Thanks to Pamela's "lament" and her buoyant
personality, we have all been reading some very informative and encouraging
responses from the field. Hang in there, Pam and others, and don't be
afraid to supplement your museum work with something in a better paid field
while you stay in touch with museums through reading, visits, volunteering and
conferences. It seems pretty clear that a glut of graduates on the market has
impacted the job search process, and when you can't be as flexible as a
footloose younger single person you will feel that impact much more heavily.But
the opportunities do seem to be out there. Pam, you are just about the
most unsinkable person I have heard of since Molly Brown! I am in awe of your
perseverance and ability to bounce back from some pretty negative experiences,
and the thoroughness of your search for information. It sounds like you are
building an impressive resume with a variety of museum work. Not only that-- but
you have learned to say "No"! I think it took 25 years for me to smile and say
"sorry, no"-- and doesn't it lighten your step!
The best job-seeking,
resume-preparing advice I ever received was to start a "life experiences"
resume as your own personal private document-- not a scholarly C.V. but a true
life list, for your own perusal. When you have listed everything you have ever
accomplished, whether as employment or because you had to do it and did it
successfully, you will be pretty impressed with the person on that paper.
Then pick up your resume again, and look at how you can translate job titles
into accomplishments. Rewrite your resume from the viewpoint of what you are
proven capable of doing. A waitress doesn't just hand out food-- that job
requires incredible skill in perceiving and satisfying customer needs, in
multi-tasking, in stamina. An assistant registrar doesn't just sit in a cubie
and record objects, she sifts and matches information, learns research skills,
evaluates condition, understands donor relationships, handles objects, manages a
database, confers with peers, networks with registrars across the state and
through this list across the world! As a person gains experiences, she
can rewrite her resume for every single job application, because
accumulated skills will range so broadly from collections management to
grantwriting to education to public relations to volunteer management, on and
on. Whatever the job needs, reach into this sack of skills and polish
them up. Job titles are misleading, what is important is your level of comfort
and control of information learned in that job. Each job title should be
followed by a well written, clear line about your responsibilities and
accomplishments. Think of the application in terms of what you bring to the
table, and what your potential employer wants to have at hand. Those
of us spread along the baby-boomer timeline accumulate too much experience, and
we have to select the most appropriate and group it under a required or useful
type of experience, and establish a cut-off date (old news is no news to that
fatigued person reading your accomplishments). I do keep a full project list
going back to ancient history, but any job I am interested in gets a one-page,
concise and pertinent resume with a note that the full project list is available
upon asking.
In closing, I sensed some misunderstanding
about volunteers that may have been in response to something I wrote. Let me
state here and now that I believe there is a special room in heaven for
volunteers, who add enormous value to every task they take on, without exception
are generous, sociable and caring people, and in return ask only that
their time be respected and to hear an occasional thank you. I believe
I said that volunteering is an excellent way to acquire training and skills, but
it doesn't put dinner on the table. I didn't say volunteering has no value--
without volunteers, this country would grind to a halt at every level.
This is a unique aspect of our democratic society-- when working on a citizen
diplomacy project in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, I learned that Soviet
volunteers are people who are assigned to a job that is not listed on their
internal visa. They were not unpaid by any means, they were
simply assigned to otherwise unauthorized work by an authority. Woe be to the
citizen who showed up to add their skills after work or while on assigned
holiday-- they were escorted outside and interrogated. Imagine a life where a
schoolteacher would be intimidated if they tried to carve a duck or play a
guitar or arrange museum objects for the love of it in their free time. I
treasure museum (and all) volunteers. I am also very fortunate to now be in a
"mentor" position to a recent museum studies graduate, who is volunteering
temporarily for hands-on experience while we raise funds for her
salary. So rather than being jealous of new graduates, I value the opportunity
to be of use and to pass the knowledge on, and besides that she's a lot of
fun.
Hey Pam, I never had to work tobacco either,
but when my family moved to the west coast I sure had to cut 'cots in
the Central Valley. I lasted one week, and before my hands were damaged beyond
repair I picked up my toolbox of brushes and poster paints and walked the
downtown sidewalks, offered to paint ads on store windows for $10 each window.
All it took was one merchant willing to take the risk (I didn't even have
samples, all I had ever painted were Christmas scenes on our home windows!) and
by the end of summer I had my tuition in hand (and was getting $25 per window).
Sometimes you have to guide opportunity when it can't quite seem to find its way
to you!
Micki Ryan
Museum & Archival Services
John...OMG you are too much WOW hehe! I mean that in a good way, of
course!
Volunteering isn't for everybody. And with gas prices these days...among
other things.
There had to be a limit on how much time and effort that I am
able and willing to put in. Have to draw the line somewhere. It was hard, but
I finally learned how to say no on some things.
Some people really aren't in the position to volunteer. Being a
single-mother, I had to take great care that I knew where my time was best
spent. So I used to bring my son with me!
I'm not totally knocking volunteerism as you can tell - but there are a
lot of issues (there is a long-standing anti-volunteerism movement, but let's
not go there!) and I want others to be aware that there are or can be
issues when it comes to museum work. Mainly, you can work as hard as you
can but it doesn't mean that the museum is obligated to hire you, even if they
have a position available. If you are going to volunteer - have clear,
realistic goals for yourself and understand those of the organization the you
are working for.
Many museum's have guidelines for volunteers, people do volunteer work
for different reasons and museums recognize this.
BTW Whether you know it or not, you have described me to a 'T'! Except
for one or two things like raising millions of dollars! And with my luck, I
would do that and still be out of work! I've been in plenty of
'ditches', literally and figuratively. Right down through the glacial
till!
I love the museum work I am doing right now, though it's not
permanent, full-time work. Maybe I'll be able to get what I want some day,
maybe not. But I'll tell you, I did have plenty times where I had to rethink
the possibility of museum work. It occurred to me that perhaps it is just too
'exclusive' for someone like me (yeh, I'm a Red Sox fan hehe).
Apparently a lot of us have had some real lowly jobs. And there are
others now that have to do those jobs still! And what can we do? Chock it up
to experience, integrity, learn from it. I
am also grateful that I never had to work tobacco.
Pam