Museum recruitment needs change!
I’m recently qualified with an MA with distinction in Museums and Galleries, with a specialism in history of textiles. I can’t get a job for love nor money. There are many, many post-graduates like me in the same position: newly qualified, with nowhere to go. I know we are in a recession and there is lots of competition out there, but there does not seem to be a way to get a foothold in the industry.
I have a couple of years’ worth of volunteering experience in museums doing documentation, storage and exhibitions. I have paid experience in a museum education dept as an interpreter/ demonstrator and as a gallery assistant. I have a good CV and I think I’m pretty presentable at interview: I’m smart, intelligent and amenable.
Despite this, having sent out my CV or an application to around 80 jobs in the past 3 or 4 months, I have only been up for two interviews.
The most recent of these was for a position as a seasonal museum assistant.
I was selected from over 600 applicants for three positions and was interviewed last week. I thought I performed pretty well. I received a call back to say I was unsuccessful and I asked for feedback as to why. I was told that I was overqualified. This really does beg the question of why I was interviewed in the first place.
Seriously though, the reasons I am getting for being turned down for museums jobs are thus: either I don’t have enough experience (5 years seems to be the popular figure), or I am overqualified. Short of volunteering for another three years and living off the state, or missing off my qualifications on application forms, I am at a loss of how to rectify this situation.
Will I ever make the career change I went back to university for? Will it be back to nursing work again for me? I haven’t spent 6 more years in education for that.
Where is the middle ground, and the jobs for newly qualified post-graduates, just starting out? Those of us with the qualifications, but not the large amount of experience. Something in recruitment needs to change to accommodate us. We’d be useful to you!
Ingrid Murnane is an MA Museums graduate and artist. You can contact her at Ingrid(dot)murnane(at)gmail(dot)com or follow her on twitter for the ongoing saga of the job hunt!
I hear you Inny! xxx
I’m so sorry to hear this, Ingrid. Students from the program where I teach (MA/MBA in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University in California) have an excellent placement rate, but I think the program assumes students will be looking for work for as much as a year until they find a job they really want.
The program takes seriously its responsibility to help students find excellent internships while they’re students and great jobs when they graduate. There’s a lot of letter writing and calling people at museums–good networking–by the director of the program. Does your program do the same thing? Also, most of my students are working in the museum field while getting their MAs. Is this the case in your program?
It’s a nasty job market, but your program’s director and other faculty should have connections they can use to help you find a position. If they can’t or won’t, that’s a shame. I believe programs that offer these kind of degrees must commit to helping students find career positions.
Best of luck to you!
I’m going to jump in and say thanks for the kind words. There’s quite a good museum-student following NC and I think they need some encouragement all-round right now!
It’s rough, and I completely feel for your frustration. In my experience, my graduate program left me completely unprepared for the actual job hunt, unless I was planning on staying in the same community. In addition to that I left a place with a wide variety of job options at graduation (Washington, DC) in favor of a smaller museum city (Seattle) I’ve got loads of museum experience (including working for the National Gallery), but I quickly realized there were very few positions here in Seattle to fight for. I envy your situation of having 80 jobs to apply to, it’s not the case everywhere in the world.
I’ve since put aside my museum career in favor of developing other interests and talents. But I still feel the longing to go back to my first passion. My only advice is to not give up hope, just realize it may take you trying a few other routes to get to your destination.
Kelly, Leslie and Pete, thank you for your encouragement. It *is* a tough job market out there, and you’re right, I did not expect to get a job straight away in the field I had chosen, especially in a recession.
Leslie, tutors at my MA programme always email any job openings to us former students in addition to writing us references, so they are a great help. Yes, I did do museum volunteering and work throughout my course and continue to do so, which again is great for networking. I also work on a casual basis as an Interpreter/ Demonstrator in the local museums service which brings me into contact with a wide range of collegues. I know that most of the students with whom I studied have not yet gained museum employment either, so there is a real battleground out there for the jobs which do come up.
Kelly, there are not many jobs to fight for here either: the 80 or so that I have applied for have been all around the country and indeed the world. I’m in the UK and have applied as far away as the US and New Zealand. There have been about five which are near to where I live, so it is the same for me. I’m willing to relocate, but again have been advised in feedback that museums (and employers in general) are more keen to employ somebody local.
I think that in general, I’m doing all the right things and will persevere. In the meantime it may well be back to the nursing homes or shelf stacking!