Despite the pandemic and existential questions about my future, I purchased a house. I've been too nervous & busy getting things ready to truly appreciate the process. All the same, it makes me glad to have stable employment, except for future pandemics. During this process I realized that by sticking with my original career goals, I'd probably never own a house. The contents of this post may be similar to one where I talked about not wanting to move constantly. Those themes still apply to homeownership.
Many of the traditional archival jobs I've seen were for a limited time, grant funded, or contractor positions. None of these occupations offer stability. One must keep hopping around while searching for good luck in vain. Moreover, these workplaces are so rigid and unintuitive that I struggle in them. Corporate and academic work are not a good fit.
Furthermore, it's tough making friends in new places. When I was in Colorado I struggled to make new connections. Even with volunteering, I never felt like I truly belonged. The hiking group provided support, though we never met that often. Going from place to place very year would have just left me alone and confused.
Perhaps I should have gone into reference work. I enjoyed helping patrons out and answering their questions. On the other hand, those positions were among the first to get cut during the pandemic. I also would have moved around a lot, delaying homeownership indefinitely. While it's difficult to speculate, it seems like I'd leave the profession dissatisfied and without direction. Moving around and hopping from job to job may work for some, but it doesn't work for me.
- Andy Out
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Academia Seems Like a Sinking Ship
When I attended the SAA annual meeting in 2014, something seemed off. The attendees were very nice. In many ways, they felt like kindred souls. Despite how kind they were, I couldn't shake the feeling that their needs and goals were counter to mine. After some time, I figured out that things were amiss because I didn't buy into academia. They loved a system that never worked for me.
When I graduated I felt relieved. I said to myself "I'll never need to write dry reports again." This was a mistake. As time wore on, I realized the archival profession was 10% doing work and 90% writing stale academic publications. The processing, conservation, and hands-on work with collections were all carried out by unpaid volunteers/interns/students. When I did my field placement the ASC director originally thought I was an undergrad. The reliance on unpaid, student labor should have broadcasted the unsustainability of a career in the APRM field. Despite applying for every available fit I could find, repositories had no interest in hiring me. Since then, I moved on.
The experience taught me a lot about how things work. Universities care more about publications than the hands-on work their employees do. We always talked about backlog in our classes. If institutions paid their APRM employees to actually do the work, they wouldn't have a high volume of unprocessed materials. The hypocrisy of the higher-ups in the profession was astounding. I find myself eking out an existence in another field with a degree that I'll never use. It was a painful pill to swallow but I'm glad I resolved things.
- Andy out
When I graduated I felt relieved. I said to myself "I'll never need to write dry reports again." This was a mistake. As time wore on, I realized the archival profession was 10% doing work and 90% writing stale academic publications. The processing, conservation, and hands-on work with collections were all carried out by unpaid volunteers/interns/students. When I did my field placement the ASC director originally thought I was an undergrad. The reliance on unpaid, student labor should have broadcasted the unsustainability of a career in the APRM field. Despite applying for every available fit I could find, repositories had no interest in hiring me. Since then, I moved on.
The experience taught me a lot about how things work. Universities care more about publications than the hands-on work their employees do. We always talked about backlog in our classes. If institutions paid their APRM employees to actually do the work, they wouldn't have a high volume of unprocessed materials. The hypocrisy of the higher-ups in the profession was astounding. I find myself eking out an existence in another field with a degree that I'll never use. It was a painful pill to swallow but I'm glad I resolved things.
- Andy out
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Additional Life Philosophies
In college a friend enlightened me to three approaches to life. The methods in question included Don't Care, Be Autonomous, and Acknowledge That Everyone's a Critic. These ideas formed a good foundation for me. I've applied them to numerous situations and found them helping me navigate through them on my terms. Over the years, I've encountered three additional ideas to handling challenges over the years. I'll share them now.
First, seek your place and don’t be afraid to adjust unconventionally until you find it. When a career in public education became unworkable, I launched headfirst into trying to become an archivist. When it became clear that the positions required nepotism and academic groupthink, I rerouted into a medical records career. Will I stay in this path ten years from now? I'm not sure. I sense a number of unconventional adjustments over my life.
Next, if something seems wrong, it is; fix the problem before it gets worse. When I worked as a contractor I was under the impression that my company would help me grow professionally. When it became clear they only viewed me as spare parts, I thought I could work my way out. Instead, my issues there reached a boiling point, and I was let go. In those circumstances, I should have walked out on them, opting for a hard reroute. Instead, I overstayed my welcome in an attempt to make my situation winnable. We're not always like Captain Kirk taking the Kobayashi Maru. Many obstacles are insurmountable, becoming completely unwinnable.
