Grad School Guide | Melissa Mertsis
Happy March everyone! Can you believe we're only 5 weeks away from the end of the semester? If you're in your second year of the Master of Museum Studies, or your third year of CDP, you may be feeling a mix of stress, excitement, anxiety, and a million other emotions at once (I know I am) because this is the year that we graduate! With classes and commitments slowly wrapping up, and convocation in the not-so-distant future, it's time to start thinking about what's next, however scary that may be. The future is full of unknowns and can cause a lot of anxiety and stress, especially in a field like Museum Studies that is constantly changing. However, there are a few tricks to make the transition to graduate a little easier — keep reading to find out how!
If you're graduating this year, a quick and easy step to check off your "To Do Before Graduating" list is to submit your Intent to Convocate Form. Similar to how some of us were required to "Apply to Graduate" in our undergraduate degrees, this form submission lets Student Services know that you are intending to graduate at the June 2021 Convocation Ceremony. It's really important that you submit this form before April 1st, 2021 — don't wait until you receive passing grades from your Winter courses! Once you submit your Intent to Convocate, there are a couple more administrative steps to follow to make sure you're good to go — check out this comprehensive list that the Faculty has compiled.
After you've gotten all of your administrative ducks in a row, it's time to start thinking about work. Even though we've still got 5 weeks to go, job hunting can be a long and strenuous process — it doesn't hurt to start early! The first step to getting yourself job-hunt-ready is to take a look at your resume and Curriculum Vitae, or CV (and yes, they are different). Your CV can be prepared far more generally than your resume, so this can be done ahead of finding a job you'd like to apply for. Include volunteer and work experience, relevant educational experience and projects, publications, and other certifications on your CV, and only include this in your application if they specifically ask for it! Your resume should be prepared "to order," meaning you'll need to change the wording and alter which experiences you want to highlight based on each job.
Before prepping your resume for a job, you'll need to find a job to apply for. For those of us interested in museum and culture work, there are a ton of places to look. If your Ontario Museum Association (OMA) membership is still active, check out available jobs under Resources > Job Postings. OMA typically has at least a handful of job postings at any given time, and they update them quite frequently! If you're not exclusively interested in Ontario jobs, the Canadian Museums Association also has a free job board with opportunities from all over the country. If you're looking for something less museum-focused but still sector-adjacent, you might have some luck on WorkInCulture or CharityVillage finding not-for-profit and cultural heritage opportunities. The LinkedIn Jobs page is another great place to look for all kinds of jobs, and don't forget about websites like Indeed and Monster!
Once you've applied to graduate, spent some time prepping your CV and resume, and looking through job boards, there's only one thing left to do — graduate! Although it's tempting to slow down and focus on the future (the Senioritis is real), try to keep the focus train rolling for these next 5 weeks. Get those assignments in, finish up those exhibition projects and theses, but, most importantly, enjoy what's left of your time at the Faculty of Information! Participate in as much as you can over the next few months, whether it's submitting your work to the iConference, chatting with recent grads at MUSSA's Alumni Panel on March 18th, or even scheduling your own hangout sessions in the Virtual Inforum.
The last few months of any school year are always stressful, but when this might be your last school year ever, the stress is definitely a little higher than usual. If you're feeling like you need some extra support right now, check out this article that I co-wrote about mental health resources on campus! Graduation is a time of goodbyes and new starts, but don't forget just how small the museum sector is — the class of 2021 will undoubtedly meet again.
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