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jenettWelcome 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 aboutsynecdochic'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.
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.
Tags:
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 03:19 am (UTC)I work in a place that has a lot of books and a lot of things that aren't books but have words and pictures that come out every month or every few months. It also has a lot of computers, but I don't work with those.
My spot at my job is where the new things come in. We get them, and we make them all ready to live in my work in the right spots so that people can find them later. It takes a lot of work. We have to make sure that people can't take them away, and we have to put things on them so that people can find them, and mark them as ours. Once a week we put them in a new place so that people can see what new books we have gotten for them to read or use for their work or school.
My part of my work does more than just that, though. We also take care of all the many, many books we already have, because books get hurt a lot. We fix torn spots in them, and get new leaves to put where people have cut leaves out, and dry them out when they have gotten wet, and we do a lot of other things to make them last so that more people can use them. Sometimes we even make new outsides for them, and put the insides back in. If there is a lot wrong with them, sometimes we can't fix the books and we have to put them in a car that comes every two weeks to take the books to other people who can fix them.
What that actually means: I work in the physical processing and preservation department of a major research library in the Midwest. I do a lot of processing of new materials (books and magazines) and a lot of preservation work on our physical collection.
I absolutely fell into it, quite literally. I applied for any student position in the library because being dependent on my mother was making my crazy!brain even crazier than usual, and through circumstances I cannot even attempt to explain, four months later I was full-time staff and acting unit head for three months.
I love my job fiercely. Every day is something new, every day is something I get to make better, make whole, make last longer, make accessible to people. And it's books, which are pretty much my favorite things in the entire world.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 05:00 am (UTC)The biggest thing I do right now is go to school. I'm finishing up the requirements to get in the advanced placement Social Work program with a Public Health minor at another college about 100 miles from here. I'll be making that transfer after spring semester, and the goal is to finish my Master's there, get my LCSW and Health Educator certifications, and then head to the West Coast to work on the doctorate.
I work "less-than-full-time" as the lead assistant in the counseling department of the college I'm currently attending. I do triage for folks coming into the department, provide services that don't require a counseling license, help our intern navigate the system, and do support work for our director/head counselor. While some days are draining and seem like directing traffic at a riot, I love my job. I'm learning things I could never get in a classroom (my dream "end job" is doing the work one of our counselors specializes in), I'm really good at sorting people to the person or place that fits what they need best, and my boss openly appreciates the work I do for her.
My current eating-up-my-spare-time project is getting a home business (Lillimae's) doing lotions, skin care and such started/restarted. We last did any batches large enough to sell/share in 2004, so I'm pulling notes and having to re-find sources for small to medium quantities of some of our ingredients. With all 3 of us in college, and with the cuts to grants and work-study, we need another income to make ends meet. My recipes are based on my grandmother's recipes, and they've been really popular as gifts and such over the years, and so we're going to make a thing of it. The plan is to Indigogo the first round of nifties, set up with perks so that it's kind like pre-ordering, so that we can get a few of the items we can't work into student budgets, and then run it through Etsy and a website, and some minor distribution through a few friends. After we get moved and transferred, I'll bring Aunt Crow's back as an online resource and an outlet for some of the more... witchy... things.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 07:23 am (UTC)Big finds aren't necessarily the papers of Really Important Person - sometimes their papers are really disappointing, because during the really productive phase of their career they were moving about a lot and not keeping things, so it's only the later stages that are well-documented. Sometimes a less eminent person who Knew Everybody's papers or who was just a massive preserver of records leaves much more exciting papers. And size doesn't always matter: we just acquired and I'm just processing a small collection of papers of a woman who went out to work in India in the early C20th - and wrote regular long letters home to her family about her life there.
One of our best collections is the papers of someone who was probably the kind of bore people avoided at parties, but an absolutely obsessive documenter of a very wide range of interesting phenomena over his very long life - pretty much something for everybody there.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 10:55 am (UTC)I don't have a job but sometimes I do a job I don't get paid for working with animals that live in the water. I tell people about these animals and how to help them keep living. I show them an animal's head, and mouth. I let them guess how long it will take for stuff they throw in the water to disappear. Sometimes I also have skin from a soft dead animal for people to touch. When I am not at this not-job, I write and draw and fight with sticks. I like to make things to wear around my middle to hold up my pants. I also like to dance.
Job discussions
Date: 2013-07-18 02:47 pm (UTC)Anyway: Captain Awkward has a post on red flags in job searching (with a bunch of contextual stuff) that has some interesting things in it. (Mostly aimed at white-collar type jobs).
