Job uncertainty

cc licensed ( BY )  flickr photo shared by CarbonNYC

I am once in the position where I am not sure what I will be doing work-wise on the other side of the holidays. At the beginning of the year, it seemed like the next twelve months were laid out ready to go. It really is true: if there is one thing you can predict in life, it's unpredictability.

I have spent the last couple of years trying to keep as many doors open as possible, but I am starting to wonder: what exactly is it that I want to do? What kind of library do I want to be in? Who do I want to work for? What part does money play? Where could I make the most difference? What should I be doing now to help me get the job I want in the future? What kinds of job are likely to be available to me in the future?

Some of these questions I cannot know the answer to, and the rest I do not know the answer to - yet. I am living with the hope and trust that it will become clear to me before too long, and that I will end up in the right place...

If you think you can help me to know some of these answers, feel free to let me know!

Reflection: ETL505 Assessment 2 and Life

My second assignment for ETL505 was due and submitted on the Monday just past. I have been very busy and have not had a chance to write about it until now (and can't really afford to dwell too much now, as I need to get stuck into the next module!). I tend to immediately forget/block out assignments after I have submitted them, but I actually rather enjoyed this one so it should not be too hard to remember what I did for it. In fact, I would say it is the best time I have had completing an assignment that I can remember - even though I know that thinking that may make me a strange  person! I know a lot of people had trouble with the concepts - and I'm not saying I thought it was easy and that I am confident I got a perfect mark (I am fairly certain I didn't!), but most of the concepts just clicked, and even when they didn't, it was like a puzzle trying to figure it all out. It has made me realise once again that there are so many paths this course could take me down. I could actually picture myself working for SCIS one day, as a part of the team who come up with these subject headings. I think that I would enjoy that.


cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by B G

I have opened so many doors of late, and this course has only encouraged me to do so. In hindsight, this is rather surprising. I think if you asked me two years ago what I thought I would get out of doing a Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship), I would tell you that I would expect to become a qualified teacher librarian, that I would be better at teaching library concepts, and that I would be able to run the administration side of a library as well. The things I have gotten out of the course have been quite different to what I expected. I am now working in a library two days a week, and am having to learn a lot on the job as far as teaching (though I have lots of big ideas and understand the important concepts like information literacy and digital citizenship that I need to encourage/teach), and definitely as far as running the library goes, but I feel that I am a more well rounded person from this course. I feel that I have learned important skills that I did not expect to gain: leading from the middle, how to create an engaging PowerPoint presentation, how to create an effective weekly plan, and perhaps most useful of all: I have realised that my options really are endless. This course does not narrow my options to fit with the study I have completed, but broadens them.

I am currently working in a school libary on a temporary basis, working in a public library system on a casual basis, and teaching on a casual basis, and I would be happy doing any of these things and others along this spectrum of information and people related career paths. The only thing I know for certain that I would like to have in the near future is for it to be one job, full time. I feel that that day is coming, and I am excited to see what I end up doing, and how much I enjoy it.

ETL505 has been such a different subject to the others that it has made the variety of colours peeping through all those different doors I have started to open seem even more vibrant and exciting. I wonder which door will open fully first...