manager

project manager

project administrator

innovation manager

3d creative designer

Aquarium

The National Aquarium is large and offers a wide variety of aquatic life. They are concerned with conservation and environmental awareness, and take responsibility for educating guests about aquatic life and the steps we as humans can take to help preserve our environment and its animals. Education and excellent customer service are the National Aquarium's top priorities, followed closely by entertainment.
Because the National Aquarium is so large and endeavors so many achievements, they as a company are comprised of an overwhelming amount of departments and staff, including but not limited to: Visitor Services, Custodial, Admissions, Membership, Education, Volunteers, Marine Biology, Marine Mammals, Security, Marketing, Immersion Tours, Catered Events, IT, Facilities, Human Resources, Partners (partnering companies including the gift shop, Sharpshooters and the Harbor Market Kitchen), animal vets, researchers and more. Because the Aquarium requires such a wide range of skill sets and interests, it is mentally, ethnically, ethically, monetarily and physically diverse.
Working at the National Aquarium, I've learned patience, how to polish my communication skills and how to adapt to new situations.
Just as the National Aquarium's aquatic life, guests and departments are diverse, the people within my department are diverse as well. Visitor Services staff are comprised of either elderly men and women who have retired from their careers and work at the Aquarium to make a little pocket money and keep busy, or youth in high school and college who appreciate the Aquarium's flexible staffing schedule. The Aquarium supports education and is therefore willing to work with staff around their school schedules; even if some students have to be gone from work for months at a time. As this benefit is difficult for students to find, it is a highly valued aspect of working at the National Aquarium. Within this department there is an extreme range of personalities, communicating styles and thought processes.

The National Aquarium is surprisingly disorganized. During the interview the company culture/environment was hyped up. I was led to believe they were the most technologically advanced in the field and a orginzation interested in helping the world. This was not the case. Bottom line was always Ticket Sales. Those are the only numbers that mattered.

Working in the IT department, I got to see the inner workings of the organization. I found they didn't run updates on computers or servers. Most of the critical systems were grossly outdated, misconfigured, and mismanaged. Even the life support system responsible for the animal exhibits was an HVAC system not designed for that purpose. This led to stressful workplace for NON-IT employees which manifested itself into avoidable and daily reoccurring issues.

Management would have been helpful but they didn't even know what they required. Management would rely on very expensive consultants to tell them what they already knew, but would not take the sound advice from current employees. As a result the organization wasted lots of money on tech consultants, HR consultants, marketing firms,web design firms, and on equipment they already had.

Departments would spend whatever money they saw fit. There was a budget but no one followed it. For instance there was a proposal nearly finalized that would have spent $140,000 on a file storage server. The problem is this proposal was being drawn up by another department with no information passed onto IT. We already had a file storage server that would costs us about $120,000 less to add storage to accommodate the organization.

After only a couple of years of this, my patience finally wore thin. I enjoy working efficiently and effectively. The national aquarium hindered my ability to do just that. The best part of working there was lunch with the dolphins. The worst part of working there not having tools in the IT department. I had to borrow tools on a daily basis. I had to nag my boss the CTO for screwdrivers and a multi toolset, shock proof cases for company phones, and lots of other stuff.

Engaging with thousands of visitors on a daily basis, teaching them about the variety of animals we have. Participating in Animal Encounters, giving the visitors a meet and greet with an animal or two. It is truly a great place to work when you are talking with the visitors answering questions, making their day a little better. I have learned so much in my time at the aquarium, i absorbed so much from them about animal care, and husbandry. I've learned how to give presentations and handle a variety of animals. Some of my co-workers are like family. when i started it was like i was leaving home to not head to work, but to head to my second home. I had so much pride in it, and loved to show people my home, tell them what they were going to find. It was great! The hardest part of the job is not only running around, dealing with unhappy people, but dealing with change. New executives come in and want to change everything, making it hard to adjust turning a second home into a corporate mad house. The most enjoyable part of the job is playing with the dolphins or having your own personal behind the scene encounter with an animal you never touched...like an octopus or dolphin or shark. It is amazing when you have co-workers who are willing to share something special as a play session with an animal they work with every day.

At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, a typical work day would consist of maintenance, feedings, record keeping, and a daily session of learning about filtration. I also learned how to prepare food for the different exhibit animals. The mornings were pretty empty until it got closer to afternoon. The number of visitors would increase greatly during the early afternoon, especially on Fridays. The management was down to earth. They were not condescending or overly bossy. The co workers shared similar attitudes, although few were less positive than others. I didn't spend much time with the other workers, but I did get to play Scattergories with them during lunch. The most enjoyable part of the job was feeding the exhibit animals in the Amazon River section. It was a welcome challenge when I was trying to feed the freshwater rays, feeding the aggressive Arowana, and avoiding the caimans in the exhibit. The hardest part of the job was trying to feed one of the small spotted rays. The paddle on the end of the pole wasn't securely place, so it was difficult to keep the ray on. Feeding it was made  even more difficult when the big turtles blocked the way.

