January 15, 2014
Angela,
Thirteen years ago now I offered the following advice to a young fellow (in
this very group) who was in the same fix you’re in. I’m printing it again
in hopes there might be something useful to you in it.
-Jim
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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2000 21:06:46 -0700
To: Museum discussion list From: Jim Lyons
Subject: Re: how to get my foot in the door? Cc: [log in to unmask]
Bcc: [log in to unmask]
X-Attachments:
>>Hello everyone.
I am finishing my masters thesis in October. Recently, I applied for a job
at a museum and did not even get an interview. I would like to know if
anyone has advice on how to get my foot in the door. Over and over again I
have heard that you have to know somebody. However, I do not want to get a
job this way. Does anyone have advice? Thank you
Christian Trabue
[log in to unmask]
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“…There is a regular check list of suggestions on this list which has
included:
1) volunteering in your local museum to get personally known and build
experience…”
(From Roger Smith)
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Sept 7, 2000
Christian,
I believe Roger has given you some good ideas, of which I only copied the
one above.
I heartily second the suggestion you volunteer at a museum where you are
considering applying for a paid position. There are several reasons:
1) You will meet and get to know the people you will be working with, and
2) They will get to know you as well. If you are pleasant and competent it
will be noticed.
3) After a while you may find that, egads, you wouldn’t work there if they
paid you [image: -)]. You may not like the people, the work, or some little
thing you don’t know yet even exists. You may even discover that the museum
field is not for you. It happened to me once (not in the museum field),
much to my surprise.
4) You will know the ins and outs of the place and hopefully will be able
to learn something about the workings of several departments. Perhaps one
dept. will appeal to you more than the others. (Granted, a job in that
dept. may not open up, but if you’re in another job in the museum when one
does, maybe you can transfer into it.)
5) When you say you don’t want a job just because you know someone, I think
you’re saying you don’t want the job because you’re the bosses son (or some
such). Right? Volunteering is another way to know someone – a highly
honorable way. The director will know you and your work. Obviously I can’t
speak for anyone else, but if I was the director and had a job opening, the
first place I’d look would be to the people I knew both as a person and as
a worker. Of course you have to make it known that if a position opens up,
you would like to be considered for the job. It wouldn’t do at all for them
to think you loved working the midnight to 8am shift at Sleezie’s Fast
Foods.
Here’s another suggestion. Look around for some project that no one there
can do, and learn how to do it well. You may become a very highly valued
member of the volunteer staff. And you can bet it will look good in the
director’s eyes.
For example, now that I’m retired I volunteer at two museums, the Moffett
Field Museum and the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, Calif.
Because in my previous profession – 25 years as a full-time dealer in
historical newspapers – I have done a fair amount of deacidification and
encapsulation work at Moffett Field, as well a setting up a rather
extensive display of old newspapers dealing with dirigibles and flight. At
the moment I’m the only one there able to do those things.
In addition, Moffett Field had an old and incomplete dogtag-making machine
that no one could work. I restored it from the parts of an old typewriter
and taught myself how to work it. Then I hunted all over creation trying to
find a supply of dogtag blanks. But it paid off. At the 1999 Air Show at
Moffett myself and two other volunteers I trained made (and sold at a good
profit for the Museum) over 400 dogtags.
And, at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, Calif., earlier this
year we had a .50-caliber machine-gun on display and someone messed with
it. I was the only one around who knew how to put it together again. It was
a little thing, perhaps, but little things add up.
So volunteer and make your self highly valuable to the museum. All else
being equal, I’d say you would have a whale of an advantage over someone
else applying for the job you want.
(By the way, I now also volunteer at the Palo Alto (CA) Historical
Association and the Los Altos (CA) Museum. At Palo Alto I'm their
preservationist/conservationist and at Los Altos I'm an oral history
photographer/videographer. And, age-wise, I just hit the three-quarters of
a century mark.)
I hope this has been of some help.
-Jim
On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 8:03 AM, Bree Boettner <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Welcome!
> I'm currently a student as well. I'm thrilled you've subscribed! There are
> many fantastic discussions that brew daily on here. Good luck!!
>
> Bree Boettner
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 15, 2014, at 9:42 AM, Angela Gedvillas <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> My name is Angela Gedvillas and I am a student at George Washington
> University attending the Preservation Conservation course for their museum
> studies certificate program. I was instructed to subscribe and send a
> message to you in order to use your program as a resource for future
> assignments and my own personal use to further my education in the museum
> field.
>
>
>
>
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