Becca Shron – Working in Orillia

What is it like for a young person who lives in Orillia to start off in life and find a career or job, and what are the prospects like in Orillia today?

Because I’m in such a small field – I’m in the museum field – there’s only two museums really in my area. There are some in Barrie as well. I actually moved to Orillia to get the job here because there was nothing for me in Barrie. But as far as I know, a lot of people I know are working retail, which is what I was doing until I came here.

You kind of just get things until you can get your actual career started, you do things related to your field. So working in an art shop is kind of related, or working in a bookstore is kind of related. And just do little things to build up your portfolio of things that are related to your field until you can get something.

A lot of people I know, and myself included, it takes us years to get our career actually going. But you usually do volunteer work. A lot of peers in my program, we volunteer with museums and then we can get some education and get some value out of it, and it’s not just a random job.

I feel like the standard in my industry, everybody’s favourite dream is to work at the ROM, the ROM is like the peak of all you can be in Ontario museums. For myself personally, I like small museums better, I find them more personal, I find the staff are more attentive, I find the artefacts more interesting. I’d rather work somewhere small and regional like the Simcoe Museum, Stephen Leacock, the Orillia Museum of Art and History.

I’d like to stay in small towns, I find the museums are really cute and local, and all the people in the area come together to help museums get things going. Like the local historians we have here that are
looking through artefacts and things. So I would like to stay in at least the area, not necessarily Orillia itself, but I like small museums better so this area is good for me.