Working as a sales photographer for the National Aquarium was a very unique experience. In the beginning, I enjoyed working in my field of photography and getting to do it everyday. I learned how to work with different cameras as well as different editing programs. I also enjoyed working with my coworkers who made the experience greater. The hardest part of the job was dealing with the large crowds  which oftentimes resulted in unhappy guests and costumers which made doing the work a lot harder. At times ,days and schedules were unorganized which would lead to semi chaotic work days, which led to longer shifts. In the beginning I had at least three days out of the week off, but as time went on, I was scheduled off less and less, and requesting to have time off was pretty hard to do. The pay wasn't as much as I thought it would be especially for everything we were required to do. We were often short on staff due to people quitting or getting fired, but they were swiftly replaced with new employees. It was definitely a revolving door of employees in the few short months I was employed there; it was hard to get people to stay.

This was a good transition from jobs like babysitting and mowing lawns. It’s a practice job for young people, for how to handle work problems and interact with peers before moving on to a career or more serious job. It’s also a good job for retirees, or anyone looking for supplemental income.
The pay was decent for the groups described above. It was not a livable wage, but a modest income for young people still living with family, or older people who also have a pension or other income.
While I worked there, certain management engaged in unprofessional or unethical behavior, or made personally-motivated decision in regard to their employees, for example firing or writing up staff they didn’t personally like. This trend was made clear because some staff were held to a different standard than others. It’s been a long time since I worked there, however, and I don’t know how management or the environment in general may have changed.
With this job, I learned both how to conduct myself and how not to conduct myself.

Sure, the exciting idea of working around fish and being the best you can be with customer service sounds ideal during your interview process, but once you begin working it's a different story. You would have to be in a certain department if you'd like to be ANYWHERE near the fish. You might get a chance to see them if you go on a break, but by the time you get your break, you are only going to wanna sit down and rest your feet from standing up the entire time.

Majority of the supervising team like to mostly gossip alongside each other, which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact they felt we were disturbing them whenever we needed their attention. Not only that, but they would often feel bothered when we need their immediate attention when a problem occurs with a guest.  The same for the manager team as well. They don't really wish to be disturbed unless it's extremely dire.

I guess the only good thing about the place would be the pay and the free membership.

Things may be better if you are non exempt and hourly.  But if you are exempt and salary...you have to finish all the work that was not completed by others, you rarely get any lunch or are working thru it, and you are constantly on call and do not get compensated for it like other institutions.  So plan on working 50+ hours per week.
It''s a great place to gain some animal experience fast, but don't intent to stand long.  The only good thing is the benefits.  But then you have to decide what  you are willing to give up do much to get them.  Often, when you have a lot of time off, you can't take it because you are too busy or too many animal issues come up.
They keep advertising the workplace rating.  But that was bogus to start, never spoke to animal care staff, just office and msnagement, etc.  And it is out dated, so not valid anymore if you are using that to sway your decision at all.
I liked working downtown and being near the harbor.  But parking is a HUGE and COSTLY issue.

In the education department we would all come in decide which areas we wanted to educate in that day and get to it. The best part is it was work but it didn't feel like it. We spoke to sometimes close to a thousand people per day (in the summer) and all those interactions were like food for the soul. You just talked about animals, showed animals, and give presentations. The main emphasis being conservation of course and how to protect these animals. Everyone including management was always so positive, so you could come in feeling bad and leave at the end of the day feeling great! The hardest part of the job was leaving, because the staff become like a second family. The best part was also the staff and of course tons of different animals. The National Aquarium cares for their employees and make sure that it is known with events all the time for staff appreciation. Like most of the staff you come in not knowing how long you'll  stay and end up staying there for a long time making it your career.

If you want to gain experience learning animal husbandry, then I would do so, then move on.  This is not a company that values long term loyalty out of its employees.  The "leadership" here needs leadership help.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians, if you know what I mean.  Animal care staff are paid average across the board, but they devote too few staff to get the animal care jobs done.  They would rather hire tons of marketing and other "management office" people instead.  Not sure if they realize they are managing an animal facility.  

The husbandry and animal health staff really care!!  It's a shame they are not better rewarded for their efforts.  The National Aquarium used to be on one of the top aquariums...NOT ANY MORE!!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Manager 4 salaries reported	$53,000 per year
Project manager 3 salaries reported	$51,000 per year
Project administrator 1 salary reported	$46,500 per year
Innovation manager 1 salary reported	$71,500 per year
3d creative designer 1 salary reported	$63,000 per year

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