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Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Letters

Stop pretending there are jobs when there aren't
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I am a 2011-12 postgraduate from museum studies at the University of Leicester.

After being interviewed for many roles I am hitting the same issue: without paid experience in the heritage sector of at least 18 months, I am not given the chance to take my first steps into the museum world.

I have volunteered at seven museums and heritage institutions for eight years and have just completed a three-month unpaid placement, which put me in debt just to get there. I would like to say this to the museum sector:

  • Give the young the chance. Nearly 90% of my class intake are unemployed after finishing the course last July. Our CVs read well, we have the relevant qualifications and voluntary experience, but no one will take a chance on us. We took out huge loans to fund our master’s degrees; repayments on these do not stop if we are unemployed.
  • Do more to stop unpaid internships and placements or at least support the costs of travel. I have so far been offered one unpaid voluntary role of three months in a museum an hour away costing me £70 a week in travel costs and one (unpaid) 25-hour live-on-site role as a caretaker where you have to pay the bills on the “free” flat they give you. I was told that I would need a partner to support me, savings or a part-time evening job to support my expenses.
  • Do not invite us to interviews when you know we do not have the relevant experience to get the job. I have been to five interviews where they said I performed really well in the interview, but didn’t have enough paid experience.

I am now giving up on my plans for a career in heritage as I do not think it will ever support me enough to have a comfortable life, a home and a family.

The museum sector needs to be more honest with its new recruits and tell us from the onset that the chance of a paid position in the field is highly unlikely.

You should know that every time you turn a young person away from a job interview, a little part of us dies inside.

And next time you interview one of us, please be gentle, we are not exactly having the best time of our lives.


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