Is it still possible to find a job in a cultural area?

stillalive88 · 17-05-2015 2:58am #1

Hi everyone.

I wanted to ask a broad question, maybe someone knows something about it. My girlfriend is extremely down in mood cause she says there is no work for her. She has three degrees in cultural areas and I just can't believe that someone with three degrees cannot even find one work offer of any kind whatsoever. That's years and years and years of high education. There must be something.

I know it's a difficult area and it doesn't pay top money, but she doesn't care. She'd gladly do anything just related, for example working in a library. But she tells me you need a specific degree for this, a specific master for that, an exact phD for that, and so forth.

Just wanted to know if this is absolutely true or if employers (that would make more sense to me at least) want someone with a good mind that works well and is prepared for it, not necessarily in that specifically-exact-diploma-just-tailored-for-it. If it might just be a case of getting in the field, working hard, getting recognized and so forth. Or maybe just setting up one's own business.

She honestly would do whatever cultural. We are in Cork.
I found a job for myself without even looking or thinking too much about it, I can't believe that "nothing exists" for her, just cause she wants to stay in culture.

the_syco · 17-05-2015 3:35am

What degrees does she have, and why did she not specialise (masters/PHD/etc) in one of the first two rather than going for a third degree?

stillalive88 · 17-05-2015 12:21pm

She has modern literature as 3 year degree, modern philology as 2 years MA and a digital humanities MA going to be finished very soon.
We are both italian but that is not preventing me from working and she has good English too, on par with most people. I guess that is a big obstacle in terms of literature, having studied so many years in another language and so much in depth.

To be noted, the first 2 degrees are italian, modern philology is something that doesn't so much exist here, it would be about reading very old manuscripts, interpreting text, deciphering and so forth. Like, reading what nobody else would be able to. The digital humanities degree is Irish.

So it is how she said, everything is very specific? You study something, you cannot do anything else? You're stuck on that for life unless you spend 3-4 years on another degree or phd?

stillalive88 · 18-05-2015 7:39pm

Up, does anybody know anything related to this?

stillalive88 · 19-05-2015 5:16pm

Queen-Mise · 20-05-2015 11:17pm

What about historical work? Studying manuscripts and such, libraries, research, etc.

I know there is work in researching Irish history in old French documents.

Probably needs to think outside box and see what jobs are there.

hooplah · 21-05-2015 9:20am

There are specific qualifications for librarians and archivists. However not all posts in libraries would require these. Unfortunately most library jobs are in the public sector and as such are suffering from the recruitment ban. You could keep an eye on libraryjobs.ie

I'd say the M.A in Digital Humanities would be a useful qualification but jobs are thin on the ground.

stillalive88 · 21-05-2015 6:07pm

hooplah wrote: »

There are specific qualifications for librarians and archivists. However not all posts in libraries would require these. Unfortunately most library jobs are in the public sector and as such are suffering from the recruitment ban. You could keep an eye on libraryjobs.ie

I'd say the M.A in Digital Humanities would be a useful qualification but jobs are thin on the ground.

Thanks a lot for the reply.

Can you tell me more about the recruitment ban?

In Italy for example they basically stopped hiring teachers 4 years ago and they will resume "at some point". Is this going on here too, in the public sector? Everything frozing down and staying there because of the recession?

Rabo Karabekian · 21-05-2015 6:24pm

It's incredibly difficult to get a job in a library even with the necessary qualifications. I did the qualifications a few years ago, and out of my class I am guessing that maybe 10-20% are working in libraries.

Most of the jobs advertised for libraries would be on the lower level, so not librarians technically but library assistants. They do what you think a librarian does (shelving, cataloguing, checking in/out books) but it's not a professional role, so (technically!) you don't need the degree/masters that you would to be a librarian. However, due to the numbers I mentioned previously, any library advertising for a library assistant role can pick and choose from huge numbers of people with degrees/masters (usually with the necessary work experience required to get in to these courses).

It will be extremely difficult for your girlfriend to get into this area. She may get lucky, but really she would need to do the masters, do a fair amount of voluntary work (for experience and contacts) and then probably part time work before she gets a chance at a full time contract. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I've gone through it myself and even with the qualifications and experience, it's tough.