Finally, don’t let the haters get in your way and stop you; use their criticism to your advantage and reset when necessary. This is a further extension of acknowledging that everyone's a critic. It's very easy to become embittered from people lying to you and screwing you over. The corporate sector values profit over employee well-being. The academic sector values ego over productive work. If the system doesn't work for you, leave that system. Adjusting is like rolling up a new character in D&D. It's a struggle to get up to your group's level, but succeeding in controlling your own destiny makes it worthwhile.
I hope these philosophies help you out. At the very least, I hope it sparks new ideas. We've all been stuck in ruts. These are just some small ideas for escaping those ruts. Life is a struggle, and we're all in this together.
- Andy Out
First, seek your place and don’t be afraid to adjust unconventionally until you find it. When a career in public education became unworkable, I launched headfirst into trying to become an archivist. When it became clear that the positions required nepotism and academic groupthink, I rerouted into a medical records career. Will I stay in this path ten years from now? I'm not sure. I sense a number of unconventional adjustments over my life.
Next, if something seems wrong, it is; fix the problem before it gets worse. When I worked as a contractor I was under the impression that my company would help me grow professionally. When it became clear they only viewed me as spare parts, I thought I could work my way out. Instead, my issues there reached a boiling point, and I was let go. In those circumstances, I should have walked out on them, opting for a hard reroute. Instead, I overstayed my welcome in an attempt to make my situation winnable. We're not always like Captain Kirk taking the Kobayashi Maru. Many obstacles are insurmountable, becoming completely unwinnable.
Finally, don’t let the haters get in your way and stop you; use their criticism to your advantage and reset when necessary. This is a further extension of acknowledging that everyone's a critic. It's very easy to become embittered from people lying to you and screwing you over. The corporate sector values profit over employee well-being. The academic sector values ego over productive work. If the system doesn't work for you, leave that system. Adjusting is like rolling up a new character in D&D. It's a struggle to get up to your group's level, but succeeding in controlling your own destiny makes it worthwhile.
I hope these philosophies help you out. At the very least, I hope it sparks new ideas. We've all been stuck in ruts. These are just some small ideas for escaping those ruts. Life is a struggle, and we're all in this together.
- Andy Out
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Constantly Moving Never Really Appealed to Me
In school our instructors informed us that we would need to move constantly to advance our careers in the LIS field. Despite applying to most jobs near my experience level, I never got my foot in the door. I uprooted myself to CO Springs to be with Heather. In the process, I discovered the challenges of establishing myself in a new environment.
Making an entire new group of connections and friends out of nothing is very difficult. At university it proved much easier because we all had the common goal of attending school. In the office everyone focused more on their own families and careers than building lasting social connections. Feeling that isolated brought negative effects on my physical and emotional health. Despite finding people to talk with, I never felt like I belonged.
The nature of the library profession revolves around uprooting oneself to better positions all the time. Corporate stability is one thing, despite being nonexistent today. Geographic stability is even more critical than finding new work. This transience proved very bad for me. I'm not sure how my former colleagues handle it. Advancement and instability in a profession that eats its young is not a worthwhile endeavor.
- Andy out
Making an entire new group of connections and friends out of nothing is very difficult. At university it proved much easier because we all had the common goal of attending school. In the office everyone focused more on their own families and careers than building lasting social connections. Feeling that isolated brought negative effects on my physical and emotional health. Despite finding people to talk with, I never felt like I belonged.
The nature of the library profession revolves around uprooting oneself to better positions all the time. Corporate stability is one thing, despite being nonexistent today. Geographic stability is even more critical than finding new work. This transience proved very bad for me. I'm not sure how my former colleagues handle it. Advancement and instability in a profession that eats its young is not a worthwhile endeavor.
- Andy out
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Here's Why I'm Not Currently Looking For Work - a 2019 Update
Yesterday I realized I hadn't updated my professional references in a while. Despite not actively looking for work, I updated them just in case. This got me thinking about the many broken promises higher education gave me about employment. My professors operated under the notion that a degree could get you any entry level job. Those positions dried up in the recession. Companies want to put in as little effort as possible to train new employees. By not caring about the people who carry out their operations, they've made people like me cynical about corporate management.
I went into interviews believing companies cared about helping me develop when I helped them meet their goals. Instead, they only planned to use me until I became irrelevant. While profitability & standards are important, screwing people over to meet them doesn't incur long-term loyalty. Despite having a functional environment, I'm wary about the future.
