Users in this career have rated it a 2.4 in terms of their own personal satisfaction with the career. This figure represents an average taken from the responses of 44 MyPlan.com users during registration.
Users were asked to rate their happiness in their current occupation as being either "Very Happy" (4), "Happy" (3), "Mixed / Neutral" (2), "Not Happy" (1), or "Miserable" (0).
Users in this Career Group
There are 1814 users in this career group. They represent 19 different countries. You can see the list of users in this career group by clicking on one of the links below. You can also join this career group simply by selecting your current status and clicking "Add Me."
Museum salaries are very low and it's a good idea to pursue graduate or professional degrees before entering this profession as it is quite competative in spite of the low salary. I think I would go into the field all over again, but I might have gone to graduate school earlier. Museum's are strange places to work and often open seven days a week, so the required hours can be strange. Most Museum employees, regardless of field, have to deal with the public regularly, so be prepared for that.
To get into this career you must persue higher education of at least a bachelors and better yet a masters. It is best to either study history in general or the field of museum/archival science, but picking a specific history (Asia, Ancient, etc) is also a good selection. A con is that the pay is not always the greatest but the pros include a continued increase of knowldge and new discoveries about the past as well as dedicated co-workers (with that salary they usually are) and simply persuing an interest; you really must enjoy your job to be happy. Many people do not realize how many jobs there are behing the scenes in a museum or archive but there are many tasks from hands on conservation to "brain powered" research so there are many options.
In the 18th and 19th century, hatmakers used poisionous chemicals including mercury in their work. As result, many developed pathological symptons -- an estimated 10% went insane. Hence the term "mad as a hatter" and Lewis Carroll's character, the Mad Hatter.
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