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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