As some college students may find in their final year at school; that the calling they felt as sophomores may not be the one you feel at senior level, is coming upon me.
I am a broadcasting student with an emphasis on radio. Radio is ok, and i can do it perfectly, but i have a nagging itch that i really don’t want to do radio. Maybe it is the low pay. or the crap hours, or the live aspect, but i don’t really want to do this any more…but…it is too late for me. I am going to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting.
so, (here is where the thread title comes into play) i find conservation to be very very cool. mostly music and library conservation. It seems to be a career where you can stay away from people and do your job, and that is very enticing to me.
Are any of you, the teeming millions, a conservator or preservationist, and would you give me some tips on where i could start once i graduate at becoming what i am really pulled to?
Your career opprotunities in this field vary according to where you live. Should you want to get hired by some place like the Smithsonian, you’ll probably need a degree specifically in conservation, or at least have a lot of vocational training. You might be able to join one of their internship programs, but I don’t know what would be needed for that.
Some museums have higher requirements than others. I’d suggest calling a museum in which you’d be interested in working and asking them what you’d need to get started.
The museum in which I work is in a small town, and only has a handful of employees. I got my job by volunteering at the museum for about a year before I was hired. I have no degree, and they trained me in everything I do. However, my paycheck is so small as to be a mostly symbollic gesture, and not all of my work is with the artifacts-- I have to work with the public, too.
Working in conservation/preservation may sound attractive, but you’ve got to ask yourself if you’re the kind of person who dosn’t mind doing the same thing day-in-day-out. Sometimes, I will work on the same item for months, with agonizingly slow progress. (I’m working on a project now that I started about three months ago, and I’m only about a quarter of the way finished.) Some people can’t take it-- they find it tedious and boring. I actually enjoy it. It just depends on your personality.
oh boy do i love stuff that is tedious and boring. If i am doing the same thing for months, that is great for me, just as long as people let me work and don’t bother me very much…it sounds perfect.