Monday, April 30, 2007
Back to Balance
Posted the May 1 issue of Info Career Trends today, on "building balance." I especially appreciated Marcy Brown's pointer to Making a Living Without a Job and the idea of creating "multiple profit centers" to deal with the inevitable ebbs and flows of self-employment.
I'm also reading Leslie Bennetts' The Feminine Mistake, which talks, in part, about the long-term economic impact of women's decisions to quit their jobs to stay home with their children. In libraries, this is pretty easy to rationalize: I make less money than my partner; I'm burned out working with the public; my salary would go to daycare; it makes sense for me to stay home. But, while our salaries may not be all that great, we shouldn't dismiss the benefits of more years in Social Security and/or an employed-sponsored retirement plan, access to 403B/401K plans, more time to move up the career ladder and earn raises and promotions, better future employment prospects.
I don't regret swapping full-time work in a library for self-employment, but think we need to go into any of these changes with our eyes wide open. I can't contribute to a 403B, but I'm darn sure to dump the maximum into my IRA each year. I'm no longer participating in a pension plan, but I'm continuing to work for pay each year and trying to avoid those years of zeros being figured into my Social Security. I'm doing things related to librarianship that will put me in a better position if and when I do decide to go back to more traditional work. I didn't quit right away, but took time to build up some freelance work. I'm incredibly lucky in that my husband's workplace provides family health coverage.
Women (never men) come up to me fairly regularly at conferences or send e-mails asking, basically, how they can quit their day jobs too. I'm all for this, but think any one of us who takes that plunge needs to be aware of the long-term implications and to have a long-term plan and goals (however flexible or changeable these might be). This also points to the need for libraries to pay attention to work/life balance issues for everyone.
I was at dinner with a few mom friends the other night, all of us librarian or teacher types, and the conversation came around to goals. A couple of people said straight out that they don't have any career or long-term goals, don't think they need any, and that their focus is only on their kids and making sure they turn out well.
My kid (soon kids!) is my top priority, but I don't think it's healthy for either of us that he be my only priority, or to focus only on the immediate future of staying home with kids without also thinking about a long-term career path. We can't truly build balance without an idea of what we want from our lives and our careers, and where our priorities lie in terms of both short-term needs and long-term goals.
I'm also reading Leslie Bennetts' The Feminine Mistake, which talks, in part, about the long-term economic impact of women's decisions to quit their jobs to stay home with their children. In libraries, this is pretty easy to rationalize: I make less money than my partner; I'm burned out working with the public; my salary would go to daycare; it makes sense for me to stay home. But, while our salaries may not be all that great, we shouldn't dismiss the benefits of more years in Social Security and/or an employed-sponsored retirement plan, access to 403B/401K plans, more time to move up the career ladder and earn raises and promotions, better future employment prospects.
I don't regret swapping full-time work in a library for self-employment, but think we need to go into any of these changes with our eyes wide open. I can't contribute to a 403B, but I'm darn sure to dump the maximum into my IRA each year. I'm no longer participating in a pension plan, but I'm continuing to work for pay each year and trying to avoid those years of zeros being figured into my Social Security. I'm doing things related to librarianship that will put me in a better position if and when I do decide to go back to more traditional work. I didn't quit right away, but took time to build up some freelance work. I'm incredibly lucky in that my husband's workplace provides family health coverage.
Women (never men) come up to me fairly regularly at conferences or send e-mails asking, basically, how they can quit their day jobs too. I'm all for this, but think any one of us who takes that plunge needs to be aware of the long-term implications and to have a long-term plan and goals (however flexible or changeable these might be). This also points to the need for libraries to pay attention to work/life balance issues for everyone.
I was at dinner with a few mom friends the other night, all of us librarian or teacher types, and the conversation came around to goals. A couple of people said straight out that they don't have any career or long-term goals, don't think they need any, and that their focus is only on their kids and making sure they turn out well.
My kid (soon kids!) is my top priority, but I don't think it's healthy for either of us that he be my only priority, or to focus only on the immediate future of staying home with kids without also thinking about a long-term career path. We can't truly build balance without an idea of what we want from our lives and our careers, and where our priorities lie in terms of both short-term needs and long-term goals.