Recently I started watching videos about people who expatriated to find work and escape student debt. One of the big lessons I learned from living in Colorado was that I can't simply work any job. My disability closed more doors than I can imagine. I'm like the workforce equivalent of an endangered rainforest animal that can't survive in another ecosystem. I don't have debt, but working abroad might cause problems related to my neurological condition to emerge. Uncertainty is the new name of the game going forward.
- Andy Out
I went into interviews believing companies cared about helping me develop when I helped them meet their goals. Instead, they only planned to use me until I became irrelevant. While profitability & standards are important, screwing people over to meet them doesn't incur long-term loyalty. Despite having a functional environment, I'm wary about the future.
Recently I started watching videos about people who expatriated to find work and escape student debt. One of the big lessons I learned from living in Colorado was that I can't simply work any job. My disability closed more doors than I can imagine. I'm like the workforce equivalent of an endangered rainforest animal that can't survive in another ecosystem. I don't have debt, but working abroad might cause problems related to my neurological condition to emerge. Uncertainty is the new name of the game going forward.
- Andy Out
Friday, November 23, 2018
I Don't Miss Constantly Applying for Jobs
After earning my MLIS I kept mindlessly applying for any position that matched my experience. In the process I became frustrated about not landing coveted first job in my field. It took a few years for me to realized just how broken the system is and the benefits of leaving it.
Schools of information science always seemed worried about not having enough professionals to fill positions. In the process, they graduated far more students than the profession would ever experience openings for. I've lost touch with most of my former classmates, but most of them seemed to find MLIS work. Learning that isolating work environments proved detrimental to my health made obtaining positions in that field difficult. Sadly, the hoops to jump through to transition to a new field are complicated and rife with barriers.
People ask me where I see myself in five years. I honestly don't know. Where I'm at right now is very pleasant. I'm not isolated and I enjoy my team environment. If things change, though, I'm not sure I will adjust well. I feel like an endangered rain forest animal in terms of needing a specific work ecosystem to do well. If changes occur, I'll need to adjust or apply for new positions. Both options seem unappealing. Until then, I will thrive in my current environment and bring the best out of my coworkers.
- Andy out
Schools of information science always seemed worried about not having enough professionals to fill positions. In the process, they graduated far more students than the profession would ever experience openings for. I've lost touch with most of my former classmates, but most of them seemed to find MLIS work. Learning that isolating work environments proved detrimental to my health made obtaining positions in that field difficult. Sadly, the hoops to jump through to transition to a new field are complicated and rife with barriers.
People ask me where I see myself in five years. I honestly don't know. Where I'm at right now is very pleasant. I'm not isolated and I enjoy my team environment. If things change, though, I'm not sure I will adjust well. I feel like an endangered rain forest animal in terms of needing a specific work ecosystem to do well. If changes occur, I'll need to adjust or apply for new positions. Both options seem unappealing. Until then, I will thrive in my current environment and bring the best out of my coworkers.
- Andy out
Sunday, October 7, 2018
They Emphasized "Academia or Bust"
In grad school our instructors pushed for us to work in academic environments. This seemed logical. Many library and archival jobs were present in higher education. Despite this, they left me unprepared for how competitive those meager positions truly were. I kept applying for them to no avail.
Ultimately, it was good that I didn't obtain those jobs. Academia is completely out of touch with the needs of the public. Discourse on academic theory isn't directly helping the real world problems we face everyday. Since abandoning the profession I see how ineffective the academic LIS environment is. People there can't reach outside their bubble to connect with non-scholars.
When I volunteered I enjoyed working with other people. Sadly there's no way to switch to a reference environment without nepotism and years of unpaid experience. The myopic views on LIS and APRM jobs in grad school really messed me up. I know the environments I'd like to work in. I have no way of getting to work in those places without sacrificing my lifestyle. Going back to school feels like flushing money down a toilet. That said, knowing what I don't want to do feels as important as knowing what to do. It will take a while to detox, that's all.
- Andy out
Ultimately, it was good that I didn't obtain those jobs. Academia is completely out of touch with the needs of the public. Discourse on academic theory isn't directly helping the real world problems we face everyday. Since abandoning the profession I see how ineffective the academic LIS environment is. People there can't reach outside their bubble to connect with non-scholars.
When I volunteered I enjoyed working with other people. Sadly there's no way to switch to a reference environment without nepotism and years of unpaid experience. The myopic views on LIS and APRM jobs in grad school really messed me up. I know the environments I'd like to work in. I have no way of getting to work in those places without sacrificing my lifestyle. Going back to school feels like flushing money down a toilet. That said, knowing what I don't want to do feels as important as knowing what to do. It will take a while to detox, that's all.
- Andy out
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