When I'm not working as Education Assistant, I'm also a Visitor Assistant at weekends. Today was awesome because:
- when I was working at the outside visitor entrance I got to hang out with a teenage red squirrel and some birds
- there was an amazing mother, who was doing the best job ever of showing her kids around. She was asking them really interesting questions, getting them to link their experiences to the exhibits, sharing family history, being really encouraging of their colouring in. But she wasn't some super-pushy yummy mumm, she was just a lovely ordinary mum on a day out with her family.
- I was on the front desk being smiley and lovely (as I always am!) and on the way out, one man thanked me for my help in describing where everything was in the museum, and said he wished he knew my name so he could have written it on his very positive comment form. Then he left. Then he came back in and asked my name so he could write another comment.
- it was beautifuly sunny and everyone was really happy and there were lots of adorable families.
And now it's time for a glass of wine, some pizza and Sister Act.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Considering my personal brand
Task 3 of cpd23 is to 'consider my personal brand'. To do this, I thought I would look at the various ways in which I present myself online. I don't worry too much about potential employers seeing photos of me, because I don't think there are any incriminating photos of me out there - the worst you could see is me grinning with a glass of wine.
On Twitter, I recently changed my name from my real name to dorotheainrome, partly so it matches this blog, but also because I am scared of talking about work under my real name. I don't even really talk about work, but I do use Twitter for networking purposes. To be honest, I should probably have a personal account and a work one, but the boundary is so fluid for me (a lot of friends are also colleagues; personal interests are potential freelance opportunities) that I don't know what would go where. So I just stick to trying not to swear too much. My profile is mainly disclaimer:
'Museum educator with tendency for self-deprecation and being a little passionate (ranty) about politics and such.All views expressed are mine and not employers'
.. which is typically self-deprecating, and shows that I also feel awkward about how passionate I can get!
My Facebook profile has the following as a quotation:
"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. How can we ever be satisfied without them until our feelings are deadened?" Yet more George Eliot, this time from Mill on the Floss.
So far it seems I want to hide my identity while on the internet, whilst also showing quite a lot of my personality. Curious.
This also got me thinking about what my personal brand is in person. I recently realised that what I had thought was an endearing quality - telling amusing stories about my inability to get the correct bus etc - was actually me undermining myself. I think I may have started doing this in order to not seem stuck-up or intimidating. I used to be quite shy, and people always thought I was being aloof, but it seems to have backfired, and I am now making a conscious effort not to do myself down, especially while at work.
What do you think your offline personal brand is?
On Twitter, I recently changed my name from my real name to dorotheainrome, partly so it matches this blog, but also because I am scared of talking about work under my real name. I don't even really talk about work, but I do use Twitter for networking purposes. To be honest, I should probably have a personal account and a work one, but the boundary is so fluid for me (a lot of friends are also colleagues; personal interests are potential freelance opportunities) that I don't know what would go where. So I just stick to trying not to swear too much. My profile is mainly disclaimer:
'Museum educator with tendency for self-deprecation and being a little passionate (ranty) about politics and such.All views expressed are mine and not employers'
.. which is typically self-deprecating, and shows that I also feel awkward about how passionate I can get!
My Facebook profile has the following as a quotation:
"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. How can we ever be satisfied without them until our feelings are deadened?" Yet more George Eliot, this time from Mill on the Floss.
So far it seems I want to hide my identity while on the internet, whilst also showing quite a lot of my personality. Curious.
This also got me thinking about what my personal brand is in person. I recently realised that what I had thought was an endearing quality - telling amusing stories about my inability to get the correct bus etc - was actually me undermining myself. I think I may have started doing this in order to not seem stuck-up or intimidating. I used to be quite shy, and people always thought I was being aloof, but it seems to have backfired, and I am now making a conscious effort not to do myself down, especially while at work.
What do you think your offline personal brand is?
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Thing 2: Blogging
I read a lot of blogs. A lot. I use Feedreader to collect them and go through phases. I recently spent far too long reading about unattainably beautiful interior design, crafts and fashion before feeling guilty and finding more work-related blogs. I recently worked on a freelance project researching museums, technology and participation, so still follow a lot of the blogs I found through this.
I love Claire Ross's Digital Nerdosaurus blog because she always seems to be working so hard and her passion for what she writes about really inspires me. She talks about projects in the Digital Humanities that I find very interesting and I think she balances professionalism and personal insight really well.
I'm noticing a theme in the blogs I'm choosing to write about - what I really admire about them is their dedication to what they do. Nina Simon at Museum 2.0 went from working as an educator in museums 10 years ago to setting up her own consultancy and writing about museums, technology and participation to being Executive Director of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. She writes about really complicated issues of participatory experiences in museums in a very down-to-earth way (and I used her theories as part of my dissertation on this!)
Right, I need to go away and do some commenting and then I'll report back on what else I've found.
I love Claire Ross's Digital Nerdosaurus blog because she always seems to be working so hard and her passion for what she writes about really inspires me. She talks about projects in the Digital Humanities that I find very interesting and I think she balances professionalism and personal insight really well.
