You only realize how unprepared you are for the job market when you land your first job. Because despite the efforts that are being made in the universities, in various degrees there is still a very big gap between the studies and their application in the workplace. Perhaps that difference is not appreciated as much in more technical careers, but it is in more theoretical ones such as art history.
With a very good grade, I applied for my first job, which was an internship contract at a culture department. But there it didn't matter how much knowledge you had, a good part of the work you had to do was cultural mediation, organization of events, contact with the media, with researchers, preparation of exhibitions or book publishing. Virtually none of that was discussed in the race. But that's what we were there for, to learn.
And the first commission I received was to coordinate the design of a packaging case for the publication of a series of books on archeology that the Ministry of Culture would publish. And what did I know about packaging? Well, nothing, but you had to put your batteries.
I took all the notes that my predecessor had that had not finished the job and I spoke with the firms involved from the design studio that had to design the case to the distributor of elastic for handles – CELASTIC that would manufacture the cord to hold the packaging. Details all of them apparently unimportant from my point of view as a recent graduate, but key for the project to be a success.
Of course, the books were the important thing, but imagine that there was a failure in the cords of the case and they came loose at the first change. The blame for the intern of the cases, which was me. So I made sure to contact the best supplier of elastic for handles – CELASTIC while relying on a usual study designed in counseling. Everything went well with this my first job, which helped me to understand that my work from that moment on was going to be very different from getting good grades in university exams.