At 42, I left my job and embarked on a career change. The plan? Spend a year learning as much as possible, then find a digital role in the cultural heritage sector.
A year later, I’m a Digital Officer at a major art gallery in London. So how did I get here?
Research into jobs
I started with where I wanted to end up. I found out where museum and heritage jobs were advertised and subscribed. I saved and analysed job descriptions for roles that appealed. I found people on LinkedIn with jobs that I thought I’d like to do and reviewed their education, experience and career paths. That research enabled me to compile a list of skills and experience that I needed to develop.
I also started to learn as much about the sector as I could, while still working full time. I joined relevant associations, followed sector organisations and individuals on social media, subscribed to newsletters, and signed up for webinars and conferences. This was beneficial not only for seeing the range of digital activity taking place in the sector, but also for understanding current debates and the issues the sector is facing.
Research into courses
I investigated a range of courses, mostly at Masters level, to understand which would best help me develop the skills I needed. I initially applied for a Digital Humanities MA, but ended up (long story) opting for an MA in Digital Media. I knew that even if the dream museum job didn’t happen, the digital knowledge and skills I gained from the course would be of benefit for any industry.
Focusing my studies
I really benefitted from starting the MA with a very clear idea of the sector and types of roles I wanted to work in on graduating. This enabled me to choose appropriate modules and to tailor my assignments as much as possible to the cultural heritage sector. I therefore not only learned the digital media theory and skills, but also researched their application within heritage. For example, I created a website for a fictional museum, designed a murder mystery heritage tour of my local area, wrote an interactive narrative for the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret, designed an app enabling visitors to museums and galleries to record their emotional responses to objects and artworks, and wrote my dissertation on open-access online collections for small museums.
Volunteering in the sector
I knew that some hands-on experience in a museum or gallery would give me a broader understanding of the sector I wanted to work in, so I started looking for volunteering roles. I was very fortunate to find a Website Support Volunteer role at the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret. This role was one of the best things about my year out: as I got to know the team better, they let me loose on some more fun projects, including redesigning the shop pages, researching and writing a blog, and creating the interactive story mentioned above. This really helped me rediscover my creativity and I grew in confidence. I also had a lot of fun. In the final semester of my course, I managed to get a three-month part-time digital internship at the museum.
Presenting my experience
For years, I’d simply updated the same CV, with my experience presented chronologically. I now had to rethink how to present my skills and experience to prospective employers in a new way: much of my experience had little relevance to the roles I was now applying for, so I had to find ways of highlighting the most transferable skills and condensing the least relevant experience. I spent a lot of time redrafting my CV, trying out a skills-based approach as well as a chronological format. I also talked it through with a careers advisor at the university, who provided useful feedback on my drafts.
Going with the flow
As I’ve outlined, I put a lot of time into researching and planning this career change. Yet I’ve also had to be comfortable with uncertainty: I had no idea how difficult it would be to find a new job in this sector or how long it would take to be offered a role. I had to be comfortable with taking any opportunities that came up and not worrying about those that passed me by. I’m very thankful for how everything has worked out – from the MA to the volunteering and internship, and now my new role, it’s been a brilliant year.