Gallery or Museum Guide
What the work is
Answers enquiries and directs and guides visitors in a gallery or museum.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Meets and greets visitors, and provides general information about gallery or museum policies and programs
- Controls visitors' access to exhibits and monitors entrances, exits, stairwells and other public areas
- Ensures safety of collections
- Maintains records of attendance, memberships, donations and other statistics as needed
- Conducts detailed tours of exhibits for visitors, providing context and background information to enhance their understanding of the material on display
- May assist with installing and dismantling exhibits
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a fictional coastal heritage town with a small museum, walking tours and a visitor centre. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A group falls silent at the lookout because of something you just said
- A visitor who planned one night stays three because of your suggestions
- A school group asks questions you have to look up, and you love it
Hard days
- Telling the same story for the fifth time in the same day with a smile
- A booking mix-up where the group is on the footpath and the cafe has closed
- Rain, wind and a group that did not bring the right shoes
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 461631, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.