Working at The Met enhancing Burke’s HR career

Justin Burke ’04 describes landing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022 as the manager of compensation as an opportunity and his skillset aligning at the right time. When he worked in DC for seven years, he was a regular visitor at the Smithsonian museums but never imagined working at a famous museum. 

Burke said, “As manager of compensation, I lead the development, implementation, and administration of the compensation programs, policies, and procedures. I manage survey participation, job evaluation, salary structure development, and associated initiatives. New York passed a salary transparency law in November 2022, so it’s been an exciting time to be working in compensation.”

Since graduating from CSU, Burke has had a broad HR career in recruiting, benefits, HR operations and benefits. He said, “Compensation has been a great addition to my HR toolkit.” He worked at National Public Radio as an intern while obtaining a master in HR from Western Carolina University in 2015. He worked as an HRIS analyst from 2016-2019. He said, “In 2019 I went to Bloomberg Industry group as an HR operations analyst and was promoted to compensation manager in 2021. 

A SHRM-Senior Certified Professional, Burke’s HR career has led him to organizations that were modernizing their HR functions. “I love seeing how updating people processes can improve employee satisfaction and achieve strategic goals,” said Burke.

Burke and the majority of The Met’s 1,900 employees work on site. There are a few who work remotely. 

Burke said there are little Met moments that come up to remind you what a special place it is to work. These might include discussing a gift that was made in the 1800s that continues to fund employee professional development programs. Or a registrar coming across a note from Jackie Kennedy about the movement of the Temple of Denur to the museum in the 1960s. The question everyone asks Burke is: does he get to attend The Met Gala? The answer is he does not.

But there are plenty of perks of working at The Met. Burke said, “It’s incredible to step away from my desk and walk to the gallery to view paintings by Monet or Van Gogh to get my mind off a stressful work situation.” Certainly not a bad work environment.

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