RE: A career in historic aviation?
Hello Ant.
As someone who has turned their hobby into their career I thought it would be only fair to point out a few home truths, (come on John, get ##### Dale to do his intro thing) about what may lie ahead.
(1) You will have no money! You WILL be rather poorly paid. I’m not saying you will be on the bread line but you will find that most of your friends, (i.e. people of a similar age and academic qualifications) will be earning 10K more than you and the gap will widen as time goes on.
(2) You may be spending a lot of your time working on projects you have little or no interest in. I for one do not get turned on by pillowslips or medical instruments but have had to spend a lot of my time dealing with such objects.
(3) Be prepared to be frustrated. No matter how may time you come up with bright ideas you will find that a lack of cash will always put pay to them. It is unbelievable the amount of money is involved in this business once you get past the collector stage.
(4) Be prepared for you and your partner to move. I had move over 400 miles for my job but that’s what happens when you live in Scotland and no one else will pay you for knowing lots of sad facts about aircraft.
As for getting in to the business all I can say is volunteer for everything. I got into a rather well known aviation museum on the grounds of, (A) I knew my subject. Although five years on it scares me how little I did know and…(B) I had Two years museum experience. Both of these years were with spent working for £10 more than income support wages but at least they made up for the fact I had only had 6 ‘O’ levels and 4 highers and had no university degree.
I hope this hasn’t put you in too much of a downer.
Lots of love
Anne
P.S. Ashley…Are you a conservator…If so do you know a good supplier of microcrystalline wax?
Sign In
