Amy Oliver

Did you know? After receiving my MASTERS degree in Museum Studies in 2013, my first job offer in a museum was for $12.00 per hour for 30 hours per week with no benefits. That was in Salt Lake City, Utah. The second job I was offered was at a world-renowned museum and they offered me $46,000 per year...to live in NEW YORK CITY and work a minimum of 65 hours per week with no overtime pay and a likelihood my job would end in 9 months. This was after spending over a year working an internship at a museum with no pay through a school course I had to PAY TUITION for. Yes, you read that correctly. I had to pay for the privilege to work for a museum for free. Mind you, I had also amassed THOUSANDS of hours of volunteer time and other internship and externship experience at museums and non-profits, and even once funded my own exhibits project. And I already had MORE THAN A DECADE of work experience. None of it was enough.

The museum field continues to set unrealistic expectations for professionals, from requiring them to volunteer hundreds of hours in order to even "hope" to get a job, to forcing them to accept unpaid internships for years on end to get an interview. This, in turn, translates to low starting wages and long-term non-living wages. Can you imagine being forced to give up all of your free time for 2-3 years because it's an expectation just to have your resume looked at, only to be told that you have no paid experience so the most they can pay you is $15 for your master's degree and five years of experience?

That is the museum industry. Help us change that by donating to NEMPN so we can start funding internships and programs that encourage paid learning experiences. Don't let our new young professionals start their careers the way I was asked to.