Open Forum

I'm hoping for some advice on specific interview questions for a Collections Manager. Besides ascertaining skills like what database systems they are familiar with or length of experience (both of which I expect to be able to do from the resume), what kind of scenario type questions do you think are helpful? 

Also, if anyone has suggestions for a skill based test or assignment I could give, pre-interview, that would be wonderful! 

Our job posting can be found here: http://corita.org/opportunities

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Ray Smith PhD
Director
Corita Art Center
Los Angeles CA
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• Ask the interviewee if they've ever had to handle a disaster scenario, like a flood or fire. Ask them how they dealt with it. If they haven't, how they would approach the issue. 
• Ask the interviewee how their people skills are. Despite the general reclusive nature of collections management, a collections manager will have to constantly deal with potential donors, either in person or over the phone. 
• Ask the interviewee how they would approach a donation scenario with different parameters. Is it a restricted donation? Is it unsolicited? What would they say to a potential donor who expects the object to go on exhibit immediately? How would they tell a potential donor no?
• Ask their feelings on deaccessioning. In what scenario would it be appropriate to deaccession an artifact? What would lead them to that decision? 

Unfortunately our collections manager is out for the morning so I can't ask her for more suggestions but perhaps later if you're interested!

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Claire Aldenhuysen
Museum Educator
National Model Aviation Museum, Academy of Model Aeronautics
Muncie IN
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Thanks all for these great questions!!

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Ray Smith PhD
Director
Corita Art Center
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-25-2017 08:32 AM
From: Claire Aldenhuysen
Subject: Interviewing Collection Managers

• Ask the interviewee if they've ever had to handle a disaster scenario, like a flood or fire. Ask them how they dealt with it. If they haven't, how they would approach the issue. 
• Ask the interviewee how their people skills are. Despite the general reclusive nature of collections management, a collections manager will have to constantly deal with potential donors, either in person or over the phone. 
• Ask the interviewee how they would approach a donation scenario with different parameters. Is it a restricted donation? Is it unsolicited? What would they say to a potential donor who expects the object to go on exhibit immediately? How would they tell a potential donor no?
• Ask their feelings on deaccessioning. In what scenario would it be appropriate to deaccession an artifact? What would lead them to that decision? 

Unfortunately our collections manager is out for the morning so I can't ask her for more suggestions but perhaps later if you're interested!

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Claire Aldenhuysen
Museum Educator
National Model Aviation Museum, Academy of Model Aeronautics
Muncie IN
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You will want to know how they react to certain situations where the unexpected happens or things do not go as planned.  You can either ask to give examples of when this happened in their past and how they dealt with it or you could give them a scenario and ask them to walk you through the steps they would take.  These could be disaster/broken object related, awkward situational, or angry patron. It may be as simple as "...you get a call from the local TV news station reporter who wants certain sensitive information regarding a recent major gift."

You will also want to know their philosophy on intellectual control and best practice.  What does it mean to have intellectual control? What is access? How do these apply to this institution?

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Todd Topper
Collections Expansion Project Manager
Ohio History Center - Ohio History Connection
Columbus OH
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Museums are responsible for maintaining the collections entrusted to them, which at minimum means being able to account for everything in the collection. That's why we assign accession numbers and conduct inventories. I've never worked in any museum that had a 100% perfect record (no duplicate numbers, no missing-in-action items, no closet in a back room filled with stuff that was dropped at the door in the dead of night and no legal title).

It's one thing to ask if the candidate has experience dealing with such problems. It's a different thing to try to ascertain the comfort level. If staying laid back, no point getting in a sweat seems to be the preferred way to approach things, probe a little.

• Ask if the candidate can imagine a time or occasion when maybe it's not good enough, in relation to museum collecting, or ask whose problem it is to deal with that closet of no-title drop-offs.
• Ask how long the candidate is willing to spend trying to get the checkbook to balance when it's off by less than a dollar, or if he or she just takes the bank's word for it on the monthly statement.
• Ask the candidate to rank the phrase "Perfect is the enemy of the good" on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of whether it seems like a good enough way to get through life.

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Deborah Smith
Consultant Belfast Maine
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