What skills should a Museum Technicians and Conservator put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Critical Thinking, and Writing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Museum Technicians and Conservator list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Creative Cloud software, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Museum Technicians and Conservator work?

O*NET records 38 titles for this occupation, including Conservator, Objects Conservator, Paintings Conservator, and Preparator. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Museum Technicians and Conservator need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 41% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Museum Technicians and Conservator role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Museum Technicians and Conservator resume example

A resume for a Museum Technicians and Conservator needs to show the work itself: restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. Day to day that means work like this: 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. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Conservator
Objects Conservator
Paintings Conservator
Preparator
Art Preparator
Conservation Technician
Exhibit Technician
Museum Registrar
Museum Technician
Paper Conservator
Archaeological Technician
Armorer Technician
Art Conservator
Art Handler
Art Objects Repairer
Artifacts Conservator
Ceramic Restorer
Conservation Specialist

O*NET records 38 titles for this occupation in total.

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

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.
Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes.
Photograph objects for documentation.
Determine whether objects need repair and choose the safest and most effective method of repair.
Prepare artifacts for storage and shipping.
Enter information about museum collections into computer databases.
Recommend preservation procedures, such as control of temperature and humidity, to curatorial and building staff.
Notify superior when restoration of artifacts requires outside experts.
Supervise and work with volunteers.
Perform on-site field work which may involve interviewing people, inspecting and identifying artifacts, note-taking, viewing sites and collections, and repainting exhibition spaces.
Lead tours and teach educational courses to students and the general public.

24 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

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, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Repair, restore, and reassemble artifacts, designing and fabricating missing or broken parts, to restore them to their original appearance and prevent deterioration, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Photograph objects for documentation, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Creative Cloud software
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Autodesk AutoCAD
Gallery Systems EmbARK
Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Visual FoxPro
Microsoft Word

18 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Adjustable widemouth pliers
Air abrasive tools
Binocular light compound microscopes
Brazing equipment
Carpenters' chisels
Claw hammers
Cold chisels
Cordless drills
Dental explorers
Desktop computers
Digital cameras
Digital micrometers

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Gallery Systems EmbARK
Microsoft Visual FoxPro

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Reading Comprehension
03Speaking
04Critical Thinking
05Writing
06Complex Problem Solving
07Judgment and Decision Making
08Monitoring
09Active Learning
10Coordination

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Fine Arts
English Language
Public Safety and Security
History and Archeology
Administration and Management
Chemistry

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

41%Master's Degree
24%Bachelor's Degree
20%Post-Secondary Certificate, awarded for training completed after high school

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Considerable Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Common questions

What does a Museum Technicians and Conservator do?: Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. Day to day that includes work like 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 and Repair, restore, and reassemble artifacts, designing and fabricating missing or broken parts, to restore them to their original appearance and prevent deterioration.
What skills should a Museum Technicians and Conservator put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Critical Thinking, and Writing among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Museum Technicians and Conservator list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Creative Cloud software, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Museum Technicians and Conservator work?: O*NET records 38 titles for this occupation, including Conservator, Objects Conservator, Paintings Conservator, and Preparator. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Museum Technicians and Conservator need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 41% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Museum Technicians and Conservator role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.