Got an MA in Museum Studies? Feel like a zombie?
Okay, I know it's not Friday yet, but I saw this on Lynn's blog and I just had to post a link. There is - in Lynn's words - a 'really provocative' post about Museum Studies courses and their graduates on Museum 2:0, which - I suspect - could engender a lot of debate!
The crux of the argument isn't new, but whenever I read or hear anyone casting doubt on the value or usefulness of museum studies qualifications I kind of feel like I've been punched in the stomach! Certainly, I wasn't v successful finding employment related to my MA in the four years between graduating and starting my PhD, but I would like to think that that had more to do with my unwillingness to relocate (though to be honest, I didn't - at that time - have a lot of choice in the matter) than anything else.
I have to admit, however, that during my job search I did on occasion run into a little bit of prejudice in some quarters of the museum profession (lets hope a dying breed - museum studies detractors I mean, not the museum profession per se!) against museum studies programmes, and museum studies graduates.
Would be interesting to hear what everyone else thinks about this issue.
The crux of the argument isn't new, but whenever I read or hear anyone casting doubt on the value or usefulness of museum studies qualifications I kind of feel like I've been punched in the stomach! Certainly, I wasn't v successful finding employment related to my MA in the four years between graduating and starting my PhD, but I would like to think that that had more to do with my unwillingness to relocate (though to be honest, I didn't - at that time - have a lot of choice in the matter) than anything else.
I have to admit, however, that during my job search I did on occasion run into a little bit of prejudice in some quarters of the museum profession (lets hope a dying breed - museum studies detractors I mean, not the museum profession per se!) against museum studies programmes, and museum studies graduates.
Would be interesting to hear what everyone else thinks about this issue.
Comments
However, once I'd volunteered in three different museums, and then worked professionally in three more 'heritage environments' I began to feel that no two museums jobs are ever the mirror images of one another.
Therefore, the general grounding and overview that the intellectual engagement of an MA offers is an important part of being self-critical and reflexive enough to become a truly adaptable practitioner from one role (and organisation) to another.
Those are my thoughts, anyhow...
Anyway enough about me. I read the article and whilst I understand the concerns expressed, I do not completely agree. As Amy says, some museum staff actively look down on graduates so how is having such a qualification going to be made compulsory? At the end of the day you have to be right for the job (as well as the job being right for you) and however much we like to think that there is a standard way of choosing the right person, a lot of it is down to personality. I do not think you can expect your MA to automatically guarantee a job, no more than being born to the upper class should entitle someone to a powerful position in society. It is a means towards a job but it should not prevent someone from thinking about themselves as a rounded person and what they have to offer to the museum world as much as what the museum world has to offer them.
But certainly the biggest problem I came across, initially at least, were poor salaries and short-term contracts. Several of the jobs I went for, I couldn't have taken even if I'd been successful at interview, because I wouldn't have been able to afford to relocate. I was also at a disadvantage because I had minimal voluntary/work experience. That's definitely the key to finding work in the field. My big fear is that I will be just as unemployable when I complete my PhD.
After all this negativity though I do have to say that I have never for a single moment regretted doing the MA. It was absolutely the best decision I have ever taken. I strongly believe in fate. If I hadn't seen that small advert in the Guardian's Creative jobs listing, for the new DL programme in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester in the summer of 1998, I certainly wouldn't be here now.
Who'd have thought - looking from the outside in - that the world of museum work would be so flipping cut and thrust?!!
I'm the provocative person behind the Museum 2.0 post. Amy, I think that the evolution you detailed seeing with regard to museums' expectations in terms of experience and credentials is very real and sadly revealing. I'm not sure whether employers remember how they themselves got into the museum field--presumably without being asked after five years of school, internships etc about their level of commitment.
I think it's great that there are more people than ever out there who have a solid grounding in museum studies. But as you comment, that doesn't make it easier to find a job. So from a young person perspective, I would advise other young people to go outside museum studies for a degree, or pursue job experience that distinguishes them as a candidate in another way. I know that in my job search, the fact that I worked as an engineer for NASA was the most talked-about part of my resume--and I almost left it off as non-relevant experience! I'm disturbed when I talk to friends of mine in museum grad programs and look at the portfolios they are required to create--all the portfolios look the same. Their programs are setting them up to appear typical, rather than unique, in job interview settings.
And then I do also question when is the right time for theory in a museum person's career. Education can help jumpstart your interest in something, but I personally feel that I always get more out of courses I take based on prior experience/interest than otherwise. Perhaps if there was a culture of museum people going back to school after ten years in the field, we'd have more fresh ideas and less nepotism. Of course, once you have kids etc., leaving a paying job that hundreds of 23-year-olds want to do becomes daunting...
I have a dream to start a small experimental museum which can serve as an education/innovation center for museum professionals and interested other individuals, where people can come for 3-week to 1-year stints to mount experimental exhibit, try risky programming, and basically dabble in wildness of a kind not acceptable in most museums. I'd like to see more opportunities for education to be a springboard for more innovation in the field, rather than a locked door so many young grads slam into.