Montana·Educational Instruction and Library Occupations·SOC 25-4013

Best Museum Technician programs in Montana, ranked by enrollment

Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art.

1 schools in Montana run programs that feed this job, graduating 10 people a year. The job pays a median of $42,390 in Montana across about 120 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledPreparatorConservatorObjects ConservatorPaintings ConservatorArt HandlerArt PreparatorArt ConservatorCeramic Restorer
Graduates / yr
10
in Montana
Median pay · Montana
$42,390
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
120
people employed
Schools
1
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
48%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Montana that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Montana that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Montana (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Montana page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 54.0105In Montana
10
100.0%
1$31,217$24,000

Top 1 schools in Montana

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 1 of the 1 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1The University of Montana
Missoula, MT Public · 1 feeder programs
10Public/Applied History$28,50848%96%

All 1 schools in Montana

Every school in Montana with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Montana that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
The University of MontanaMissoulaPublic101

What museum technicians and conservators earn in Montana

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Montana
$42,390
Mean annual
$44,250
Jobs in state
120
What the range looks like
10th pct$31,470Median$42,39090th pct$62,400
Versus the national median
-17.6%

U.S. median $51,440. Montana pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
3.01×

Concentrated here: Montana employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in Montana

Bozeman, MT
$43,560median
30 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+5.4%
Faster than average
Openings per year
1,900
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
800
15,700 → 16,500
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Museum Technicians and Conservators page.

How to become a Museum Technician

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

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.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Active ListeningReading ComprehensionSpeakingCritical ThinkingWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Montana

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 3 majors mapped to Museum Technicians and Conservators3 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 30.1401Museology/Museum Studies
  • 50.0703Art History, Criticism and Conservation
  • 54.0105Public/Applied History

Common questions

Answers for people weighing museum technicians and conservators programs in Montana.

What degree do you need to become a Museum Technician?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Public/Applied History, which awarded 10 degrees in Montana in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Museum Technician?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are History. Together they graduate about 10 people a year in Montana.

How much do museum technicians and conservators earn in Montana?+

The median is $42,390 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 17.6% below the U.S. median of $51,440. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for museum technicians and conservators growing?+

BLS projects a +5.4% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 1,900 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Montana?+

1 institutions in Montana reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do museum technicians and conservators work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Preparator, Conservator, Objects Conservator, Paintings Conservator among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 25-4013.

Museum Technicians and Conservators in other statesNew YorkIdahoCaliforniaMassachusettsTexasPennsylvaniaOhioIllinois
Programs in MontanaPublic/Applied History

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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