CDM’s job description

The first job I ever had where I got legitimately paid was working the admissions desk at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Admittedly, I was 17 when I applied and I mainly discovered the position as I had done the summer camp there the year prior and figured I was familiar enough with the museum to give it a shot applying for the role. However, when I had my interview with them I learned a bit more about the role and will say that it definitely got me on board. Ironic as it may seem, I don’t really like interacting with kids, I find it to be difficult if you are having a bad day and feel that it would be detrimental from a service standpoint. However, the admissions role made interacting with kids optional, as your main job is processing the transactions for guests and selling memberships. This made it great for me, as it was a part-time role at a business I was familiar with and made the only complication that could have been involved mitigated through not being the primary function of the role.

One thing that I didn’t learn through the job description however was all the other little details about the job. While it’s implied, being the first point of contact in any business is going to bring more situations than you would ever expect. From being a pseudo-tour guide for the museum and the downtown city as a whole to being the one responsible for reuniting lost kids and their parents, there are a lot of aspects of the job that aren’t really explained in a short paragraph or a 20-30 minute long conversation that you can really convey without experiencing yourself.

I applied mainly due to the fact that i had worked with the museum before and thus was familiar with their mission, layout, and generally had an idea of how to speak to people. It’s an entry-level job that mainly consists of part-timers that attend San Jose State University. As long as you didn’t have the charisma of a hermit crab, there wasn’t much to the job itself in terms of prerequisites and the willingness to learn the software and be friendly towards customers. Having that background knowledge I think helped me a bit, as I already knew some of the people working the desk and, even though I was younger than the average worker there, I was able to be caught up to speed quickly as I already knew the less esoteric knowledge about the museum proper and only needed to be crash coursed on the ticketing software.

After typing all of this, I found the official job description online and think it provides a decent amount of information, but like a lot of these, there are a lot of other responsibilities that lie beneath these general statements that I feel are hard to convey. It reads as follows:

“Non-exempt, part-time (Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.); this frontline position interfaces with the public to process admissions tickets and memberships, greet visitors and provide information, make announcements, and help direct the flow of visitors in the front lobby area. This individual will be energetic, organized, accurate, familiar with basic computer skills, and able to demonstrate outstanding visitor service skills while working with a diverse audience. Previous experience in visitor service, retail, or working with children is desirable.”.