What I do

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.

How I became a technician

When I was about 16, I went to college in Cornwall, where I'm from, and did a two-year course in traditional engineering for manufacturing. I owe a lot to my college tutor. I think he wanted to get one more young person on the right track before retiring and luckily, that person was me. He put me forward for an advanced apprenticeship with a local firm and even drove me to the factory every morning before he started lectures!

After my advanced apprenticeship, I stayed and worked my way through different areas of the company, including hard metal, grinding, electronic discharge machinery, CNC Milling, CNC Turning and manual machining. After spending seven years with that company, I decided it was time for a change. I saw the Science Museum job advertised and my best friend lived in London, so I thought, “Why not?”. I had an interview with the manager and the rest, as they say, is history.

A typical day in my working life

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.

Find something you enjoy, which you're passionate about, and pick it up and run with it. Enjoy it.

A little more about my everyday role

What I love most about my job

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 best bits about working as a team

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.

The skills I use most

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

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.

What I like to do in my spare time

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.

My school days

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.

The advice I’d give to someone younger

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.

Glass cases holding artefacts in a museum

Find out more about this role

Discover what qualifications you’ll need, how much you can earn, and what the next steps are.

Nine apprentices sitting on sofas socialising

Meet other technicians

Read more real life technicians stories, see what they do every day, and how they got started.