Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Life has been slow and I have been stagnating, again.
I haven't done much on the job front recently, other than an excursion to check out OMSI and talk with a woman whom I used to work with in NC and she now works at OMSI. I wanted to pick her brain, so to speak, about life at the Museum and in Portland.
It's a great Sci/Tech museum, very big, much bigger than anywhere else I've worked, with lots of interesting displays and things to do. I love science museums, ever since growing up in Toronto and visiting the Ontario Science Center; it was always my favorite place to go for field trips. It was never my inclination to become involved with them as a place to work, but hell there are much worse places to work. But, unfortunately, being non-profit organizations one will never become wealthy working for a museum unless, perhaps, one is able to become president of said organization.
Anyway, back to OMSI. My contact there basically told me that they rarely hire people from outside the museum for anything other than the lowest level jobs - we were discussing the education department. Low level educator jobs don't pay that well, I mean THE DON'T PAY THAT WELL. She told me something like, "You know that pay scale they put into job descriptions, ya, well they pay the bottom end of that scale, no mater what." Her level job pays pretty good, at least a salary I would be comfortable with for now, and it's a hell of a lot more than I currently make. It took her three years to be promoted to her current job. And she has a masters degree.
So, I was rather disappointed. This is the way museums work, for the most part, though. Museums tend to be a 'get your foot in the door' type of workplace, and then you work your way up. There are always exceptions, of course, and specific skill sets that are needed for certain jobs will make them more accessable, put people working in education are a dime-a-dozen. Unfortunately I don't really have any other skills that I can offer to museums other than my education experience. I'd love to get into exhibit design, or conservation in a cultural museum, and I suppose it might be possible for me to do so, but I have limited experience in either area.
I haven't done much on the job front recently, other than an excursion to check out OMSI and talk with a woman whom I used to work with in NC and she now works at OMSI. I wanted to pick her brain, so to speak, about life at the Museum and in Portland.
It's a great Sci/Tech museum, very big, much bigger than anywhere else I've worked, with lots of interesting displays and things to do. I love science museums, ever since growing up in Toronto and visiting the Ontario Science Center; it was always my favorite place to go for field trips. It was never my inclination to become involved with them as a place to work, but hell there are much worse places to work. But, unfortunately, being non-profit organizations one will never become wealthy working for a museum unless, perhaps, one is able to become president of said organization.
Anyway, back to OMSI. My contact there basically told me that they rarely hire people from outside the museum for anything other than the lowest level jobs - we were discussing the education department. Low level educator jobs don't pay that well, I mean THE DON'T PAY THAT WELL. She told me something like, "You know that pay scale they put into job descriptions, ya, well they pay the bottom end of that scale, no mater what." Her level job pays pretty good, at least a salary I would be comfortable with for now, and it's a hell of a lot more than I currently make. It took her three years to be promoted to her current job. And she has a masters degree.
So, I was rather disappointed. This is the way museums work, for the most part, though. Museums tend to be a 'get your foot in the door' type of workplace, and then you work your way up. There are always exceptions, of course, and specific skill sets that are needed for certain jobs will make them more accessable, put people working in education are a dime-a-dozen. Unfortunately I don't really have any other skills that I can offer to museums other than my education experience. I'd love to get into exhibit design, or conservation in a cultural museum, and I suppose it might be possible for me to do so, but I have limited experience in either area.
