AFSNews Careers Column February 1994

Careers

Folklorists work in a variety of settings: many kinds of academic departments in universities, libraries, museums, archives, historical associations, arts councils, the publishing industry, funding agencies, and the federal government, to name a few. Some us work as professional folklorists; others pursue folklore as an avocation. But we all, I believe, use the skills we have developed as folklorists in our work. Regardless of the setting, we are all, at heart, educators.

Unfortunately, folklorists far outnumber jobs for folklorists. One of my goals in this column is to help readers identify important transferable skills that they can use in their search for suitable, enjoyable employment to sustain them until they find their "dream jobs" in folklore.

In future installments of this column, I will present the stories of some of our colleagues--the kinds of work they do, how they got their jobs, and how they use their folklore backgrounds in their professional lives. I will also address job-search strategies, and I will present information about what hiring officials look for in applications: What should you include in a resume, a curriculum vitae, a cover letter, or a dossier? How should you present the contents? In other words, what can you do to make your application stand out over those of other candidates?

If you have suggestions for future columns, please contact me.

Joseph P. Goodwin Career Services Lucina Hall Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306 765-285-2430 765-285-3757 (fax) 00jpgoodwin@bsuvc.bsu.edu