Hej Mark! Jeg har et spørgsmål om museumsverdenen, som du måske kan svare på.
Din PhD er jo meget relevant for din stilling på museet. Jeg er i gang med en PhD der ikke passer ind på noget som helst museum, men jeg vil rigtig gerne arbejde i museumsverdenen efter.
Hvad er dit indtryk af din branche? Er en PhD adgangsgivende eller er det så konkurrencepræget, at ens emne også skal ligge lige til højrebenet for at man kan få en stilling? Hvad kan man gøre undervejs for at blive mere attraktiv for museerne?
Tak for din tid!
Hey @arthurconan. I'll have to answer you in English because my Danish is fine for reading but shit for writing or speaking.
Ultimately, yes, a PhD can be a major help in getting into the museum world, especially the academic side of things. It can be ENORMOUSLY competitive, and it is hard to change directions into, if you are interested in research at museums. however, on the more public-facing side of museum work, I have many colleagues who have swapped directions completely, and have very different backgrounds, but have been able to adapt beautifully to the work at the museum. The fact that they have jobs would indicate that this is not such a huge barrier. It will depend on what you want.
The #1 comment I hear in hiring discussions and the like, is that the museums want to see that candidates have museum experience in order to consider them for museum jobs. How do you get that experience when you are not able to get a job at the museum without it? The only solution I know of is to volunteer at the museum. The Natural History Museum of Denmark, where I work, has loads of volunteers who help out with whatever free time they can spare. This is a good line for the CV. But these volunteers are mostly relatively young students, and it is obviously very hard for older individuals to get into that/make time for it. Having to offer your labour for free should not be the answer, but unfortunately, it very often is. And when the market is as competitive as it often is, having an experience line like this could be worth the time. But that is very hard to say. You might be able to get it another way.