I'm noticing a theme in the blogs I'm choosing to write about - what I really admire about them is their dedication to what they do. Nina Simon at Museum 2.0 went from working as an educator in museums 10 years ago to setting up her own consultancy and writing about museums, technology and participation to being Executive Director of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. She writes about really complicated issues of participatory experiences in museums in a very down-to-earth way (and I used her theories as part of my dissertation on this!)
Right, I need to go away and do some commenting and then I'll report back on what else I've found.
Monday, 27 June 2011
A way to get me writing
I have signed up to take part in the very exciting looking http://cpd23.blogspot.com
which is a 'self-directed course aimed at introducing you to a range of tools that could help your personal and professional development as a librarian, information professional or something else.' I'm a something else, being a museum and archives educator, but think this encouragement in my blogging and professional development will be really useful.
Thing No. 1 is blogging. I have been on internet forums since I was 14 (hello embarrassing nu-metal bands..) written on Livejournal since I was 17, and am a regular on Facebook and Twitter. But I've never quite managed blogging. There is something about the private/public thing, especially when it relates to work that makes me really uncomfortable. I always worry about saying the wrong thing (normally at exhibition openings when I get anxious about free wine making me loose-tongued) and writing about work just seems to be asking for that to happen. So I am never too obvious about where I work - it wouldn't be too hard to guess from where I am and what I do, but I feel better if I don't make it explicit. Especially as I prefer this blog to about learning more generally, and not specifically as it applies to my job at the time (which is a bit of an issue with the increasing popularity of fixed-term contracts!)
I do spend a lot of time reading up about archives/museums/libraries/digital culture on the internet, and I see this project as a way to structure the CPD I've maybe been doing without realising it, and to give me an opportunity to reflect on and share what I've found.
which is a 'self-directed course aimed at introducing you to a range of tools that could help your personal and professional development as a librarian, information professional or something else.' I'm a something else, being a museum and archives educator, but think this encouragement in my blogging and professional development will be really useful.
Thing No. 1 is blogging. I have been on internet forums since I was 14 (hello embarrassing nu-metal bands..) written on Livejournal since I was 17, and am a regular on Facebook and Twitter. But I've never quite managed blogging. There is something about the private/public thing, especially when it relates to work that makes me really uncomfortable. I always worry about saying the wrong thing (normally at exhibition openings when I get anxious about free wine making me loose-tongued) and writing about work just seems to be asking for that to happen. So I am never too obvious about where I work - it wouldn't be too hard to guess from where I am and what I do, but I feel better if I don't make it explicit. Especially as I prefer this blog to about learning more generally, and not specifically as it applies to my job at the time (which is a bit of an issue with the increasing popularity of fixed-term contracts!)
I do spend a lot of time reading up about archives/museums/libraries/digital culture on the internet, and I see this project as a way to structure the CPD I've maybe been doing without realising it, and to give me an opportunity to reflect on and share what I've found.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
A professional update
I did indeed manage to find a part-time job to supplement the amazing freelancing, and am now working 3 days a week in museum education, which is rather wonderful.
I have come back to the blogging world, and am attempting to be more reliable than I normally am. I never feel very comfortable with publicly blogging about work, so intend to make this blog more generally about issues of museum, heritage, learning and community.
I have come back to the blogging world, and am attempting to be more reliable than I normally am. I never feel very comfortable with publicly blogging about work, so intend to make this blog more generally about issues of museum, heritage, learning and community.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
On freelancing, and freedom
If you had told me a year ago that I would be signing on, working freelance 1 or 2 days a week and applying for jobs in any shop that would have me, I would possibly have had a panic attack at the lack of control these elements signify. But this is where I am, and somehow I am not at all anxious about it.
In September I applied for a full-time position at an institution I would love to work at, but in a role that wasn't quite right. At the same time I was talking to someone I know about the possibility of freelance education work - she mentioned that she didn't know how long it would last, or how many hours she could offer, but the project sounded amazing. I had an interview for both jobs, and had that false sense that I had got the full-time position. In the end I didn't, but I had been ready to turn it down to do the freelancing.
I think I have found a way of working that makes me happy:
I've never liked working in an office. I'm not good with sitting at a desk in the same building, all day, every day. It makes me miserable. I was freelancing at a conference in a building I used to work in and, when I went to the toilets I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe how relaxed and happy I felt after a morning of facilitating workshops with teenagers, compared to the times when I used to feel so stressed out and anxious (not because of the job - it was lovely) to the point of feeling ill.
I'm quite easily bored. I used to work in marketing but each job seemed the same after a year because of the yearly cycle of leaflets that needed producing. I know that all jobs are repetitive, but even though over the last couple of months I have helped deliver three near-identical 2-day conferences, each one has been amazingly different in how I've worked, what I've enjoyed and what has challenged me. the reason why? The young people who came were all so energetic and individual that they made each conference a completely different experience.
I like being busy, in a way that the 9-5 doesn't allow. I love projects, I love volunteering and I like variety. Ever since university I have happily overloaded myself with work experiences, societies, events organising, and I hated how that seemed to stop in a 9-5 job. I know I could do these things in the evenings, but when you get home after a day in the office, that never seems to happen. Working flexible (and to be honest, not very much) means I have time to do other things.
