Main image: Volunteers at the National Army Museum
The Careers Hub at the Museums Association Conference in Glasgow offers advice from getting your foot in the door as a museum professional to volunteering and furthering your career in museums and galleries sector
Topical issues such as flexible working will be tackled at the MA Conference in a special session – The new glass ceiling: flexible working at senior levels. As the sector strives for an agile workforce the talk will look at individuals’ experience of flexible working and ask the question – is this the new glass ceiling for career progress?
Situated in the Exhibition Hall at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, the Careers Hub will also feature sessions on topics including networking, CV-writing, interview technique, volunteering and taking risks.
Attendees will hear from a range of speakers who will share their years of experience of working in museums, including Isabel Churcher, the relationship manager for museums at ACE.
Churcher’s talk entitled, skills Character matters: attitudes, behaviours and in the UK museum workforce, will talk about ACE’s eponymous report, published in September, which looks 10 years into the future. The session delves into the results of the report and provides opportunities for reflection and action.
There will also be a session on Getting your foot in the door: CV dos and don’ts that will get you over the threshold. Session leader Tamsin Russell, professional development officer at the MA, will argue that if you are not shortlisted for a job you can’t showcase your skills and experience so a CV is vital to getting off the career starting blocks.
“The hub provides even more opportunities to reflect, listen and learn about current thinking about careers in the sector,” says Russell. “We have our go-to favourites about writing CVs and interview techniques, but we have also added a number of other workshops that look to meet the needs of volunteers, freelancers and others within the sector. So whether you are just thinking about starting out or you are well established, there should be plenty to get your teeth into.”
As well as offering advice and tips Russell will also offer attendees the chance to give their views in a session entitled Total workforce approach: feedback to inform the MA’s new workforce strategy. This session will give information on the content of the MA’s workforce strategy and delivery plan, which will be launched in 2017.
“The MA is currently developing a new strategy for professional development and we are interested in [attendees’] views so there will be an opportunity to review our current ideas and build upon them in our focus groups,” she said.