Job-hunting and New Year’s resolutions
In a little over six months, cross fingers and knock on wood, I’ll be finished library school and have another master’s degree to my name. And, since the average job search takes about six months, I’m kicking off my post-MSLIS job search in earnest with the new year. I’ve put together an online portfolio, I’ll be asking for resume advice and doing a bit of networking at ALA Midwinter (good thing it’s in Philly this year; no travel or hotel reservations required), and I’m armed with an ever-growing list of areas where I have library work experience. So far I’m cautiously optimistic, as far as I can be without triggering superstitious fears of jinxing the process.
Wherever I end up for my next job, I want it to be somewhere where I can stay for a while. Ever since I decided on librarianship as my career path, I’ve been planning out my life in one- or two-year increments: a year at UVa that became two years, then a year at Swarthmore that became two. It’s been a very good three and a half years in terms of gaining experience and meeting people and getting to know my new profession from the inside. But it’s also meant that I haven’t felt like making any long-range plans that would require my being in the same place for longer than a year or two. Which is an odd disconnected feeling, and I sometimes worry it’s becoming a habit.
So my New Year’s resolution (or one of them, anyway) is to start breaking out of the habit of thinking "but I won’t be around long enough for that," and to start thinking of ways I’d like to settle, once the future becomes a little clearer.
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