Seventh Salon: What it is that we do.

[jenett]

Welcome to our seventh salon discussion thread. Wander in, invite a friend to come along, and chat! (Not sure what's going on? Here, have a brief FAQ.) You can find previous ones in my salon tag. Please take a quick look at the reminders at the bottom of this post, too. (Quick note: I'd originally said we'd do these through at least July. I am formally declaring that we'll keep going through at least August.)

Topic of the day:
A couple of conversations this week have gotten me thinking about jobs. One was a conversation with a friend yesterday (hi!) about job hunting, another was a meeting of a committee I'm on for staff awards, where we were asked to introduce ourselves (it's the first time we've met) with something we do that we're really good at (work or not.)

The committee is staff from all over the campus, only one of whom I already knew. And one of the things we were talking about is how recognising people for doing things well can take a lot of forms - but it's also complicated, because talking about what we do well is really hard, and sometimes (often!) other people don't really know what goes into our jobs. (And yes, I talked a little about both Imposter Syndrome and about synecdochic's weekly Pride Thread)

And yet, it's really important to talk about what we're good at, for a dozen reasons and more. (Morale, helping us do more of the really awesome stuff, helping other people do more really awesome stuff, appreciating the work other people do that keeps things running smoothly - we were talking about the school health service, and how you never hear when things are fine there, but it's important that they *are* fine.)

So, my question: What do you do, and why do you like it, and how did you get into doing that thing? I'm curious both about job-that-pays-you stuff but also about ongoing projects that aren't your job.

For bonus amusement, last January, there was a meme about describing things (your job) using the ten-thousand most common words in English. (Inspired by a xkcd cartoon). You can use a web-based tool to write one. If you did that meme and want to share in comments, that'd be awesome. (Or if you want to play with it and share something new!) Mine's in the first comment.

Currently reading: Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy - like the title says, this is gaslamp fantasy, not steampunk. Thus far I am generally agreeing with Brit Mandelo's review over on Tor.com, but even the stories that aren't quite my thing are making me think, which is pretty much what I ask for in an anthology.

Quick reminders

- jjhunter did a great guide to following conversations here on Dreamwidth. Also a roundup of regular Dreamwidth events.
- If you want to post anonymously, please pick a name (any name you like) that we can call you - it makes it more conversational and helps if we have more than one anon post.
- Base rule remains "Leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse". If you're nervous about that, I'd rather you say something and we maybe sort out confusion later than have you not say something. (I've heard from a few people who worry they're going to say something that's going to be taken weirdly. If it helps, I am usually around and if there's a thing you'd like to get out in the conversation, but you're not sure how, feel free to PM or email or IM me, and I'll nudge the conversation that direction.)
- The FAQ still has useful stuff, and I added some thoughts about getting conversations going this week.
- Comments tend to trickle in over the course of a day or two, with a few nearly a week later: you might enjoy checking back later if you're not tracking the conversation.

Comments

[elisem]

:nod:
I have definitely done that too sometimes.

A jazz musician friend once told me, "When you play a wrong note, repeat it immediately." Which is simultaneously hilarious and true, it turns out. At least for jazz.

[elisem]

That is definitely a project! Much good wishes on it, too.

[alexseanchai]

Heehee. Though given a certain amount of freedom to improvise, I can see it working.

[silveradept]

Maybe not. Information professionals often have stories that make the crowd fascinated, even though they are precisely the mundane things that you do seventy of every day without thinking about it. It makes conferences interesting experiences, because you get your head out of your normal bubble and you have lots of people saying, "This thing you do? It is awesome!"

Which, incidentally, is the perfect one-sentence description I have for you and Dreamwidth.

[elisem]

That is a splendid short answer you got there.

[jenett]

My understanding from reading http://askamanager.org (which is my standing recommendation for anyone job hunting, working for anyone else, employing anyone else, managing volunteer projects, being managed in volunteer projects, or who just likes a mix of intriguing work questions, some totally "People *do* that?" stories, and an excellent commentariat... ahem. She's awesome.)

Anyway.

My understanding is that it's a matter of reading the job ads very thoughtfully, and showing how what you can do transfers to what they need someone to do (and what you'd bring to it that someone else might not.) This is Not Simple. (And it's harder to do in some fields than others.)

But I'd assume financial aid would give you tons of space to talk about good communication, improving process, managing complicated and high stakes data, dealing with confidential issues, etc. that might transfer to a bunch of other jobs (some kinds of law firm work, some kinds of health care information systems work, all sorts of other businesses, etc.)

