With a bachelor's degree in Ancient History and Archaeology, combined with a master's degree in Museum and Heritage Studies, you would think that cultural and heritage organisations would be willing to hire you, right? Unfortunately, that is not the reality I have experienced so far.
After completing a master's degree, I applied for various positions in museums and other areas in the cultural sector. However, nowhere was willing to hire me because I didn't have relevant experience. Understandable. I needed to find a job so I worked on an assembly line in a factory for a year. Not exactly what I had in mind after 5 years of study.
While working in the factory, I kept searching for and applying for vacancies I thought would suit me, but to no avail. When I had been at the factory for nearly a year, I saw an internship advertised on a museum website in Limerick. I applied for it, and fortunately I was accepted. I worked in the Education department of the museum on a part-time, voluntary basis for 6 months. During this time, I helped to lead school tours of exhibitions, assisted with workshops and researched and developed lesson plans for an online exhibition.
As the end of my internship approached, I was unsure of what steps to take next. Should I ask to extend the internship? Should I ask about paid employment at this museum or start searching elsewhere? Thankfully, I had some luck. A part-time administrative role had just opened up, which I gratefully accepted.
From here, my role grew from two days a week to 3 days, then 4 days and eventually full-time. I became a Membership and Marketing assistant, which was not a role I had imagined myself in, especially as I had no prior experience in marketing. But I found that I enjoyed aspects of the job, such as the creativity and promoting the museum's collection.
However, I knew that my goal was to become a curator and work with museum collections, particularly Roman archaeology. Therefore, I decided to take a leap of faith. I left my job at the museum and moved to the Netherlands to try and pursue my goal. I chose the Netherlands because I lived here during my master's, and I enjoyed my experience. I also still have friends here and it was important to me to have a support network. I'm in the process of applying for jobs, but I am currently being rejected for everything. This is partly due to language as I am not yet fluent in Dutch. However, I find it difficult to understand why I cannot even get an internship somewhere here.
I don't regret what I chose to study. I knew for some years that I was passionate about history and archaeology and that I wanted to pursue a career in culture and heritage. I was aware that it was a niche sector. However, I didn't realise just how difficult it was going to be to find a career path. I wish I had spoken to more people in this field beforehand to understand how to navigate it. I also wish I had taken more voluntary positions or internships while I was in college. This would probably have given me an advantage when I finished my studies, as I would have had relevant experience.
So, if you are considering a career in this sector, then I would recommend doing internships or voluntary work while you're in college. Join relevant societies and organisations. Attend events where you can network with people. I've learned that having contacts in the museum world is extremely important. While I haven't found my next museum position yet, former colleagues and contacts have done their best to try and help me and have given me some good advice.
It's because of the difficulty of my current career situation that I have started A.W.E. I can pursue my passion in a way that I find meaningful. I can share my knowledge and enthusiasm for history and archaeology whilst hopefully providing useful, interesting information and insights for readers. Just because it's a road less taken, doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing.
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