Labels: balance, careerpath, femininemistake, freelance, goals
Thursday, April 05, 2007
I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want
After listening to a little news story this morning about President Bush pushing controversial appointments through when Congress isn't in session, I've been thinking about entitlement, and the way it goes hand-in-hand with being proactive and taking responsibility. (My personal political biases aside, this atmosphere of "if you're not on board with everything we do, you're anti-American" and "if I can't do it one way, I'll circumvent the process" can't help but be harmful.)
Moving on, though, I see a similar sense of entitlement and attempt to blame others festering among some members of our profession. Yes, the impending shortage of librarians has been overstated. Yes, it's frustrating that desirable locations and areas around library schools are glutted with new graduates. Yes, entry-level salaries in many institutions are embarrassingly low. Yes, these are very real frustrations. Yes, institutions and professional associations should be proactive in offering internships and mentoring programs and broadening their searches and welcoming new blood and....
None of this is unique to librarianship. You'll see the same same "need experience to get experience" trap in lots of fields. You'll see the same rush to live in the same cities, driving costs up and making the job market tighter. You'll see English departments graduating BAs trying to get jobs in New York in publishing; you'll see humanities departments graduating Ph.D.s trying to get jobs, well, anywhere, or even going back for their MLIS, of all things. Complaining about being misled, or that the profession somehow fails new librarians, simply dumps all of the responsibility off of the individual and onto someone else, whether that be the ALA, or a given library school, or the media. While this may make a job seeker feel better -- "it's not my fault it's hard to find a job" -- it doesn't help anyone.
On newlib-l recently, someone posted an interesting job ad from Google. One response boiled down to "I don't have those skills, so this is irrelevant." Well, I don't know SQL either, but the ways in which opportunities for librarians are expanding is darn interesting, and I'll guarantee you SOMEONE on that list has the desired background. Instead of "this job ad isn't for me, so it isn't for anyone," it's more productive to look at multiple job ads over time. What are employers looking for? What skills can be learned through self-study, online workshops, coursework, just playing around with technology? What local libraries might be open to interns or volunteers? What skills, knowledge, or experience are applicable to the skills and qualities employers desire? What projects might help build name recognition? How to get involved professionally? Who might critique a resume and/or cover letter? Jobs don't fall in anyone's lap; no one is entitled.
In what appears to be an attempt at a pointed April Fool's joke, "unemployed librarians" posted this fake job ad to multiple lists a few days ago, and also attempted more than once to post it to LISjobs.com. While creative, this is less proactive than reactive; adding junk jobs to a database intended to help people find employment is less than helpful, and including a real person's e-mail address and phone number simply mean-spirited. Beyond the immediate implications -- we should all know by now that our online interactions affect our employment and professional prospects -- think of the time and mental energy expended in things like this. Think about what could be accomplished if that same time and energy were channeled in a different direction.
Finding a job is just the first step, and being proactive now the first step in being proactive throughout a career. If we're going to continue to remain relevant as a profession, we need first to take personal responsibility -- for remaining informed, for building something that goes beyond ourselves, for moving forward in our careers. Our institutions are nothing without their people; our profession is built from our multiple and ongoing contributions to the field. It's difficult to be proactive in moving ourselves or the profession forward if a sense of entitlement and a belief that we are subject to forces beyond our control permeates our careers.
Moving on, though, I see a similar sense of entitlement and attempt to blame others festering among some members of our profession. Yes, the impending shortage of librarians has been overstated. Yes, it's frustrating that desirable locations and areas around library schools are glutted with new graduates. Yes, entry-level salaries in many institutions are embarrassingly low. Yes, these are very real frustrations. Yes, institutions and professional associations should be proactive in offering internships and mentoring programs and broadening their searches and welcoming new blood and....
