This article will help you close in on landing that museum job.
In my last article, I attempted to give you a start at finding a museum job, in this article, I hope to help you find and capitalize on the new leads you will discover.
Several websites might provide good general starting points, including a webpage called MuseumJobs, however, most often, your best leads will come from scouring the websites of institutions that you know that you are interested in. Typically, museums will have a link to employment, or job, opportunities right on their homepage, but sometimes you will have to poke around the site for some time to find it. Once you find the page, it might be a smart idea to bookmark the page or the very least try to remember how you got there. Museums, like other institutions, will typically update their human resources or job opportunities pages once a week or so, and it might not be a terrible idea to contact the human resources office to simply enquire as to what day of the week they tend to update the page. If you are really dedicated, you might be able to build a small calendar reminding you of when postings will be updated. This will save you the time and energy of looking over the same set of job postings repeatedly.
Eventually, the experience of reading job descriptions each week combined with your previous internship experience will give you some idea of what sort of background and experience museums are seeking in an applicant. Once you find a job posting that closely matches both your desires and background, you can start filling out your first application. Though all museums are different, most will require a brief application form, a resume and a cover letter. It is important that in all three cases, you do your best to emphasize your previous experience, including that of your interim post.
If you are invited for an interview, not only will the typical rules of an interview apply (I consider it a smart idea to dress up for interviews, even though the people interviewing you might be in very casual attire) you should work especially hard to talk about how your previous experience has lead you to apply for this position. Museums are continually bombarded by applicants seeking positions on a whim. Some applicants are simply thinking that a job in a museum might be a break from the norm. Once you make clear that this is not only a conscious decision, it is one that you have put a considerable amount of time and energy into, you will be well on your way to a deeply rewarding career in a museum.
If, and probably when, you are turned down for museum positions, do not take it to heart. Plenty of very successful and very talented museum professionals have applied for dozens or even hundreds of job postings before being offered the perfect position.