I'm also getting to be more and more fond of having volunteer projects that I can point to as other kinds of skills (the wiki work I'm doing for Alternity is going on my resume in the next revision, for example, just as my volunteer time at LiveJournal has, and my event planning stuff. Because they're not things I necessarily do in my day job, but they demonstrate other useful things about my skills.)

[elisem]

Hey! Another metal person! What kind of metal, and what kind of hammer?

(Also, I have huge respect for good financial aid people. Thank you for being one!)

[elisem]

I remember when you decided you did not have a specific subset of event planning skills, and set out to acquire that subset. It was pretty cool to watch. (And even cooler to be the beneficiary of your excellent work!)

Is there a line on your resume about "Can stand up to poker-playing famous authors and call their bluff if needed"? It's a specialized skill, but hey. ;-)

[jenett]

Ok. More usefully coming back to "Things I'm good at"

The thing I'm really best at doesn't have an easy description: it's breaking down complicated things in a way that doesn't oversimplify them, but that also seems to be less overwhelming (and a lot more useful) to people than a lot of other approaches.

I do it with technology, I do it with religion [1]. I do it with other projects. I *adore* teaching, and I'm excited that my job is about to hand me more chances to do more of it, though we'll see how many people actually show up.

(I am not nearly as good at marketing.)

Part of it is, I think, that I'm really pragmatic about some of it: I care that the end thing works, and I don't usually have a ton of ego about how we get there. (If I have to ask stupid questions to understand, fine. If I have to spend a bunch of time making it better, fine.)

(I do occasionally go off and sulk when someone points out that I've messed up on something, but not that often, and y'know, I'm fairly good at not being obvious about it. Because getting it right matters way more than my ego.)

I also have the secret superpower of getting data out of Google (and other sources) that most people can't, and of running sufficent background logistics in my head that I can External Brain for a friend, run

(When my health - and especially my brain and executive function went bad a few years ago, it was really hard to explain to my doctors what was going on, because "No, you don't understand, I'm working on a level like most people, and it's WRONG FOR ME, WOE I AM BROKEN." I finally got to it with "This thing that used to take me 30 minutes is still doable, but it takes me 4 hours now.")

There is tons of other stuff I am simply not good at (or where I am, in fact, broken, just in ways I am not all woe about. I have very cranky lungs, f'ex, which is annoying and limiting, but not nearly the same disruptor of identity problem.) I'm just also good at the sleight of mind that makes people not notice it among the shinier bits.

[1] When I was recovering from the health foo, I set up a website of intro-level religious witchcraft material, both to prove to myself I could do coherent writing, and because I knew when I started teaching Craft stuff again, it would be Very Useful to have handy. (At the time, I was not working, and was thoroughly job hunting, but still had more time on my hands than one does while working.) http://gleewood.org/seeking is the result, and every time someone tells me it made their life better, I grin a lot. Because making it was a rather selfish project in a lot of ways.

One of my principles in life is "Never do things for just one reason, it saves time." But it also has some really interesting outgrowths.

[silveradept]

As a children's specialist, there are three questions I wish people asked more:

1. How do I encourage my child to read?
2. How do I determine/teach my child what is a good resource and what isn't?
and
3. What kind of data is being collected about me when I use social media?

The first question should be asked more because a lot of parents come in with preconceived notions of what counts as reading or what sorts of things their children should be reading and are then mystified when the kid doesn't want to read outside of school.

The second needs to be asked more because I see a lot of adults coming in without anything resembling the skills they need to find work, avoid scams, and take care of the basic tasks of creating, saving, uploading, and attaching documents. Which means they're entirely unsuited to the parts of parenting that involve helping their kids evaluate colleges, jobs, and research assignments. And the schools, bless them, are trying, but can't provide all of the necessary instruction on how to evaluate sources in the real world.

The third question is one that teens actually have a leg up on their parents regarding privacy settings and stegeanography (I think that's the right term for "hiding in plain sight".) Even so, kids and parents both need the equipment to be able to understand what sort of data is being collected from them and how it's being used, as well as the issues associated with having other prior tagging you and providing data about you to the social media companies. Plus, kids and parents need to have discussions about what a reasonable expectation of privacy is regarding social media, and how far parents get to intrude into the lives of their children.

[jenett]

It was fun! (Also, you gave me a friendly brain in a jar, which helped.)