None of this is unique to librarianship. You'll see the same same "need experience to get experience" trap in lots of fields. You'll see the same rush to live in the same cities, driving costs up and making the job market tighter. You'll see English departments graduating BAs trying to get jobs in New York in publishing; you'll see humanities departments graduating Ph.D.s trying to get jobs, well, anywhere, or even going back for their MLIS, of all things. Complaining about being misled, or that the profession somehow fails new librarians, simply dumps all of the responsibility off of the individual and onto someone else, whether that be the ALA, or a given library school, or the media. While this may make a job seeker feel better -- "it's not my fault it's hard to find a job" -- it doesn't help anyone.
On newlib-l recently, someone posted an interesting job ad from Google. One response boiled down to "I don't have those skills, so this is irrelevant." Well, I don't know SQL either, but the ways in which opportunities for librarians are expanding is darn interesting, and I'll guarantee you SOMEONE on that list has the desired background. Instead of "this job ad isn't for me, so it isn't for anyone," it's more productive to look at multiple job ads over time. What are employers looking for? What skills can be learned through self-study, online workshops, coursework, just playing around with technology? What local libraries might be open to interns or volunteers? What skills, knowledge, or experience are applicable to the skills and qualities employers desire? What projects might help build name recognition? How to get involved professionally? Who might critique a resume and/or cover letter? Jobs don't fall in anyone's lap; no one is entitled.
In what appears to be an attempt at a pointed April Fool's joke, "unemployed librarians" posted this fake job ad to multiple lists a few days ago, and also attempted more than once to post it to LISjobs.com. While creative, this is less proactive than reactive; adding junk jobs to a database intended to help people find employment is less than helpful, and including a real person's e-mail address and phone number simply mean-spirited. Beyond the immediate implications -- we should all know by now that our online interactions affect our employment and professional prospects -- think of the time and mental energy expended in things like this. Think about what could be accomplished if that same time and energy were channeled in a different direction.
Finding a job is just the first step, and being proactive now the first step in being proactive throughout a career. If we're going to continue to remain relevant as a profession, we need first to take personal responsibility -- for remaining informed, for building something that goes beyond ourselves, for moving forward in our careers. Our institutions are nothing without their people; our profession is built from our multiple and ongoing contributions to the field. It's difficult to be proactive in moving ourselves or the profession forward if a sense of entitlement and a belief that we are subject to forces beyond our control permeates our careers.
Labels: careerpath, employment, entitlement, google, lisjobs, proactive
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Ph.D.s and Paths Not Taken
The Annoyed Librarian points to an Inside Higher Ed article on the state of the job market for new history Ph.D.s. I always find these interesting, as my pre-librarianship path pointed to a Ph.D. in modern Judaism (yup, even more marketable! she says, tongue firmly in cheek), then a run at that elusive tenure-track position. When I dropped out (AKA, when I took my year's leave of absence... 12 years ago...) I worked a year in customer service at a trucking company before deciding a new career was in order and going the MLS route.
So, if you think the entry-level library job market is tough, cheer yourself up by thinking about the Ph.D.s who find theirs so bad they jump ship for libraries. I wonder on occasion if I'd be tenured today if I'd toughed out my soul-crushing grad school experience, but figure it's more likely that I would have spent those years piecing together a living as an adjunct at three different community colleges. Or found a job at Starbucks.
I also always find it interesting to hear about people's paths to this field, whether we're Ph.D. dropouts or lawyers who got tired of the rat race or teachers who burned out on their field. This variety of experiences and backgrounds is, I think, important in keeping our profession viable.
So, if you think the entry-level library job market is tough, cheer yourself up by thinking about the Ph.D.s who find theirs so bad they jump ship for libraries. I wonder on occasion if I'd be tenured today if I'd toughed out my soul-crushing grad school experience, but figure it's more likely that I would have spent those years piecing together a living as an adjunct at three different community colleges. Or found a job at Starbucks.
I also always find it interesting to hear about people's paths to this field, whether we're Ph.D. dropouts or lawyers who got tired of the rat race or teachers who burned out on their field. This variety of experiences and backgrounds is, I think, important in keeping our profession viable.
Labels: careerpath, doctorate, mls, phd
