Kathy -- I agree with my Cooperstown colleague --stick to your guns. I started working in museums when I was 15, and have never left. It has been hard at times, but I am very happy I continued to keep my foot, or toe, in the door. I have also had some horrible jobs to make ends meet and always several at a time. However, if you keep thinking of ways to apply your good and not-so-good experiences to your future museum profession, you can't go wrong. Waitressing (my real money job for a long time) taught me to do many things at one time, how to be a good manager, and how bad it is to work for a bad manager. My on-the-job training in "unrelated" fields has come in handy. On a related note, try to work in as many different areas the museum field as possible. Eventually your seemingly limited understanding of what your co-workers are doing will be useful during compromises later in your career. Essentially, no experience is useless, and as many as possible are great! Whatever you are doing can be applied to your long-term goals. Good Luck! Erin Crissman Curator of Collections Historic Cherry Hill Albany, NY _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).