Ready to encounter a new organization?
Yesterday afternoon I attended the informal discussion entitled "Interaction - Thoughts on encountering a New Organization". Although I am a few years away from moving to a new one - being a grad student I will have to find an institution to move to in the first place, I had hoped to get some useful insights into the working world of museum professionals.
The discussion, chaired by Susan Chun, met all my expectations. Bruce Wyman, Rob Stein and others talked for over an hour about what drives them, what worries them and about what got them to where they are today. I could hardly tweet as quickly as inspirational thoughts were exchanged in the room. Here are some of the ideas that I will be taking home with me from this refreshingly uninhibited discussion:
- museum people tend to change jobs often because their aim is not to improve one museum but to make museums better in general
- when you stay at the same institution for too long, people might stop seeing your growth
- people in the museum community thrive on various things: life-long learning, making an impact, embracing challenges
- useful skills include: being good at building teams, both internally and cross-institutionally, being successful at pattern recognition, being able to communicate difficult concepts
- good organizational structure is an advantage, but ultimately it's the people within the structure that can provide an institution's success
- you can't do everything yourself, building a team that will help you realize your vision is key
And some important thoughts on how to enter "the club":
- museums love to be loved, so you might want to consider letting them know that you are a fan
- show your expertise and show in what way it's different from the one of other people working at the institution
- participate in online discussions to introduce yourself to the people within the museum community
- go to conferences, be outspoken, be different, go home, blog about it, tweet about it
Although many of these points might seem obvious at first glance, making them a reality is probably not always easy. I decided to start small today: I went to a conference. I blogged about it.
The one thing that I'd suggest adding to your list about entering "the club" — volunteering. A number of us got our start by volunteering for a museum. Personally, I volunteered a crazy amount at the New England Aquarium. I worked a 3rd shift job on the weekends at a local hospital, essentially to pay for my volunteering 'habit' the rest of the week. I was there more than some of the full-time staff, eventually was treated like I was part of the staff, and was positioned well when a relevant position opened up.
There aren't many better ways to directly engage with the staff and to learn about a museum than volunteering. For me, I didn't know if I could be in the right place at the right time, but I sure as hell was going to be in the right place a lot of the time. :)