For everyone else, the skillset in a jar was hotel chair, and Elise sat me down with someone who wasn't up for doing the details, but who was glad to consult on what to pay attention to. She put us on a couch, watched 10 minutes of us comparing "Who do you know in Boston" in exceedingly rapid fire Bostonian manner, and we then had an immensely productive discussion about what we wanted to do differently next year.

Since then, I've run hotel for six events (ok, so four of them were at the same hotel: we like them, they like us, it is awesome), and I find it exceedingly pleasant work, except when I have to explain corkage three times in twenty-four hours. (Do feel free to ask: we're not near that problem yet.)

Though it does remind me to go post about that for the sixth of the conventions.

And there is not such a line on a resume, but if I ever get a chance, I intend to trot it out as an interview story.

[silveradept]

The degree in which I really like taking crunchy, meaty, real reference inquiries instead of working with LMGTFY questions and account queries. It's part of why having a library school student to mentor has been really good for me.

Also, conferences see really a lot more fun than I thought they would be, because getting to see how other libraries do things is always fascinating.

[jenett]

Ooh. Which conferences do you like and why?

(Because this is public, I'll say that my favourite is a library technology conference held in Minnesota in March, rather than the name. Work is tight enough on budget that we don't get a big conference trip this year, but I expect to be in MN that week anyway as usual, and I expect to be there. Because it is awesome and reaffirms my adoration for what I do.)

Part of why I love it is that they cap at 500 people, and they arrange lunch on campus (it's a college campus during spring break week) so that you can sit at tables with people you know or don't know and have awesome conversations without it being ARGH MUST NETWORK I DON'T KNOW HOW. (And because you've had sessions and keynotes and things, there's stuff to talk about.)

It also helps that I know just enough people there or who will be there that I don't feel completely at sea all the time.

It also - unlike a number of other library tech things I've occasionally been known to rant about - got a really good track record on focusing on "Here is awesome thing and how we did it and it's a real thing" not just "You should like our stuff, please! Look, we used the big shiny current tech words!"

[oursin]

What I do: I'm an archivist. I fell into this somewhat by chance when I was in a job that was a very bad fit for me, soon after graduating, and applied for a clerical job in an organisation that deals with historical records. I didn't get it, but it led to a strong recommendation to apply for a fairly low-level job at one of the major UK national repositories, where they would send me on the professional diploma course and there was a chance of advancement. (This wouldn't happen these days: these days just to get on the course you need to display a commitment to archives going back to junior school and involving volunteering at your local record office - maybe I exaggerate, slightly.)

I turned out to be very good at a) finding out information for enquirers and b) producing coherent finding aids to sometimes rather disorganised groups of archives. I have discovered in the job I subsequently moved to, that I'm also rather good at doing presentations. I've even developed a certain competence at negotiating with potential depositors, though I don't consider diplomacy one of my core strengths. I really like engaging in the process that makes historical material available for people to do research on.

The liking doing research moved me in a slightly different direction, into (on the side) doing serious historical research myself. I would never want to teach but I enjoy being part of a wider scholarly community with overlapping interests. I enjoy doing research and I also enjoy writing it up, not to mention talking about it, whether in academic seminars or in radio/tv interviews.

[finch]

At the moment, I'm mostly doing some copper work with my trusty mallet and my ball peen hammer, and beating up spoons to see if I can produce jewelry, but I still have my Srs Blacksmith Hammers for when I have both money and time to get back to a forge. How about yourself?

three graces in new guise: science, poetry, and education

[jjhunter]

My working motto is think like a scientist, dream like a poet; education is the way I realize those values in my communities.

In my day job, I work for a science education grant that partners sciences with school teachers to generate novel cutting-edge curricula and build experience, infrastructure for improved implementation of our curricula and science education in general. On a day-to-day basis my bland 'Assistant' job title encompasses an ever-shifting combination of acting webmaster, backup lab technician, copy editor, layout editor, tech consultant, researcher, archivist, assistant project manager, and administrative assistant. Compared to other jobs I might get at my level of education & experience, the pay is lower & the benefits essentially non-existent, but in compensation I get paid to acquire skills & expertise of use to our team (& to me career-wise!), and I get to work with incredibly competent people who are willing & happy to help me grow & advance as a professional.

I got the job via somewhat circuitous route - I'd worked for boss boss a few years back as a lab technician, and apparently been memorable for my attention to detail & facility with coaxing certain ancient software programs to do their job properly. She contacted me to see if I'd be interested in doing some tech consultant work on an ad-hoc basis for the education grant team, and that rapidly turned into full-time work when a different job opportunity fell through.

