What Are the Different Types of Museum Career Opportunities?

Museums offer the public a wealth of historical artifacts and information, and most museum career opportunities focus on preserving such artifacts and information. Other careers may focus on educating the public about history, both local and global, and other careers may be more focused on a particular topic. Art museums, for example, showcase various forms of art, and curators and archivists may be specifically trained in these forms. Museum career opportunities that are labeled as archivists allow people with specific training to collect, manage, and allow access to significant historical documents or artifacts deemed valuable to society at large.

Management museum career opportunities are sometimes much harder to come by. Such managers are known as curators, and they oversee the day-to-day operations of a museum and ensure the safety and accessibility of valuable artifacts or displays. Curators may also be responsible for procuring certain artifacts or documents, which requires an extensive knowledge about historical artifacts and the network through which such artifacts can be legally obtained. Larger museums are likely to hire several curators according to the different fields the museum covers. A museum that features paleontology exhibits, for example, will hire a curator with specific experience in that field; that same museum may hire another curator who will manage a reptile exhibit, and another who may manage a botany exhibit.

Museum technicians can take advantage of museum career opportunities that focus on assisting curators and even interacting with the public viewing the exhibits. Organizational and preparatory tasks will be handled by museum techs. Maintenance of exhibits may also be the responsibility of registrars, and various tasks assigned by curators will be handled by these professionals as well. When public viewings are held, registrars will be on hand to answer questions, guide guests through the exhibits, and ensure the safety and maintenance of the space.

A programs manager may be responsible for organizing public events or other functions within the museum. These museum career opportunities require a candidate to be highly organized and personable. He or she will need to be able to communicate with vendors and guests, and a keen eye for detail and advertising ability will be necessary. Programs managers may oversee other programs staff; some staff may focus more on adult programs, while other coordinators may focus exclusively on running programs for children or mixed groups of visitors.