Step two: MA Heritage Management

Unfortunately due to time constraints, a lapse in heritage based activity, and lack of inspiration on my behalf my blog has been rather neglected for the past 5 months or so….

…BUT things have changed and my quest for a career in the Heritage sector is looking positive!

I secured a place on the Bath Spa University MA Heritage Management course and began life as a postgraduate student a couple of weeks ago – which so far has been great!

I will continue to share my journey in heritage – albeit no longer with the National Trust but Bath Spa University – via this blog and post my work, museum visits, photos and links that I come across along the way.

Regrettably because of finances I still have to work up to 4 days a week in a retail job, which does massively limit the amount of time I can put into further reading and site visits. But through determination and early starts/late nights hopefully I’ll get everything handed in on time!

End of an era, beginning of the next!

Closing up the shutters on the dining room windows for the last time was a sad occasion; I’m currently sat on the train coming home from Polesden thinking about my time in the house and what’s next to come on my journey in heritage. I’ve had such a great time as a National Trust intern, learnt sooo much and made some great friends for life – I will definitely miss it!

Now the house is open again (7 days a week – phew!) the routine has gone back to how it was when I first started: Cleaning in the mornings, sorting out light bulbs, carpets and final tweaks etc, heading to team briefing, then preparing for the incoming volunteers and visitors. I’ve spent my last days as session organiser (organising the rosters for room guides, answering the pager and sorting out tea relief etc. for the volunteers) and as a mentor for my replacement, Meredith and a work experience placement, Hannah. It’s been a great experience getting to know them and passing on my knowledge of things such as light plans, house routine, the stores project and the god-forsaken CMS. I definitely enjoyed the responsibility of teaching and hope that she and the other two new interns will get as much out of Polesden as I did! (Meredith did mention something about starting her own blog on her experience there, which would be great to read and to see how she gets on).

As any normal person that’s been working 7 days a week for the past six months I should really be giving myself a little break… but there’s too many exciting experiences to take for that! I already have my next NT volunteering role lined up, am waiting to hear back from a job application with English Heritage and to see if I get a place on a masters in Heritage Management. I have no intention of finishing this blog and hope that it will be a great log for the rest of my career journey, volunteer experiences and achievements.

So, what’s next? Well…. Thanks to this blog and my interest in the National Trust I’ve got in contact with Nancy Grace, an archaeologist who writes for the NT South West Archaeology blog. I mentioned in a comment that I’d like to get back into archaeology as I haven’t really been involved in any since graduation. She got in contact with me and let me know about some post-excavation work that needs doing at the Warminster NT base and I was super interested – having done loads of illustration, sorting and auditing etc as part of my degree and in past voluntary roles this position is perfect for me, and also allows me to stay involved i

with the Trust! I’ve got to schedule a visit over to Eastleigh Court soon, now i’m done in Surrey, and hopefully from then onwards I can start on the project – exciting! It’ll be great to get

What next…

Firstly, I must apologise for the shocking amount of time that has passed since my last post – time has gone so quickly and I’ve been so busy with work, travelling up and down the country and just… general busy-ness!

So the newest heritage-career-related decision to grace my life at the moment is the fact that I’m applying for a part-time master’s in Heritage Management; I’ve wanted to do this for such a long time but the constraints of time and money have been rather unappealing. But with the end of my internship looming (eek!) and the difficulty of getting a job in the sector close to home, I decided to just go for it! Funding-wise I’ve discovered the ‘Access to Learning Fund’ from the government and there are loads of trusts that offer grants and things for furthering your education… so hopefully I’ll get a place…. If not then I’ve got to keep planning for the future… I continue to scour the internet everyday for heritage jobs! (If anyone can recommend good websites for this I’d be greatly appreciative!).

For anyone interested in working in heritage, here’s a list of job sites I’ve been using:

http://www.nationaltrustjobs.org.uk/ (for seasonal, current vacancies and internships)

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/jobs/

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/JobsDesk (This one is really good)

http://www.museumjobs.com/uk/

http://www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/get-involved/vacancies/ (Would love to work for the BPS!)

And then local council websites, such as BANES, Somerset, Wiltshire, North Somerset etc.

Happy hunting!