Poetry-wise, I founded the poetry discussion community POETREE @ Dreamwidth (poetree), and continue to run it with my co-admin alee_grrl. Over the last year and a half, we've spent quite a bit of time thinking through & experimenting with different ways of building community around poetry, and nurturing people's poetry confidence (to adapt a framework from kaberett's excellent Tech confidence vs. tech competence article). I've learned that I'm great at not only thinking of interesting ideas, but also working with other people to get them initiated. I've also learned that I need anticipate & construct work-arounds for the periods where things that I find fun / casual to do suddenly feel like enormous crushing burdens, and especially in such circumstances delegation is my friend. (This is why it's good to have a co-admin - thank you, alee_grrl!)

What am I 'good' at? Articulation. A certain fearlessness about owning my voice that isn't necessarily self-confidence or charisma or bravery or arrogance or strength or bossiness or wisdom or irreverence, but has elements of all those in varying proportions. Listening, when I am relaxed enough (or consciously remember) to be quiet inside. Thinking interdependently and independently, and the self-awareness to know which is which at any given time. Metaphorical and literal vision, both internal and external, in the moment with what is directly in front of me and long term, both pro- and retrospective. Finding small opportunities for grace to creep into my everyday. Appreciating people. Making stuff work, and figuring out how to make it work better. (Software, institutions, infrastructure...)

[finch]

I do read AAM religiously - and you were the one who recommended it to me in the first place, IIRC. :)

Data management is not an angle I had considered, but that does make a lot of sense! I like that one, I'll have to keep it in mind.

I also need to pay more attention to what I'm doing outside of work that can be useful for future work. Lots of good ideas. Thanks!

[kakiphony]

The more we talk about this, the more I realize how much I actively miss that part of my job. We hired a second person a year ago so I could concentrate on grants. I was so much happier before that happened. I think it's because I found the research so much more interesting than having to constantly find novel ways to ASK for money.

Too bad there's no going back now and no real shot of doing that work for any other organization here...

[elisem]

Oh, yay, hammering copper! Copper is interesting to move around. ;-)

I'm a metal-bender, usually twenty gauge half-hard sterling silver wire. I make shiny things.

This is what I do. (Or at least it's a reasonable gesture at what I do, although those are older pieces, and my work since the stroke has gained something or so people tell me.)

[finch]

Oh, right, I saw your post upthread and everything, I don't know why I didn't parse it. Your work is beautiful!

[jenett]

This!

Also, I know for me, I probably know the *situations* someone's talking about (when it comes to libraries, anyway) but I learn a lot from how someone else talks about it and deals with it, and which bits of the interactions are most important to them.

[silveradept]

I actually haven't been to many conferences. There was a technology-related one I attended and presented at several years ago, where I learned that having a backup plan is a good idea in case your co-presenter gets sick the day of your planned flight (all was well, though. Borrowed some of Eli's equipment to do the presentation, thankfully.). Otherwise, I've just been attending the state library association conference, which has been nice and low-key - have gimme from table discussion person to achieve fair board presentation. Maybe next year, I'll actually be someone with a real panel.

I would like to attend more conferences that are about how things were practically fine to implement new shiny things, because a lot of the time, it seems like "We built ourselves a nice space to do this cool thing! You should, to, if you can!" and there isn't a whole lot of "if you don't have the space, here's how you can still do this cool thing."

[jenett]

It is! I highly recommend her work!

(Um. I'm wearing some at the moment, because I just got back from being more formal than usual with one of our provosts. In this case, we don't have a picture, because I looked at the beads on her workbench when I was visiting in March, and then said "Um. I think that might need to come home with me."

It's called Five Kinds of Honey, and it's various shades of amber glass, four amber beads whose siblings went into ritual jewelry presents given on that trip, and cobalt blue glass (though it's much more amber shades than blue). I like this because I have other cobalt and amber necklaces from Elise (two, in fact!) which I love, but because I wear a lot of cobaltish-blue, don't show up well.

Re: three graces in new guise: science, poetry, and education

[elisem]

Oh, I like the stuff about poetry confidence! USEFUL concept. Thank you!

And your working motto is strong and beautiful.

[elisem]

I really like engaging in the process that makes historical material available for people to do research on.

How does that process work? Happy curiosity monster wants to know. ;-)