Education Requirements and Museum Jobs (April 2024)

This week in my undergraduate museum practices course, we will discuss museum careers (and graduate school). For the first time since 2017, I have again done my calculations based on the AAM (American Alliance of Museums) job ads currently posted (N=140). The big story is the rise of the “no degree requirements listed ad.” This can be for the hourly gift shop staff job, but very prominently it is also for the $200,000+ director job. Also in the mix to some degree is the move by governments to drop degree requirements. All that noted, the basic trends remain roughly the same, with the bachelor’s degree being expected for the full breadth of jobs and the master’s degree being valued in domains where one would expect this (collections-related, exhibitions content-related, education-related, accounting). The doctorate in education seems to be showing up in education leadership roles and the Ph.D. remains key for research-intensive and well-known curatorial programs (but the master’s is by far the more common curatorial degree).

No Education Requirement Stated (12%); High School Diploma Required (1%); High School Diploma Required, Bachelor’s Degree Preferred (1%); Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree Required (1%); Bachelor’s Degree Required (44%); Bachelor’s Degree Required, Master’s Degree Preferred (16%); Master’s Degree Required (13%); Master’s Degree Required, Doctoral Degree Preferred (11%); Doctoral Degree Required (1%).