Natural History Museum Visitor Assistant interview guide

How the Natural History Museum hires Visitor Assistants: four stages, an assessment day for some roles such as visitor experience, and a focus on visitors.

About the Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum's annual report says the Museum is "a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and is an exempt charity".¹ It reports "over 6 million visitors to both Museums", South Kensington and Tring, in 2024-25, which it calls "another record-breaking year".¹ The Annual Review 2024-2025 says the Tring site attracted 146,000 visitors.²

In 2024-25 the Museum employed 1,054 staff (average full-time equivalents), up from 1,000 in 2024, and 826 of them were on permanent contracts.¹ Staff turnover was 12%, against 16% in 2024, and 275 volunteers were registered with the Museum during the year.¹ Its stated mission is "to create advocates for the planet", and its strategy runs to 2031, the 150th anniversary of the Museum opening at South Kensington.¹ The same report says the Museum is relocating 28 million specimens to a new collections, science and digitisation centre at Thames Valley Science Park (NHM Unlocked).¹ HM Treasury confirmed Government investment of £201m in January 2025.¹

The governance page lists Dr Doug Gurr as Museum Director and Lord Hall of Birkenhead as Chair of Trustees.³

One Visitor Assistant job description says Visitor Assistants are "part of our Visitor Experience team within the Commercial and Visitor Experience department" and "provide direction, information, experiences and sales to our visitors".⁴ The 2024-25 executive board included Adam Farrar as Director of Commercial and Visitor Experience.¹

The interview process

As the NHM's "How we hire" page describes it. The page covers NHM hiring in general, and says "our application process varies depending on the role you're applying for".⁵

1. Application stage

   The NHM asks all candidates to apply through its jobs portal.⁵ It says: "We may ask you to write short answers or a supporting statement about your skills and experience".⁵ The portal states: "All opportunities will close at midnight on the closing date unless otherwise stated."⁶ If you need adjustments to the assessment stage, the NHM asks you to "indicate this on your application form".⁵

2. Shortlisting stage

   "One or more of our hiring managers will review your application".⁵ The NHM adds: "Wherever practically possible, we carry out anonymised shortlisting, removing identifying details from applications before managers see them."⁵ As part of the Disability Confident Scheme, it says it will "guarantee an interview to all disabled candidates who meet the minimum shortlisting criteria for the role."⁵

3. Assessment stage

   The page says: "For some roles, such as those relating to visitor experience, we'll hold an assessment day."⁵ Assessments "may be online via Teams or in person at one of our sites, depending on the role and the type of assessment."⁵

   • More than one method. "For most roles there will be more than one assessment method. For example, you might have an interview with a small panel as well as a written or practical task."⁵
   • A possible second round. "For some roles, there may be a second round of assessments."⁵
   • Presentations. "If the role involves presenting and public speaking, we might ask you to prepare a presentation."⁵
4. Offer stage

   The NHM says "the hiring manager for the role will contact you to make an offer" and "we don't negotiate on starting salaries".⁵ The HR team then contacts you to start onboarding.⁵ "All our offers are conditional on satisfactory references, evidence of right to work in the UK and a basic criminal records check."⁵

The Visitor Assistant job description says all NHM positions are conditional on proof of the right to work in the UK, a Basic Disclosure Check from the DBS, "Satisfactory references covering the last 3 years of your employment or education" and health clearance.⁴ The NHM also says: "If you're unsuccessful, we'll offer you feedback."⁵

One older advert gives an idea of timing. The Visitor Assistant advert that closed on 27 May 2024 stated "Interviews expected: w/c 3 June 2024", about one week after the closing date.⁷ That advert dates from 2024, so its timings may have changed.

On pay, the undated Visitor Assistant job description gives the salary as "£25,398 per annum pro rata".⁴ The earlier job description, for the advert that closed on 27 May 2024, offered "Permanent; Full Time 5 out of 7 days (alternate weekends)" and "Permanent; Part Time 4 out of 7 days (Friday- Monday)" contracts at "£23,177.00 FTE".⁷ The NHM's "Our offer" page says "Our staff enjoy 27.5 days of annual leave plus bank holidays" and "The Museum contributes 4-10% of your salary" to pensions.⁸

What the NHM looks for in a Visitor Assistant

The "How we hire" page is direct about visitor roles: "For roles relating to visitor experience, we're interested in how you would interact with and help our visitors."⁵ The Visitor Assistant person specification spells out what that means in practice.⁴

• Service experience. "Previous experience of working in a fast paced customer service role, preferably within a visitor attraction, museum or heritage environment".⁴
• Speaking to groups and individuals. "Fluency in English and strong ability to verbally communicate both with large groups and individuals".⁴
• Wanting to serve the public. "Demonstrates a genuine desire to work with and serve the public".⁴
• Promoting and upselling. "Knowledge and experience of confidently promoting and upselling products, offers and experiences".⁴
• Hands-on teamwork. "A hands-on, proactive and flexible approach to work" and "Demonstrates ability to be an engaged, positive, supportive and collaborative team member".⁴
• Composure under pressure. The "Ability to work under pressure in a visitor attraction or other busy service environment, including supporting emergency situations", and to "act with professionalism, confidence and resilience when dealing with difficult situations".⁴
• Judgement with a diverse audience. "Demonstrates understanding, diplomacy and good decision making in supporting the needs of a diverse audience of visitors and internal members of staff".⁴
• Health and safety. "Knowledge of good health & safety working practices including identifying and reporting hazards, following standard operating procedures and risk assessments".⁴

