Museum

This page contains automatically translated content.

  • International Organizations
  • Non-Profit-Organisationen/ NGOs
  • Consultancy firms specialized in development
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
  • Institutes and centers for development policy
  • state museums
  • company museums
  • historical, cultural-historical, technical-historical, natural science museums
  • art museums in public or private hands

Here you can find regional examples of museums that offer internships.

There are classic museum professions (e.g., curator, inventory manager, collection manager, restorer), as well as areas such as marketing, museum education, and public relations. Topics such as fundraising, budgeting, digitization and controlling are also becoming increasingly important.

The range of tasks is very broad, the museum scientist (curator) must, for example, curate exhibitions (develop, design, select objects, write catalog texts), this is done in collaboration with graphic designers, restorers, storers and technicians.

In the case of museums, the acquisition of third-party funding is also one of the most important tasks. In the higher service, personnel responsibility is added. In case of doubt, museum scientists in smaller museums have to take on museum education or other of the above-mentioned tasks themselves. A list of all tasks can be found in this document: Tasks of scientists in museums of the KMK (PDF).

Work as

  • student assistant in a museum/institute with a teaching collection
  • do several internships/ job shadowing for several weeks during your studies in different museums
  • try to get an internship in a large German or international museum

The more extensive and varied their experience with the terms listed under field of activity, the more promising.

Requirements for starting a career
It is hardly possible to start a career without a traineeship/museum assistant in advanced training after the master's degree. A doctorate is not an obligation, but is often useful. However, it is not a substitute for volunteering/assisting in advanced training.

On the one hand, a broad range of study contents is advisable, since too much specialization decimates the number of eligible museums very much. A European orientation makes sense in this context. On the other hand, many job advertisements call for very specific skills in a specialized discipline (e.g., experience with paintings by 16th-century Dutch painters or the regional history of a locality). It is not easy to find the right middle ground.

Unfortunately, there are few permanent positions in museums.

Information on entry requirements, job postings, topics and structures of museums:

With a focus on marketing, public relations, fundraising or digitization, an entry-level position can also be found in other areas with these keywords.

Self-employment in the exhibition business (museums sometimes employ external scientists for exhibitions, but a traineeship and experience are necessary).