The recruitment the other poster was talking about refers to the public service recruitment ban. I think that's slowly being lifted, but the public libraries are only hiring for posts that would be one, perhaps two days a week, and it's not in a specific library, you go wherever they need you in the County Council. The university libraries have been hiring occasionally, but there's very, very few jobs going, and for anything above library assistant you will need the qualifications (at the very least).

stillalive88 · 21-05-2015 10:54pm

Rabo Karabekian wrote: »

It's incredibly difficult to get a job in a library even with the necessary qualifications. I did the qualifications a few years ago, and out of my class I am guessing that maybe 10-20% are working in libraries.

Most of the jobs advertised for libraries would be on the lower level, so not librarians technically but library assistants. They do what you think a librarian does (shelving, cataloguing, checking in/out books) but it's not a professional role, so (technically!) you don't need the degree/masters that you would to be a librarian. However, due to the numbers I mentioned previously, any library advertising for a library assistant role can pick and choose from huge numbers of people with degrees/masters (usually with the necessary work experience required to get in to these courses).

It will be extremely difficult for your girlfriend to get into this area. She may get lucky, but really she would need to do the masters, do a fair amount of voluntary work (for experience and contacts) and then probably part time work before she gets a chance at a full time contract. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I've gone through it myself and even with the qualifications and experience, it's tough.

The recruitment the other poster was talking about refers to the public service recruitment ban. I think that's slowly being lifted, but the public libraries are only hiring for posts that would be one, perhaps two days a week, and it's not in a specific library, you go wherever they need you in the County Council. The university libraries have been hiring occasionally, but there's very, very few jobs going, and for anything above library assistant you will need the qualifications (at the very least).

Thank you Rabo.

What I need as information though is much, much wider. Think everything that could have something to do with literature, and maybe even with a digital side. Luckily she is not only set for libraries, though that's one of the things she would have loved

Rabo Karabekian · 23-05-2015 10:14am

stillalive88 wrote: »

Thank you Rabo.

What I need as information though is much, much wider. Think everything that could have something to do with literature, and maybe even with a digital side. Luckily she is not only set for libraries, though that's one of the things she would have loved

Well, you mentioned libraries in your original post, and some others replied about them, so that's what my post was following on from.

Most jobs in the (very, very broad) area you're interested in tend to have people who are highly qualified (with some kind of degree or masters in the specific industry that they are working) working on the lower end of the pay scale having completed a significant proportion of time doing unpaid work. But you answered all this yourself when you said she was told she would need a specific degree or masters to work in the area she was enquiring about.

So, what she needs to do is figure out what area she wants to work in, do a masters (if applicable), more than likely do some voluntary work and be prepared to have to start at the very bottom.

stillalive88 · 24-05-2015 2:20pm

Oh my.... Looks to me it's a lot easier if I build a business myself and hire her. I could probably pay her more $:\$
Why is culture so underestimated today??? Without culture, man is nothing...

Rabo Karabekian · 25-05-2015 8:20pm

stillalive88 wrote: »

Oh my.... Looks to me it's a lot easier if I build a business myself and hire her. I could probably pay her more $:\$

Not sure if serious or not. But I would reckon that would be incredibly difficult to do.

stillalive88 wrote: »

Why is culture so underestimated today??? Without culture, man is nothing...

And the reason that it would be so difficult is that it's (often) hard to quantify the value of cultural institutions. One of the main reasons for this is that the actual money they take in can be negligible at best but also there is a huge problem (in libraries anyway, but I'm sure it's replicated in other cultural areas) of people working in those areas being completely unable to justify the worth of their institution. That's changing, but it's a slow change. Another problem (in my opinion) is the way that the public service have of hiring people for cultural institutions (again, it's changing, but not fast enough). You have some people working in libraries with little or no interest in their job: they could be in any department and they would have the same enthusiasm. Meanwhile, you have a lot of very enthusiastic potential librarians who can't get any work.

cloudatlas · 26-05-2015 10:18am

Ireland i'll bet is very much like Italy at the moment, it's all about networking and who you know in order to get your foot in the door.

She should approach her lecturers and careers department about possible internships.

Otherwise she needs to start thinking outside the box, she has two languages which would enable her to apply for European cultural projects in EU institutions.

Is it still possible to find a job in a cultural area?

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