employment, the Smithsonian literally has a world of applicants to choose from. Therefore, the institution tends to value full-time work experience. Most employees of SI have honed their skills and gotten years of experience within another institution before making the move to the highly competitive government jobs at the Smithsonian. Basically the timing of a job opening would have to be perfect and you'd have to beat out thousands of applicants who have years of experience at the full-time level. 



While I'm sure you've done a great job at the internships you've completed, SI is a tough place to have the opportunity to begin your career. I would recommend volunteering or interning at smaller/non-profit museums, who tend to be more quick to hire from within and evaluate their volunteers and interns when full-time positions open up. Non-profits and private institutions also have the advantage of some flexibility in regards to their positions and job titles. Therefore, if you exhibit some skills that a certain department needs and would like to have full time, and a staff member in another department leaves a position where another employee could take over most of their responsibilities, the museum would have the option of maneuvering the budget to create a full-time position for you with whatever appropriate title the department deems relevant, and perhaps shift the other position to part-time. The government has very strictly defined positions with pre-determined pay grades, so this is often not an option. 



I hope this makes sense!



Best, 



Bailey 



-----Original Message-----

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ashley Watson

Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 3:49 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Employment Search Frustrations for the recent graduates



Hello,

   I graduated with masters in the museum studies at Syracuse University last May and have not found a job yet despite aggressively applying for various openings within my experience and skill range. I have completed an internship at National Museum of Natural History in the exhibits department and is currently a zooarchaeological/collections intern at the Museum Support Center till this May.   Any recent graduates here that have the same frustrating experience?   Those internships certainly help keep me sane professionally and personally but I certainly need to begin LIVING. I want to add one thing that I was more than qualified for one position at National Museum of Natural History but didn't break through the annoying human resources "wall". My colleague who was qualified to the maximum also applied for the same position got the same result.   



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