Rather than falling into it, I think I was imperceptibly drawn to a library career by tractor beam. Libraries have always been an important part of my life but it took a really long time for me to realise that people actually did it for a job. I suppose my trajectory is quite typical: childhood, university, unsuitable jobs, library epiphany, graduate traineeship, library jobs, library postgraduate qualification, the present. I started my library MA 10 years after I took my undergrad degree in linguistics and I’m happy to be in a profession that values all this meandering – librarians can see that time spent in the non-library world, studying other subjects and doing other jobs, is all part of our career journey rather than a distraction from it. It makes us a more diverse bunch. So far my library career has been focused on online services and web content. I’m in the unusual position of being a librarian that doesn’t answer enquiries, shelve books, work on an issue desk, catalogue or do any normal library things. Instead, I specialise in making web pages, digging up content, thinking about information architecture and staring at HTML. Those times I stayed up to 7am at university coding my first websites were totally not wasted! So what of the future? In the medium-term, I want to gain more diverse experience at my current workplace and to get involved in interesting projects. I’m interested in the concept of job crafting so maybe that’s something that I’ll try to develop. Long-term plans? That’s anyone’s guess. Of course, now that my parents are resigned to me being a librarian, they want me to be a law librarian.
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Rather than falling into it, I think I was imperceptibly drawn to a library career by tractor beam. Libraries have always been an important part of my life but it took a really long time for me to realise that people actually did it for a job.

I suppose my trajectory is quite typical: childhood, university, unsuitable jobs, library epiphany, graduate traineeship, library jobs, library postgraduate qualification, the present.

I started my library MA 10 years after I took my undergrad degree in linguistics and I’m happy to be in a profession that values all this meandering – librarians can see that time spent in the non-library world, studying other subjects and doing other jobs, is all part of our career journey rather than a distraction from it. It makes us a more diverse bunch.

So far my library career has been focused on online services and web content. I’m in the unusual position of being a librarian that doesn’t answer enquiries, shelve books, work on an issue desk, catalogue or do any normal library things. Instead, I specialise in making web pages, digging up content, thinking about information architecture and staring at HTML. Those times I stayed up to 7am at university coding my first websites were totally not wasted!

So what of the future? In the medium-term, I want to gain more diverse experience at my current workplace and to get involved in interesting projects. I’m interested in the concept of job crafting so maybe that’s something that I’ll try to develop. Long-term plans? That’s anyone’s guess.

Of course, now that my parents are resigned to me being a librarian, they want me to be a law librarian.

Source: highexpectationsasianfather

1666 Notes/ Hide

  1. xlovelyren reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
  2. imaginary-dream reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather and added:
    This is so like my mom. If not a doctor then accountant. But I want to be a GD mom. But… well, Accounting is my back-up...
  3. tommyblaze13 reblogged this from jeremysan
  4. jeremysan reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
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  14. party-anthem reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
  15. laughorleavenow reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
  16. scaledude reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather and added:
    hahahahahahahaha
  17. rasuto reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
  18. justaways reblogged this from hassohappa and added:
    THIS MEME. MY LIFE. But in my case it’s BE DOCTOR OR GET OUT C:
  19. hassohappa reblogged this from bigheadedslags
  20. ichrider reblogged this from fashionofthemind and added:
    mom wanted me to be a doctor but assumed I’d be a scientist....say…close enough.
  21. bellelolita reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather
  22. fashionofthemind reblogged this from highexpectationsasianfather and added:
    My father was never like this, yet I somehow still ended up studying engineering…

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