By Ryan Daniel Koenig, Collections Assistant - Registration, National Museum of Ireland

From a background in fashion design, retail merchandising and fashion history with over a decade of fashion industry experience, I transitioned to a career in heritage and culture. I now have the pleasure of working for the National Museum of Ireland as a Collections Assistant in the Registration Department. In my role, I aid in the day-to-day management and care of museum collections, and collections information. I also aid with the running of the collections’ storage facilities managed by the Registration Department, and provide a first-class service to researchers and staff. A significant part of the job is dedicated to my duties as a Radiation Protection Officer (RPO) coordinating the management of radioactive objects in the Museum's collections.

However, I haven’t always worked in the heritage and culture sector and am often asked how I came into my current career from a completely different background to that of many museum professionals. Through this article, I will share an example of how non-linear career paths can lead you to unexpected places in your career!

Working in the Fashion Industry

My career journey in the fashion industry began when I was 16 with working in a retail store at the local shopping mall in Los Angeles County. Upon finishing secondary school, I studied fashion design and merchandising at Orange Coast College where I obtained an AA (NFQ Equivalent: 7) in Liberal Arts. I then transferred to San Francisco State University where I obtained a BSc in Apparel Design and Fashion Merchandising. Whilst completing my studies, I continued to work in retail stores as a Visual Merchandiser, completed a fashion design internship with Hybrid Apparel, a fashion merchandising internship with Quiksilver, and worked in one of my favourite roles as a Fashion Show Production Assistant in Los Angeles. During my time as a Fashion Show Production Assistant, I had the pleasure of assisting various fashion show producers in fashion styling, organising fashion sample loans, look changes and organising models for the runway. Some of my favourite projects during this role were working on fashion shows for Los Angeles Fashion Week, and being brought to Las Vegas to work on fashion shows at fashion industry trade shows! Upon completing my studies, I began working in head office product content, online merchandising and buying teams for the likes of Aldo Shoes in Canada and Brown Thomas Arnotts in Ireland. These roles required high levels of data management, project planning and analysis skills.

Career Pivot

When working in the head office of Brown Thomas Arnotts, I would pay weekly visits to the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street. I was fascinated with the construction of the textiles throughout the Archaeology collection. Eventually, the online algorithms brought to my attention a Collections Assistant role in the Museum. Reading through the job posting, I was inspired to change my career from the fashion industry to working in heritage, culture and archaeology. I was underqualified for the role so didn’t apply. Instead, I used the job advertisement as a “career change roadmap” to identify what experience and qualification I needed so I would be qualified for future opportunities. Through this exercise, I was able to map my career change into achievable steps – the first of which was returning to school to obtain the necessary qualifications.

In 2023, I decided to pivot my career. Building upon my textile knowledge from my career in the fashion industry as well as various modules in archaeology, textile laboratory and fashion history from my BSc, I undertook a MSc in Archaeology at University College Dublin. I specialised in Irish textile archaeology. It was comical being referred to as a “mature student” at the age of 28! During my studies, I worked in the Museum's gift shop as a retail assistant. I also completed my thesis on an object in the Archaeology collection. This object was the Ballybunion Cap (Object Number: W.4.) which is a 16th century knitted cap. The thesis, “(Re)Constructing the Ballybunion Knitted Cap: Providing a Glimmer into the Experiences, Skills, and Time which were Required and Aided in the Knitting of 16th Century Knitted Caps through Experimental Archaeology” resulted in a perfect score of 100%. Coming from a non-archaeological background, I was immensely proud of this achievement.

Working in the Heritage and Culture Industry

Following the completion of my MSc studies, I juggled three roles to gain experience in my new career field whilst continuing work in the National Museum of Ireland.
These roles were:

• Internship in the National Museum of Ireland’s Collections Resource Centre

• Archaeologist in commercial archaeology on an urban excavation in Dublin city centre

• Retail Assistant at the National Museum of Ireland.

During my time as an Archaeologist, I gained valuable experience working in excavation, as well as post-excavation. I would process and catalogue archaeological finds to the Museum's standards, as well as provide key insights in the leather and textile finds. My internship entailed rehousing archaeological finds within the Museum Collection Resource Centre. These were terrific experiences to have at the start of my new career.

In June 2025, I began working in my current role as a Collections Assistant within the Registration Department at the National Museum of Ireland. I am grateful for the opportunity to apply my experience from all my earlier roles in the fashion industry, as well as my experience from working as an archaeologist in the heritage and culture industry.

If you would like to learn more about my colleagues’ career journeys and registration-related interests, I recommend browsing through the Registration Corner here: Registration Corner | National Museum of Ireland