Applying for Jobs and Internships in Museums

A Practical Guide

Martha M. Schloetzer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367202156
• eBook ISBN: 9780429535840
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Museum Studies

Applying for Jobs and Internships in Museums offers a straightforward approach to applying for positions within a museum. Martha M. Schloetzer provides practical advice about the application and interview process that will prepare emerging museum professionals as they approach the profession.

From reviewing job and internship postings to developing a solid resume and writing distinctive cover letters, this guide provides practical, sound advice for museum job seekers. Schloetzer integrates the stories of successful and unsuccessful interns and job applicants throughout the book's narrative, and recognizing the additional challenges faced by non-US nationals, the book also offers information specifically for international students seeking work experience in US museums.

The insider information included in Applying for Jobs and Internships in Museums makes it a key resource for both a US and international audience interested in gaining museum experience in the US. It will be of particular interest to college-level and graduate school students, as well as recent graduates. The guide can also serve as a reference in the classroom, helping professors and instructors prepare students for the job search ahead.

1 An internship is not a job

This chapter is a focused discussion of internships with the purpose of preparing students, recent graduates, and career transitioners to compete for opportunities. The chapter will begin by defining an intern and a volunteer and presenting some of the controversies surrounding unpaid internships. I think it is important to understand the difference because it may very well affect the on-site experience, as well as the lasting value of the internship. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a law pertaining to internships that will be discussed. The better applicants understand a potential internship position or job, the better prepared they are to compete for a position.

An internship is like a nine-week, or three-month, job interview. Done well, it’s an opportunity for an organization to attract talent. Emerging professionals, with newly minted degrees and fresh perspectives about the working world, have much to contribute. An internship is a great way for them to get on-the-job training and gain a glimpse into an industry without being tied down. In the current economy, the internship experience is much less about filing and photocopying, and more about substantial work contributions. Internships are becoming more professional, and at the same time, no one wants to work for free. And there are good reasons to pay interns.

When recruiting paid interns, organizations tend to hire more selectively. When developing a paid internship opportunity, a need and mentor is identified, funding is secured, and a job description is developed with goals to be met and skills (foreign languages, computer programs) and knowledge (American studies, Native American art history) required to succeed in the position. The job description becomes the basis for the call for applications and is posted online and emailed to networks. When the intern is onboarded, there are projects and goals. The intern and the organization both benefit from this transparent process. The intern receives interesting, meaningful work, and the organization adds a highly motivated person to the team. On the flip side, when unpaid interns are the norm in an organization, there is more likely to be waste. This is because there is no perceived cost to having unpaid interns. When an organization accepts anyone and everyone, there could be some bored interns without enough to do and little supervision or mentoring. The downside is that bored interns are not great for company morale and may be likely to talk negatively about their experience back at college or at their next job site.

I think about internships almost every day. One thing that strikes me when considering the state of museum internships is how they can reflect the best and the worst of our profession. Internships are a wonderful way to introduce emerging professionals to the museum profession. As a training program, an internship teaches valuable skills for working in museums (introduction to a collections management system, how to write a catalog entry, or how to give a gallery talk) and help educate interns about the museum profession. From the outside, it can be challenging to understand all the different, possible roles within the museum world. Most students know that museums employ curators, educators, and a director. But from the inside, an intern may have contact with an editor, a development officer, and facilities management personnel. Depending on the size of the institution, the list could go on and on. Internships have taken on a negative association because many opportunities are unpaid. Unpaid internships privilege those who can afford to work for free. As a result, they are seen as undemocratic. The profession is losing talented people who cannot afford to work for free. At this moment, when museums are talking more and more about the need to diversify staff, unpaid internships are blamed for being part of the problem.¹

Paid or unpaid, internships are a common first work experience for college students. Many schools emphasize or even require students to complete internships to help boost career skills. However, there is not a great deal of data to show that internships have an impact on career outcomes. A 2020 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, “The Demand for Interns,” is the first to describe the demand for interns and assess what leads to a successful intern market.² The authors find that internships that closely match occupations are more likely to be paid and full-time, which makes sense because these internships look more like jobs. Perhaps most interesting is the authors’ finding that “a strong determinant of success in landing an internship is having previously held an internship ... This suggests that landing a first internship may be a key determinant of future success in both the internship and labor market.” In a highly competitive internship and job market, students who cannot afford unpaid internships may not be able to gain experience in the museum field.

Figure 1.1Press release, Association of Art Museum Directors passes resolution urging art museums to provide paid internships.

Due to the leadership and financial commitment of foundations, such as the Mellon Foundation, the tide is changing. Since publishing the 2015 Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey, the Mellon Foundation has invested in several initiatives to help make museums more welcoming to people of color.³ The foundation expanded an undergraduate summer academy and curatorial fellowship program that is coordinated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and operates in six cities.⁴ Students across the United States from diverse backgrounds receive specialized training in the curatorial field and other museum functions. It is exciting to see the trend of paid internships grow. The Walton Family Foundation, Ford Foundation, Getty Foundation, and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) all offer paid internship programs to engage undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds and encourage them to explore a career in museums. At the same time, universities are seeing a broader range of students taking museum studies courses and completing museum studies certificate programs. These programs teach students from adjacent majors, such as library and information sciences, media studies, history, and anthropology, about the history and theory of museums. They also introduce practical concepts like developing education programs, caring for a museum’s collection, interpreting historic objects, or organizing an exhibition. As a result, a diverse range of students is being introduced to the profession.⁵

Lessons learned from bad internships

Internships can be a mixed bag, and some experiences are better than others. As I see it, even negative internship experiences can offer important learning moments. Try to see an internship, or first professional position, as an opportunity to learn how to work with a supervisor and be a team player. What you learn can help set you on a path for success.