I am not a lark. I do not function very well before 11. I am at my peak at about 4 o clock, and can happily work till 1 in the morning. My body clock does not match full-time employment. It does match jobs where I have to spend a lot of time multi-tasking and researching from the sofa.
Alas, it cannot last for now. It is not sustainable to work less than 16 hours and sign on for much longer, especially as, despite what I have said above, not being gainfully employed does make me feel a bit lost. So the plan is to get a part-time real job to combine with what I really want to do, and see how that works out.
'See how that works out' is a new phrase in my vocabulary - one that I have adopted in the confidence that things normally do (work out).
In September I applied for a full-time position at an institution I would love to work at, but in a role that wasn't quite right. At the same time I was talking to someone I know about the possibility of freelance education work - she mentioned that she didn't know how long it would last, or how many hours she could offer, but the project sounded amazing. I had an interview for both jobs, and had that false sense that I had got the full-time position. In the end I didn't, but I had been ready to turn it down to do the freelancing.
I think I have found a way of working that makes me happy:
I've never liked working in an office. I'm not good with sitting at a desk in the same building, all day, every day. It makes me miserable. I was freelancing at a conference in a building I used to work in and, when I went to the toilets I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe how relaxed and happy I felt after a morning of facilitating workshops with teenagers, compared to the times when I used to feel so stressed out and anxious (not because of the job - it was lovely) to the point of feeling ill.
I'm quite easily bored. I used to work in marketing but each job seemed the same after a year because of the yearly cycle of leaflets that needed producing. I know that all jobs are repetitive, but even though over the last couple of months I have helped deliver three near-identical 2-day conferences, each one has been amazingly different in how I've worked, what I've enjoyed and what has challenged me. the reason why? The young people who came were all so energetic and individual that they made each conference a completely different experience.
I like being busy, in a way that the 9-5 doesn't allow. I love projects, I love volunteering and I like variety. Ever since university I have happily overloaded myself with work experiences, societies, events organising, and I hated how that seemed to stop in a 9-5 job. I know I could do these things in the evenings, but when you get home after a day in the office, that never seems to happen. Working flexible (and to be honest, not very much) means I have time to do other things.
I am not a lark. I do not function very well before 11. I am at my peak at about 4 o clock, and can happily work till 1 in the morning. My body clock does not match full-time employment. It does match jobs where I have to spend a lot of time multi-tasking and researching from the sofa.
Alas, it cannot last for now. It is not sustainable to work less than 16 hours and sign on for much longer, especially as, despite what I have said above, not being gainfully employed does make me feel a bit lost. So the plan is to get a part-time real job to combine with what I really want to do, and see how that works out.
'See how that works out' is a new phrase in my vocabulary - one that I have adopted in the confidence that things normally do (work out).
Monday, 22 November 2010
More than one year on
Gosh, those intentions didn't really work out, did they? I did indeed study for an MA in Museum Studies, and will be graduating in a week or so's time.
Deciding to go back to university was one of the best decisions I've made. It reinforced my inkling that I wanted to work with people instead of Word documents, and I have developed a strong interest in community work in museums and cultural institutions , particularly with young people. I was fortunate enough to work in the community engagement department of a national museum and wrote my dissertation on the use of youth panels by museums.
When I finished my MA I started looking for a job, any job, and was considering going back into marketing, because it was what I knew, when amazingly I got a part-time job as a freelance educator, working with young people around ideas of heritage, identity and discrimination. It is exactly what I want to be doing, and I feel very fortunate.
I am also working as a research assistant on a digital heritage project, and volunteering for an oral history/archive project about popular politics in the North East and a cultural project with the regional refugee service. So I am quite a busy girl!
I hope I will be better at writing in here than I was a year ago. It was quite a significant year, not only in terms of professional development, but also personal as I came out of a very long-term relationship and learned a lot about myself. I'm not sure whether the clarity I found regarding my career aspirations would have happened without this personal development or vice versa, but I am in a much better place than I was in the post below.
Deciding to go back to university was one of the best decisions I've made. It reinforced my inkling that I wanted to work with people instead of Word documents, and I have developed a strong interest in community work in museums and cultural institutions , particularly with young people. I was fortunate enough to work in the community engagement department of a national museum and wrote my dissertation on the use of youth panels by museums.
When I finished my MA I started looking for a job, any job, and was considering going back into marketing, because it was what I knew, when amazingly I got a part-time job as a freelance educator, working with young people around ideas of heritage, identity and discrimination. It is exactly what I want to be doing, and I feel very fortunate.
I am also working as a research assistant on a digital heritage project, and volunteering for an oral history/archive project about popular politics in the North East and a cultural project with the regional refugee service. So I am quite a busy girl!
I hope I will be better at writing in here than I was a year ago. It was quite a significant year, not only in terms of professional development, but also personal as I came out of a very long-term relationship and learned a lot about myself. I'm not sure whether the clarity I found regarding my career aspirations would have happened without this personal development or vice versa, but I am in a much better place than I was in the post below.
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