The duties in the same job description include "To deal sympathetically with queries and complaints, escalating issues where appropriate" and "To support at the Information Sales desks, answering visitor queries".⁴ On the commercial side, they include "To achieve set individual and team performance objectives and conversion targets", "To actively promote and engage visitors in commercial activities including Membership conversion" and "To readily encourage on site visitor donations in a friendly and approachable manner".⁴ Safety duties include "To manage queuing, visitor flow and holding plans" and "To confidently evacuate large numbers of visitors in an emergency, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of emergency routes and procedures".⁴

The job description is open about the conditions: the work is "exposed to large numbers of people in noisy and crowded environments" and "requires long periods of standing as well as working outside throughout the year in a range of temperatures and conditions."⁴

The same job description includes the NHM's "Thriving at the Museum: the way we work" framework, which it says "sits alongside the Museum's values and forms the framework for the way we work."⁴ It names six qualities.⁴

• We are ambitious.⁴
• We are curious.⁴
• We share the wonder. The careers page says: "We are captivated by the natural world, proud of our treasures and trusted guardians of our collections."⁹
• We are pioneering.⁴
• We team up.⁴
• We act with pace. The careers page says: "We prioritise action, are efficient and always focus our efforts where we know we can make the biggest impact."⁹

Questions to expect

Based on what the NHM says the assessment stage tests for visitor experience roles, and on the Visitor Assistant duties and person specification.^{4, 5} These practice questions are ours, not the NHM's.

How to prepare

1. Be ready for an assessment day. The NHM says it holds one for some roles, such as those relating to visitor experience.⁵ For most roles there is more than one method, and the NHM says you might have an interview with a small panel as well as a written or practical task.⁵
2. Build answers around helping visitors. The NHM says that is what interests it for visitor experience roles.⁵ Pick two or three real moments when you helped a member of the public, from work, volunteering or study.
3. Use the person specification as a checklist. The NHM may ask for short answers or a supporting statement about your skills and experience.⁵ Take each point in the Visitor Assistant specification and give one short example for it.⁴
4. Practise talking out loud. The specification asks for a strong ability to communicate verbally with large groups and individuals.⁴ Rehearse giving clear directions or a short welcome in a few plain sentences.
5. Get comfortable with the commercial side. The duties include conversion targets, Membership conversion and encouraging donations.⁴ Have one example of recommending something to a customer in a way that felt helpful, not pushy.
6. Think through the safety duties. Visitor Assistants manage queuing and visitor flow and evacuate visitors in an emergency.⁴ Prepare an example of following a procedure under pressure.
7. Ask for adjustments early. For the assessment stage, the NHM asks you to indicate this on your application form. For the application process, it asks you to contact hrteam@nhm.ac.uk.⁵
8. Check the pay before you apply. The NHM says it doesn't negotiate on starting salaries.⁵ Read the salary on the job description for your vacancy.
9. Have your documents ready. Offers depend on references, right to work evidence and a criminal records check, and the job description adds health clearance.^{4, 5}

Worth mentioning in the interview

• Record visitor numbers. In a press release of 20 March 2026, the NHM said it had more than 7.1 million visitors in 2025, up 13% from 6.3 million in 2024, making it the UK's most-visited attraction.¹⁰ It said: "Over 5m of its 7.1m visitors to the Museum enjoyed the Museum's transformed Gardens."¹⁰
• Fixing Our Broken Planet. The same release says this gallery has welcomed over 2 million visitors since it opened in April 2025.¹⁰
• Nature and Us. On 15 September 2026, the NHM announced that a new free gallery, Nature and Us, would open on the second floor of the Waterhouse building on 16 September 2026.¹¹ The gallery had last been open to the public in 1943, and its opening is part of the NHM150 transformation.¹¹
• Jurassic Oceans. The paid exhibition Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep opened on Friday 22 May 2026.¹² Peak tickets are £17.50 for adults and £8.75 for children.¹²

Quick answers

Sources

1. Natural History Museum Annual Report and Accounts 2024-2025 HC 1131Natural History Museum · 21 Jul 2025
2. 2024-25Natural History Museum
3. GovernanceNatural History Museum
4. Job Description Title: Visitor Assistant Contract: Multiple contracts availableNHM Jobs
5. Natural History Museum | Jobs | Search here for your perfect career - How we hireNHM Jobs
6. Natural History Museum | Jobs | Search here for your perfect career - Home PageNHM Jobs
7. Job Description Title: Visitor Assistant Contracts AvailableNHM Jobs
8. Our offerNatural History Museum
9. Thriving at the MuseumNatural History Museum
10. Natural History Museum's record breaking 7.1m visitors make it UK's most popular visitor attractionNHM press office · 20 Mar 2026
11. The Natural History Museum opens Nature and Us to the public tomorrowNHM press office · 15 Sep 2026
12. Monsters of the deep surface at the Natural History Museum's most thrilling exhibition yet, Jurassic Oceans!NHM press office · 21 May 2026

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