In this section, we are providing resources to help you take your next steps toward a museum career. We hope you find them useful. If you'd like to contact VAM with a specific question about Virginia's museums, call 804.788.5820.
Links to Useful Educational Resources:
Graduate Programs
Graduate Certificates
Virginia Certificate in Museum Management
You might be asking yourself, ok, with all these options, which graduate program or certificate should I choose? Elizabeth Schlatter, in her book Museum Careers: A Guide for Novices and Students, has this advice:
You need to decide where your interests lie. Obtaining a discipline-specific degree provides you with a depth of knowledge translatable to many positions, but you may find yourself lacking in the practical skills and professional contacts gained through function-specific degree programs like museum studies. Similarly, function-specific degrees provide their graduates a jumpstart on their careers in almost any type of institution, but the generalist approach may not appeal to employers seeking applicants with more scholarly backgrounds, particularly for senior-level content-producing jobs such as curator or educator.
Building Your Resume
For basic tips on writing your resume, check out our powerpoint presentation. For more in depth information on what content to include in a resume, and how to build up your credentials for a resume, keep reading!
Internships
Volunteering
Building a Network
Continuing Education
If you are interested in a museum career, it is never too early to start working toward that goal. The museum field is not for everyone, and the most important thing to remember is that a museum wants to know you are committed to the eccentricities of a museum career before they will invest a lot of time hiring and training you. They will look for evidence that you have done your homework by completing internships, volunteering at museums, and starting to build a museum-based network. So, how do you make your resume stand out?
Internships
What Does an Internship Do For You?
I can’t repeat this enough. Internships are key components to any entry-level museum resume. Doing an internship provides you an opportunity to see what exactly goes into running a museum, what a museum professional’s daily tasks are, and whether you fit well into the museum environment. A completed internship on a resume tells your prospective employer that you have learned the basics of working in a museum setting, and that you have taken the first step in learning how to put your classroom knowledge to practical use. A successfully completed internship also gives you two benefits that will help in any job search:
1. A new network of colleagues from the museum in which you did your internship
2. A professional reference you can hand to a potential employer
How do you find an internship?
If you are a current student, your professors should have listings of local museum internships; you can also check with your local museum association or call individual sites if there are some you are particularly interested in. Some are paid positions, but most are not. You can find internships that offer credit, and run during the school year, or you can search for a summer internship.
If you are not currently in school, but are thinking about entering the field, it is still possible to find internships at museums. You will need to do more legwork, and explain to your potential internship supervisor why you want an internship instead of a volunteer position.
Are All Internships Created Equal?
No way. As an intern, you need to be willing to work at the tasks assigned, be a team player within your museum, and follow the guidelines set forth by your supervisor. However, you do have some power in this equation. While a good internship will help prepare you for your future career, a bad one can hurt your chances, or even sour you on museums in general.
You have the right to talk to your supervisor at the beginning of an internship and make sure that your experience will be rewarding for both sides. Ask up front what tasks you will be assigned, and how those tasks are contributing to the success of the organization. Invite your supervisor to give you critiques, and to train you in different techniques that she has found helpful over the years. During your internship, if you feel you are not getting the feedback or experience you need, let your supervisor know—it may be she only needs a nudge to remind her why you are there. If that doesn’t help, talk to your professor. Don’t wait until the end of the internship to voice your concerns. Getting a bad review because you were bored, underused or too quiet will not help you.
This is not to say the museum should never ask you to do a menial task—most museum professionals make copies, clean the galleries, or set up coffee service for a visiting group on a daily basis. Balance is the key word to keep in mind. If you are asked to clean the galleries as a part of your job, but are also able to help with labels or tours, or work with kids, you are well on your way to understanding exactly what museum professionals do.
For guidance on ensuring that your internship will be a positive experience, click here.
Volunteering
What is the Difference between Interning and Volunteering?
Interns fill a role similar to that of an apprentice. Their tasks are designed to help them gain on-the-job training and build practical skills they can use in future employment. Interns can receive college credit or stipends, and their performance is evaluated in some structured fashion. Volunteers play a less structured, but no less important, role at a museum. Their tasks do not need to be geared to acquiring new job skills, and they are not evaluated or reviewed as formally as interns. This difference provides a volunteer with more freedom within the museum; they can change departments if they get bored with a task, they can set a more flexible schedule, their jobs tend to be more open-ended, and they generally are treated more as a peer than a colleague.
Does Volunteering Help Me?
Volunteering, like interning, will show your potential employer that you are dedicated to museum work and have actually completed tasks in a museum setting. However, volunteer roles generally won’t carry as much weight on a resume. Internships, for an entry-level resume, would be listed under Professional Experience, with specific tasks and achievements for that internship listed underneath. Volunteer roles, on the other hand, are generally considered Community Involvement. You have less resume “real estate” for these personal entries, and they are seen as extras, rather than the primary factors that help you get a job.
Volunteering should be on your checklist of things to add to your resume. It shows a commitment to the nonprofit sector and a willingness to use your free time to do good things for your community, and it provides a potential employer with more proof that you know what the museum world actually looks like. However, volunteering should come AFTER internships on that resume checklist. Do not give up on doing an internship because you already have volunteer experience under your belt.
Building a Network
How do you do this? It does seem a bit like a catch 22—you need a job to build a network, but you need a network to get a job, right? First of all, networks come in many shapes and sizes. Graduate programs in museum studies have very strong networks made up of alumni and instructors. Different museum disciplines have their own networks—curators, educators, directors. And different types of museums also build their own networks to better communicate with each other—zoos, science centers, history museums. But there are also more general networks that you can become a part of before you even have your first job.
The best of these general networks is your state or regional museum association. Most (including VAM) have special student rates that make joining the association affordable. Once you are a member, you have something to add to your resume under Professional Affiliations, and you have immediate access to a well-established network of professionals. The more member events or conferences you attend, the more people you will meet within the field.
You will find that most museum professionals are very willing to talk with you and share their experiences to help you get your footing. Talking to as many people as you can is a great way to build a network. Get a list of names from your state or regional museum association and make contact, asking if you can visit them at their museum and see what they do. Try these questions as a way to get conversation started in these informational interviews:
Sample Questions for an Informational Interview
Another way to establish a network for yourself is to be proactive when you are working on an internship. Talk to everyone in your museum or department; ask them to introduce you to their colleagues at other museums. Keep in touch with all these people after your internship is over, and you are well on your way to you own personal network.
You can also use other opportunities in your coursework to build relationships with local museums and museum staff. In a section of her new book Museum Careers: A Guide for Novices and Students, Elizabeth Schlatter suggests:
Any time you have the opportunity to choose a topic for a class research paper or project, try to relate it to an object in a museum. For example, if you are studying the women's voting rights movement, find out if the local historical society has letters or artifacts relating to suffragettes from the region. Scholars and students are particularly welcomed by museum staff to learn more about objects in the collection. . . . When you ask the museum curator or collections manager to view an object up close or study the object's records and history, you are networking with the local museum community.
Continuing Education
Most people considering the museum field are still in college, so continuing education may seem a bit superfluous. However, museum professionals never stop going to workshops, reading new publications, and attending conferences. Starting this habit early on, and having a couple of workshops or programs on your resume before you even get your first job will go a long way to showing a potential employer that you are committed to the field. In this area, your state or regional museum association can again be a great resource. VAM even offers a Certificate in Museum Management as a part of their professional development programs.