I asked the museum professionals who follow me on twitter:

“How did you get your start in museum”

Here are the responses, as well as other tips. I hope it helps somewhat.

(via email): I am visitor services manager at museum in Philadelphia. I was actually recommended by the previous VS manager.

I am seeing a number of people with numerous degrees and vast experience trying to work for me in the museum. The people I hired..
1- are brought in by current employees.
2- show personality in their resume.
3- have potential to do other things in the museum.
With the way things are right now, I recommend they do as much volunteer work as they can at various museums, and make their mark! It is all about WHO you know as well as what you know.

Bob Hole (via email): I’m somewhat of a late bloomer. I’ve been interested in museums all my life, but had several useful but unrelated jobs before getting my B.S. My university biology department (I was a bio student) had several collections and a small museum. I got to work there by knowing the seniors who were graduating. I became volunteers under them to gain experience. I was lucky enough to get an internship at the Smithsonian. Then in grad school I continued working in collections. To get my first job after school, I had to volunteer a couple places until a job opened. The place I started actually created a job for me. A lot of being “willing to learn” and not turning my nose up at cleaning the bathroom (or whatever) when needed helped me a lot.

Samuel Bausson, Webmaster Museum de Toulouse, France (via email): Even though I majored in anthropology (Grinnell College) I entered via web stuff (had done some CDROM for my department, and attended the very first web design class there) when I came back to France from USA  (where I lived 6 years) in 1998. Was still kind of new here at the time and a good way to get a foot in the museum’s door (very tough otherwise). Was a good strategy I guess : still there.

JiaJia Fei (via email): Last year while applying to my first museum jobs, I received interviews from the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in Chelsea, The Museum of Modern Art & The Jewish Museum in New York.

My experienced ranged from founder and editor-in-chief of a college arts publication, internships at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C., and the Institute and Museum of the
History of Science in Florence, Italy. I also had a lot of freelance graphic design, web design, and photography experience.

I was ultimately hired full-time at The Jewish Museum (Marketing) due to a combination of design/photography skills that I assumed no one else had, and internship experience. By coincidence, the Director of Marketing and
Communications that I worked for at my previous internship (ICA) used to be the Marketing Manager at The Jewish Museum under the same Director I was interviewing with. Ergo, a pretty excellent reference.

Richard Urban (via email): Just outside of state college is the Pennsylvania Military Museum.  Somehow I got the idea to call them up and to see if I could volunteer. By volunteering I got to know the director who suggested I apply for the internship program at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  I got the paid internship for the summer, made some new connections with state-level staff  and learned a lot about how museums work from the inside. After my internship I started work on my undergraduate thesis  in history and was spending lots of time in the University archives.  I got to know the director of the archives, who happened to be a colleague of the head of manuscript processing at the Library of Congress.  He suggested I apply for the Junior Fellows program, wrote a letter of support, etc.   I was accepted and moved to D.C. which later lead to a job at the Smithsonian Institute Libraries.

Rjstein: From academia through partnerships with museums, and loving the people and topics I got to work with.

Barbara Levine: I worked in museums for most of my career, started as an unpaid intern. Finding right internship, i.e. 1 that will make you visible to staff who can mentor/champion you is critical to job hunt success. Knowing dream job you want, taking jobs related to ideal in meantime, meet people, write, patience, & being team player all key.

MW2009: Unique subject combo (Canadian History + grad Art History) = @jtrant 1st FT job: Documentary Art @ National Archives of Canada.

Dana: Knowing people in the field is important. Attending professional conferences REALLY helps! I got 1st job @ a conference.

Lidja Johnson: Not sure there is such a thing as just one break-seems like it is a lifelong collection of tough nuts to crack. Have watched students bounce in & out and back in (& out again) of art admin. Seems like a revolving door w wicked spin… :-/

Sheila Brennan: was paid intern, then volunteered because of promise of full time employment at one museum as they waited for funds. Then took full time “temp” job at different museum because I needed the money. Was great, turned into permanent position. Sometimes you have to take chances.

Michelle Moon: Career change from classroom teaching. Started volunteering, then took an internship,climbed from there. Worked hard for cheap!

Clarissa Ceglio: No job where I volunteered but recs from them + mtg future boss through that circle Before job opened paved way. Writing skills key.

Allison Agsten:  I produced CNN’s coverage of the King Tut show @LACMA… the rest is history.

Paul Fraser Webb: Getting job in museums: 1-be good at your job, 2-network like crazy, 3-chase every opportunity, 4-return to stage 1. Never easy

Erica Pastore: Look for opportunity to do something new-even if you have no experience, when someone gives you a chance, take it.

The Awesome Nina Simon: I said: “I’ll volunteer for three months and then we’re going to talk about potential for a job.” Set expectations early!