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Re: Another Archive recruiters/Job hunting



> There are, for instance, more archival jobs in county courthouses
> than there are in libraries, and yet trained archivists almost never apply
> for them-and the records suffer accordingly.

You'd have to do a lot of talking to convince me that a job like this
would pay better than the university job I now have. I've never studied
this, but I wonder how many of these county courthouse jobs are
either (a) professional work done for a clerk's salary (b) temporary,
grant funded jobs (c) done under the auspices of a state local
records program, where you're in the field a lot and never
spend much time working in one place.

> Similarly, there are many even more remunerative jobs in private enterprise
> that archivists are well suited for but are more likely to be filled by a
> former file clerk than someone with formal training.

My experience is that business recruiting for corporate archivists shy
away from academic archivists, because "the culture is different and you
wouldn't fit in". Corporations looking for archives are not looking for a
clerk, they are looking for an archivist with experience in the corporate
environment. If you've spent your career in academia you don't fit that
bill and probably won't get a foot in the door in the corporate arena (at
least, I couldn't).


For what it's worth ...

Carole Prietto, University Archivist     phone:  (314) 935-9730
Washington University in St. Louis       fax:  (314) 935-8320
Box 1061, One Brookings Drive            prietto@library.wustl.edu
St. Louis, Missouri 63130

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