Museum Technicians and Conservators: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Museum Technicians and Conservators restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art. May identify and record objects or install and arrange them in exhibits. Includes book or document conservators.

• Install, arrange, assemble, and prepare artifacts for exhibition, ensuring the artifacts’ safety, reporting their status and condition, and identifying and correcting any problems with the set up.
• Repair, restore, and reassemble artifacts, designing and fabricating missing or broken parts, to restore them to their original appearance and prevent deterioration.
• Classify and assign registration numbers to artifacts and supervise inventory control.
• Study object documentation or conduct standard chemical and physical tests to ascertain the object’s age, composition, original appearance, need for treatment or restoration, and appropriate preservation method.

Salary

Museum Technicians and Conservators with little to no experience tend to make between $25430 and $32580 while the more experienced ones can earn over $56730 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Museum Technician and Conservator is to move to a higher paying state like DC. Right now, the highest paying states for Museum Technicians and Conservators are DC, MD, NJ, MA and NY.

However, a higher pay at DC doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at DC might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Museum Technician and Conservator is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Museum Technicians and Conservators what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Master’s Degree followed by a Bachelor’s Degree.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Museum Technician and Conservator.

What is the job like

73% of Museum Technicians and Conservators said they were satisfied with their job and 73% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They like working with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery..

They also like working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

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