Where to find museum jobs

The Heritage industry is an important aspect of the tourist industry in the UK, where cultural activities are very significant. Museums are part of the culture industries, and the range of employment within museums is wide and varied. This article details out where to find museum jobs.

Museum work

Museums have both a conservation and educational function, so most of them will have education officer and conference organiser jobs as well as many others. Specialists Many museum workers need to have special training or specialist university degrees to qualify for their jobs. Documentation Officer, Digital Imaging Officer, Exhibition and Displays Manager are just a few typical job descriptions for museum specialists. Antiques, valuation and acquisitions specialists are needed. Ancillary jobs Security workers, shop assistants, specialist cleaners, food service and ticket sales are among the support jobs and careers available in the museum arm of the culture industry. Voluntary work Many museums offer opportunities to gain insight into the industry by taking on voluntary responsibilities. From desk sales to visitor support, from educational group leader to maker of learning materials, these are satisfying but unpaid jobs.

Jobs in museums

Managerial positions such as project management occur in museums quite regularly as new displays and enterprises are instigated. Then, there are the museum specialities of curator and archivist. Curator Curator is a fairly general term used to describe part of the senior museum staff who play as caretakers of rare artefacts, perhaps those recovered by archaeologists in excavations. Among them are conservators, people who keep the condition of museum collections stable, and archivists who deal with the documentation. Archives jobs These jobs require a range of special expertise, including photography, and paper conservation and repair. IT and classification skills for the cataloguing of archive contents are necessary, and online arts databases on which to facilitate public access to the information.

Finding museum jobs in the UK

Universities offering museum or heritage studies will have details of jobs arising within the industry. There are specialist websites for museums, galleries, archives and libraries which offer advertisements for jobs online, such as Museumjobs.com. National museums jobs The Nationamuseumsjobs.org.uk offers advertisements for jobs from the highest levels within the UK museum industry, provided by the National Museums Directors' Conference, which involves all the major museums, both national and regional. National newspapers Guardian.jobs.co.uk has a specialist museums and heritage section offering a very wide range of jobs in the sector, including voluntary jobs.