I'm not sure what I can offer to help with Sarah's specific case (though I'm sure there will be some one-on-one helpful and wise responses from MCN colleagues), but I DO know that there's one huge thing that we can ALL commit to: communicating with the people who apply for the jobs we're responsible for posting.
How much effort does it take to acknowledge incoming applications, keep people posted on the process, and send out a final email when the job has been filled? Well, yes, some effort, but a set of email responses are pretty to easy to create and send out periodically with a bcc list. If 600 people apply for a job, that's a good thing for an applicant to know. When you select someone, it can be helpful to share what the critical skills were with others who didn't make the cut. I recently saw a posting from the Portland Art Museum. The text below appears in a pop-up for each job description. Kudos to PAM for their kind and well-thought out policy. It's a really bad job market out there. Let's see what we as professionals can do to make the application process better for people who are trying to join us in our underpaid by fascinating career! Best, Deborah Wythe Head of Digital Collections and Services Brooklyn Museum http://portlandartmuseum.org/about/careers/ We recognize and respect the amount of time you are about to invest by applying to this open position. If you complete this job application, you will be kept informed via email status updates (and text messages, if you opt in) throughout the evaluation process. By continuing with this job application, you will be asked to answer job-specific questions. Please note that the questions contained in this job posting are our sole intellectual property. Upon receipt of your responses, we will evaluate your submission. If selected for a personal interview, you will receive an email/text with scheduling instructions. Thank You, Human Resources Department SPECIAL NOTE: If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within minutes of your job application submission, please check your email bulk or spam folders. From: sa...@sarahstierch.com Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 09:09:56 -0800 To: mcn-l@mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] Resume Review ...jobs...etc..help? Hi everyone, Bear with me here, this is one of the most awkward emails I have ever sent in a professional sense..this is about the job hunt and professional development. I need some help. ( TL:DR? Skip to the “So, here’s the deal” section below the story. ) This involves a bit of a selfish story…: I returned back to finish my bachelors and masters later in life, and in 2012 received my Masters in Museum Studies from George Washington University. My emphasis was a variety of things - business administration mixed with curatorial practice - all while I was working as a Wikipedian in Residence at the Smithsonian and writing and presenting internationally about how cultural institutions can partner with Wikipedia and open culture communities. In 2013, I was offered a fellowship at the Wikimedia Foundation to engage more women to contribute to Wikipedia. They relocated me to the San Francisco Bay Area. I kept my foot in the GLAM sector, working for various organizations as a contractor and lecturing. At the end of my fellowship, I took a job with the Wikimedia Foundation as a community coordinator - taking me further away from the culture sector. This January, my work ended with Wikimedia and I revamped my resume and website. I was determined to return to the culture sector. I became a fellow at the University of California’s Berkeley Center for New Media, lecturing about OpenGLAM and women and technology. I attended some museum conferences on my own dime; struggling to figure out how I fit into the picture. I sat in lectures about the things I value - open access/culture/tech - and mixed and mingled with birds of a feather. Institutions were interested in my work, and still are. I throw my own parties when in other cities - hosting tweet ups and drinkingaboutmuseums to connect with folks. I applied for jobs. Digital, curatorial, executive director (small museums)… I applied for over 60 jobs, in USA & a few in Europe. I had no interviews. No answers to my follow-ups. Only three “thanks but no thanks,” letters were sent. I became frustrated, dragging my self-esteem of “I have an awesome story and I am awesome,” in a messy pile behind me… I submitted some talks at conferences, only to have to cancel attending after they were accepted due to lack of money to attend them. Eventually, I found a job through a family connection at a small consulting firm in Wine Country.. I spend my days writing grants and researching for small non-profits and school districts as a contractor. I relocated to Napa, CA, to be closer to the office, leaving Oakland. Every day I think about museums, and use social media and some voluntary projects to stay connected and appear relevant. I know this won’t happen over night.... Boohoo, right? ;-) ----- So, here’s the deal: I have one hell of a story to tell through my resume - I’ve done a lot, worked with a lot of institutions/orgs- and as I joke “I’ve done almost every single job in a museum - minus security and janitorial - and have never had a full time job.” I know I can be an invaluable resource to the right institution, wherever in the world they might be. I know it won’t happen over night, it might not happen for a year, two years, etc. But, I can’t just sit here quiet - anyone who has met me IRL knows that’s not my style. I am looking for volunteers to look at my resume and advise on what the heck I should do. I also have a website, which is an online resume. I have a hardcopy resume. My resume reads like a mash-up of many aspects of the culture sector, and a whole lot of stuff that makes human resources people, not savvy in open source and digital heritage revolutions, scratch their heads. My dream job doesn’t exist at this point (“open culture content curator coordinator manager whatever”) - even as a consultant I’ve had no dice in discovering an institution that has funding to pay for my services (sorry honey, gotta pay rent). I have nothing holding me back - I can move anywhere, even overseas. Here is what I need some help with off list: 1) What kind of jobs should I even be applying for - should I instead just try to still do consulting instead? 2) Are there any skills I should be adding to my list - learning - without making a major financial investment to do it? 3) How can I leverage the internet re: networking more? 4) Look at my resume - what can be improved? Also any tips on my website. I sincerely appreciate any help anyone here can give me - I know we have an esteemed group of professionals here that have all levels of experience. Thank you, and I hope to hear from some of you, Sarah Stierch ----- Museumist specializing in open culture and grantwriting www.sarahstierch.com _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://mcn.edu/pipermail/mcn-l/
_______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://mcn.edu/pipermail/mcn-l/
