If you check your syllabus, you'll note that you have a deadline for a "job-related blog entry" due this Tuesday by 11am, with details tba. Here, I provide you with those details (and I will post them to SacCT and send them via email as well).
The Burcaw chapter entitled "Practical Matters," which is part of this week's reading assignment, includes a discussion of museum jobs. You have two tasks related to this reading that you will complete in the form of a blog post (they can be done entirely at your computer, assuming that you have finished the reading). Title this post Museum Jobs,* and respond to the following:
1) Burcaw discusses five pathways by which most people acquire their first museum job. Have you had a museum job in the past, or do you currently have one? If so, tell us what that job was/is, and which of the means listed by Burcaw (1-5) led to your acquisition of it. If you have had more than one museum job, and decide to discuss those as well, please be sure to address the issues surrounding your first museum job at the outset of your discussion. (Haven't had a paying job, but rather a volunteer position? Answer the question in the context of that volunteer position.)
2) Burcaw, having not yet made the transition to the digital era, notes that most museum positions are advertised in newsletters. In fact, most are advertised now on electronic job boards. I have links to three of these on the
Anthropology Museum website, on the page dedicated to
Museum Anthropology Courses. The second part of your assignment is to browse the three job boards linked there
(scroll down to the section entitled "Museum Career Information") and to locate a position for which you would like
(hypothetically-speaking) to apply. Copy and paste all the available job information into your blog post
(I have you do this, rather than link directly to it, because position announcements come and go very quickly). In parenthesis, tell us from which job board you pulled this ad. Below the ad, tell us why you chose it, and then enumerate
(in bullet-list form) at least three
(and no more than five) skill sets and/or examples of previous professional experience that you would foreground in an effort to demonstrate your qualifications/fit for this position
(Burcaw offers some valuable advice and we will talk more about this at our meeting on 4/22). If you have questions about the assignment, leave them in the comments section.
