Wayne Longmore, Collection Manager of Ornithology and Mammalogy, holding the skull of a Polar Bear.
Image: Rodney Start
Source: Museum Victoria
Question: What is it like to work at Museum Victoria? What kinds of jobs are there? What qualifications do you need to work at a museum?
Answer: Museum Victoria employs almost 700 staff. These include curators, collection managers, research associates, customer service staff, marketing and public relations staff, preparators, conservators, animal keepers, teachers, human resources officers, exhibition designers, web designers, IT staff and many more.
With staff working in such a broad range of positions, there is no such thing as a ‘typical day of work’ at Museum Victoria. Day-to-day activities can include designing exhibitions, running education programs, adding data to the Museum’s Collections database, articulating skeletons, identifying insects and feeding live animals in museum displays.
The varied life of Museum Victoria staff can be glimpsed through Access All Areas, an online behind-the-scenes tour of Museum Victoria’s collection areas and departments.
Museum Victoria employs individuals with many different qualifications, backgrounds and skills. In short, there is no single qualification that enables staff to gain employment at the museum. Museum Victoria advertises all employment vacancies on its website.
Museum Victoria also relies on the assistance of about 450 volunteers. These volunteers come from diverse backgrounds and are aged between 17 and 90. Volunteers undertake many different roles from helping to deliver education programs to assisting curators and collection staff behind the scenes.
Museum Victoria also offers work experience placements and internships for high school and tertiary students. Work experience placements, popular with students from both local and overseas institutions, are a great way to get a feel for what it’s like to work at a museum.