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
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