One of my most memorable internship experiences was an unpaid internship at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. My internship was in the museum’s archival department, and my work assignment consisted of helping organize the recently donated papers of Warhol’s business manager, Fred Hughes. Hughes was the executor of Warhol’s estate following his death in 1987 after gallbladder surgery. I worked independently, carefully examining and rehousing Mr. Hughes’ papers in archival folders and boxes and removing paper clips, etc. The culmination of my work was a finding aid for the papers. Without a doubt, my time in the archives was one of fascinating discoveries. I spent afternoons reading condolence cards sent at the time of Warhol’s death, leafing through the wrongful death claim that was filed on his behalf, and learning about the history of Interview Magazine. Hughes was the publisher of Interview, the magazine founded by Warhol. There were fun surprises in the boxes too. Every so often, I would come across more intimate artifacts, such as polaroid photos of Warhol’s friends and associates, or notecards to Hughes from his mother. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned about myself that summer was how much I wanted to share my discoveries with others. Working alone did not suit me. After the Warhol experience, my next internship was in museum education.

Like most museum internships, my summer at the Warhol was unpaid, so I needed a part-time job to provide some pay. I worked early morning hours, which allowed me to leave around lunchtime and intern in the afternoons. I also worked weekends. My summer did not include a lot of socializing; I was early to bed and early to rise.

The part-time job precluded me from fully participating in the internship program. The job demands meant that I could not attend most of the informational sessions and behind-the-scenes tours that the staff organized for summer interns. I was sorry to miss the sessions and the opportunity to engage with other interns.

Below are three real-life examples of challenging internships and the lessons learned. All three people continue to work in the museums.

Hannah

“My individual department placement was not what I was expecting. I barely had any tasks to do, and most days I spent staring at my computer. My department would have employee training sessions and not tell me where they were. In addition, my department would not ever let me leave early or suggest that I go explore the museum’s galleries and exhibitions unless I asked (which was bothersome because that would have been a better use of my time).”

Hannah’s experience is not that unusual. Prior to her summer internship, she graduated from college. Arriving on the first day of the internship, she was ready to give it her all. Unfortunately, Hannah’s internship placement was with a busy department. They were too overwhelmed by training staff to use a new computer software system to properly orient and mentor her. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the situation to improve, Hannah took the initiative and talked with the manager of the internship program. This proactive approach led to alternative opportunities for Hannah. What Hannah did not do was complain. If you are struggling early on, try not go to your manager with a list of complaints. Instead, spend some time problem solving possible solutions. A manager should want interns to raise potential issues early, before things escalate, and will appreciate the difference between an intern raising a valid concern and simply complaining. Coming up with possible solutions is a worthwhile skill and demonstrates accountability on the part of the intern. For instance, instead of complaining that her department was ghosting her, Hannah let the program manager know she did not have enough work and was eager for alternative opportunities to contribute and learn.

Jennifer

What was unsatisfactory: I was an assistant to a gallery director of a large university. It was a situation where I explained to her at the beginning that I didn’t have experience in several areas of the assistantship and that she’d need to provide me some guidance so that I could be successful. She proceeded to throw me in the deep end to sink or swim and provided no help at all in navigating my duties. As a result, I predictably flailed around and did mediocre work due to having no idea how to do half of my job. She also had a modus operandi of choosing a favorite every semester, and a “most disliked.” Though I was never the favorite, I sure got to be the most disliked one semester. She made it so unpleasant to work there, the most disliked would inevitably find another job by the end of the semester. (The abuse was such that I knew people who had to start on anti-depressants when it was their turn to be the most disliked, and all of the students eventually got their turn.)

What I did to address the situation: I tried to talk to the gallery director, tried to find out how to do my job, what I needed to do to meet her expectations. It did not go well, to say the least. I came to the conclusion that trying to have reasonable discussions with her was a lost cause, so I gave up and just did my best to muddle through. Luckily, a professor in my department needed an assistant by the end of my unfortunate semester, so I was able to shift my assistantship over to that individual’s office.

Was the experience positive or negative?: It was mostly negative. Putting up with that kind of abuse is a negative experience that subordinates simply shouldn’t have to go through. I spent a long time trying to find the silver lining in the situation. It shook me deeply and caused me to question my very usefulness on this planet for months, maybe even years. But the positive thing I took away from it was a solid understanding of how not to treat people. I learned all manner of ways not to treat people. I feel it has helped me to be a more compassionate supervisor. I will never give an intern a project and then not explain how to do it, not explain what the goals are or how to achieve them. I will never leave someone to sink or swim (and much less shrug my shoulders and blame them as they sink). I will always treat subordinates with respect, provide them the tools they need to complete their assignments, and remember every day to be kind. I will remember that when they make mistakes, it likely means that I need to do a better job communicating, that it is the supervisor’s responsibility to provide the scaffolding for success.

Jennifer tried to improve her working relationship with the director, but to no avail. Rather than stick it out, her solution was to find another work placement. Jennifer’s negative situation has had an important effect on her future because it continues to make her a more compassionate supervisor.

Elizabeth

I had a photography and imaging services internship at a museum. Part of what set me up for t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Documents
• Preface: Why intern?
• Introduction: How to use this book
• 1 An internship is not a job
• 2 Write a great resume
• 3 Cover letter writing
• 4 Preparing for an interview
• 5 Advice for interns from abroad
• Conclusion: Future-proofing your career
• Appendix: Websites and associations for students and emerging museum professionals
• Index