Saturday, May 14, 2011

Much better now!

Ok, now I'm over the initial disappointment I am feeling much more positive about everything! This is the perfect excuse to get out of Canberra, which is an exciting prospect in itself. I actually quite like life-changing shifts (as long as nobody dies), though I do struggle to avoid knee-jerk reactions to changes in already established patterns - like C changing jobs, or me having to move desks or something. But I am quite an adaptable person, and I always manage to cope!

I have seen a few curatorial jobs advertised in the last month or so (all outside Canberra, too!), which definitely gives me a sense of hope about staying in the industry. I think the thing that made me feel the most sorry for myself was the idea that I'd invested all this time and energy in a career as a curator and it looked like I might need to quit the industry altogether due to a lack of jobs, but fingers crossed I manage to land something somewhere.

Obviously wherever I end up will have to have a roller derby league, though!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Well, this is fucked

It looks like after five years of on-again off-again romance, my relationaship with the National Museum of Australia is coming to a final and conclusive end.

Due to the wonderful Efficiency Dividend many of the contract staff are not being renewed. This includes me, and, as I learned yesterday, I was also spectacularly unsuccessful in the recent recruitment round, where a lot of us fought over the two jobs they now have available. Not only did I not land one of those two jobs, but my final ranking pretty much puts me out of the running of any additional jobs that might come up.

I feel kind of like I've been dumped. That might sound melodramatic, but let me tell you that for the past five years, ever since starting at the NMA, I have been beating myself against the curatorial door trying to get an in, and I have had absolutely no luck. It's like I only get hired when there's no alternative. Yes, I have worked there for the past 2 years as a curator, but that was a back door position, because they were desperate. But I have not ever actually won a position in Curatorial via recruitment channels.

It feels like perhaps the Universe is trying to send me a message, that I should just give up on this field. Five years is a long time to bust a gut and not be any further along than when you started. There are now people in higher positions than me who have less qualifications and less time in the industry under their belts. I think that, despite being qualified and relatively experienced, it's the luck that I'm lacking.

Anyway the whole situation is fucked. I'm stuck in Canberra, there's no jobs going in this field because the Efficiency Dividend is biting everyone's arses, and there's nothing I can do. This is a town where you're either a Public Servant or you work to serve the Public Servants. I don't think my pride could take stacking shelves at Woollies.

I was thinking I might start a phd, which you need to get anywhere further than entry level in this industry (or at least at the NMA), but if I can't even win an entry level position, it makes me wonder why I'd bother investing in a phd. I already have the Masters, and that doesn't seem to have done me much good. Do I really want to devote 3-4 years to another piece of paper?

But if I let go of the idea of working in this industry, I have no idea where else I'd go, or what other field I'd try to get into. I seem to have the misfortune of actually enjoying what I do, but finding myself unable to do it.

Monday, May 02, 2011

Another derby milestone




Okay, so it's been a while. A lot of shit has gone down since my last post. I'm losing my job in mid-July and frantically trying to find something to replace it with that will make use of my Masters in Museum Studies (rather than packing shelves at Woollies), but the cultural heritage sector in Canberra is looking pretty bleak at the moment, with all other museums and galleries in the same position as the NMA, so it's not looking good.

Plus I've been training my butt off for derby, with 3 training sessions a week. I do enjoy it, but jeez it eats up your life! Still, my attitude is that if this is what's required to be a good derby skater then it's what I'll do. There's a bit of whingeing about it out there, but I feel that if people don't like it they should either quit or switch to casual skater status, and not expect to skip training sessions but still be allowed to bout. Ok, here endeth the rant!

Speaking of derby - I had my first 'big girl' bout on Saturday night, playing to a packed out audience of 1,000 people at Tuggeranong Stadium. My team, the Brindabelters, lost by 3 points, but not before we had to go into overtime because the scores were tied at 98 apiece at full time! It was a nail-bitingly close finish. I thought I'd be gutted and downcast if we lost, but once I got over the initial disappointment I was just so stoked about having played a proper bout and how well we'd actually done as a team!

Can't wait for the next bout - May 28 here we come!