Museum and Galleries Technician
Ben is a Lead Engineering Technician at the Science Museum
I work at the Science Museum in London and in my role, I maintain and repair the interactive exhibits at the museum. In the workshop, I manufacture new parts for the interactives, and there’s also a public engagement side in the museum itself, working with the museum visitors.
Mornings start at 7:30am with a switch-on route around the museum. There are two routes. O1 is mainly audio-visual exhibits like touch screens, speakers and ultrasound systems. O2 is more my remit, which is electro-mechanical – the interactive exhibits. After the museum opens at 10:00am, we do lots of reactive maintenance around the museum and other teams will also contact us if something isn’t working as it should. Throughout the day, I’m in the workshop making parts and components for our interactive exhibits. This could be anything from making an irregular bolt for an antique machine, through to designing and producing new concepts for the gallery. We have a model of the solar system that’s all mechanically driven, and we made a new Earth for it. We made all the mechanics for the inside and developed a magnetic clutch system.
My background is in machining, so I really enjoy that part. I love being in the workshop, it’s sort of like my house! The public engagement side is quite new for me, but it’s fun. One of my highlights is explaining the system of our 120-year-old steam engine to visitors.
The diversity of skills and knowledge. It felt good to come to the museum and meet people from all different businesses and industry sectors, and be able to add in my own skillset. It gives us the well-rounded team that we need working in the museum. When we become qualified in a chosen profession, it’s easy to think we know it all, but working with different departments and people from different backgrounds or industries can show you how little you really know. I've learned so much from my colleagues.
A lot of our work is reactive, so we do a lot of analytical thinking, fault-finding, critical thinking, and use lots of hand skills. Working with the visitors has done wonders for me in terms of public speaking and speaking and listening in general. It’s a skill you learn from very young, but you never stop honing that skill when you’re communicating with the public.
My favourite piece of equipment is probably the CNC Mill. I’ve spent a lot of time CNC Milling, so it’s really where my skills are and where I feel at home. However, the variety of work we take on here means it’s also still a nice challenge. CNC means Computerised Numerical Control. It’s automated machinery, which I write programmes for - it basically does what I tell it to do.
Walking my dogs, Scooby and Bowie. I spend a lot of time driving down the coast and on beaches with my partner, watching the dogs run around in the sea. In terms of hobbies, I enjoy cycling, skateboarding and surfing.
I didn’t do very well in school, and I don’t think it really influenced my career path. It was only after I left school that I really started applying myself. When I got into engineering, that’s when I found out I have a passion for mathematics and the sciences.
Keep going. Find something you enjoy, find something you're passionate about, and pick it up and run with it. Enjoy it. Looking back, I often fretted and stressed about whether I was doing things wrong, but now I realise I was doing alright.
Discover what qualifications you’ll need, how much you can earn, and what the next steps are.