And then Brigid, here on Dreamwidth, <a href="has a post about retail and fast food type jobs</a> along the same lines. I'll say this: in my job hunt, the jobs I wanted the most are the ones where the people doing the interviewing treated me the best: my current job was one of the top three by *far*. By this, I don't mean they were extravagant by any means, just that they were thoughtful about my comfort, gave me plenty of information about the job and the area and other things I'd logically have questions about, and made sure I had plenty of time to decompress when I needed. (Academic jobs, including most library jobs, tend to be full-day interviews, and they're a huge test of stamina.)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-18 03:17 pm (UTC)Thank you for the good wishes!
Re: Job discussions
Date: 2013-07-18 03:27 pm (UTC)Things we do: send precis about department which includes strong hints at questions we may ask to phone interviewees, provide clear schedule for campus visit, send description and pictures of classroom for teaching demo, ask about food allergies/preferences and do our best to accommodate them on campus visits (although there was the one infamous time we took NewGuy to a seafood place while he was still vegan, but that's why we ask now!), schedule in rest breaks before teaching/Dean interview where we put the candidate in someone's empty quiet office and leave them the hell alone for at least 20 minutes, provide candidate with bottle of water to have with them, arrange to have boxed dinner provided for them if we don't have time to take them to dinner before airport run.
It is still a horribly long day for everyone but we do try to take good care of them.
Which is true: even when we were totally at each other's throats behind the scenes for reasons which had nothing to do with the interviews, we were united in trying to take good care of the interviewees.
Belated
Date: 2013-07-18 11:39 pm (UTC)"I am a stay-at-home mother to two children under 5. The big work is keeping two small people who can move faster than they can think from being dead or too hurt. Any time I am less than perfect could end up with them dead or hurt. I do this for about 9 hours a day on my own, and am either 50% doing it or on call for the other 15. At the same time as that work, I make and clean up food 3-4 times a day, clean clothes 1-2 times a day, clean up a lot of other things, go from place to place a lot, read a lot of books to small people, answer a lot of whys, save a lot of cats from grabbing hands (really only 2 cats, but the hands seem to be many), and so on."
Whether I'm good at it? No idea. Maybe I'll know in 30 years or so when my kids are in a position to have some perspective. The wider culture doesn't provide much in the way of useful feedback, telling me that what I'm doing is simultaneously 1) the most important job in the world, and 2) not real work, and giving me the choice of two types of mom (and I do think this is laid mostly on mothers): self-sacrificing or selfish, with no ground in between...and I'll stop on this topic now before I become excessively grumpy.
Job I have done in the past and hope to do again at some point in the future: working in a library, preferably in a reference and/or instruction position, preferably in an academic library. I have not had a professional position yet (MLS between kid 1 and kid 2), but I worked in a number of libraries as a paraprofessional for 4 years before then. Loved doing public-facing work, which surprised me, a serious introvert. Loved reference. Loved doing instruction, both big (class-type sessions - again surprising as I hate public speaking) and small (helping an individual figure stuff out). Love (and am good at, I think) explaining things in a way that helps others understand them as I do.
Hobbies are a whole other thing that I don't have time to get into right now, other than to say that I'm rather obsessed with plants.
UpGoer 5 job description.
Date: 2013-07-19 05:07 am (UTC)At home: I am a mother to two children under five. I try to keep the house clean and sometimes make food instead of buying it. I am often tired.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-21 10:11 am (UTC)Translation: I'm a sociology of religion PhD researcher, currently focusing on the experiences of disabled Christians. I'm also the social media manager for my father's care home company.
I got into sociology because I wanted to understand two key issues that have defined my life: religion and disability. The PhD drives me mad sometimes, but it also feels like my life's work. When I leave this planet, I will leave behind a very small thing that will maybe have made a difference, because it will have communicated people's experiences and put them 'out there' to help other people understand, adapt and change, in response. (I hope.)
My father asked me to organize his social media when I was looking for a 'day job' to support my only-partly-funded PhD studies. Sometimes it feels like a dull admin job. Sometimes it's the most wonderful job in the world, because I tell people about what's happening with their family who live in care homes, often far away from family and friends. The e-mail I once got from a lady in Australia whose sister lives in one of the care homes, thanking us for all the work we do and for keeping her updated on her sister's life, was an example of those little things that make it all worth it.
Up-Goer Hobbies Description: I write about what I believe and what I do. I make a talk show on the computer. One day I want to write books about what other people believe. I also fight for rights for people like me, who are sick or hurt (when I'm not too tired, and when it doesn't make me sad). I paint things.
Translation: I'm a blogger and podcaster, about religion in general, and about what I believe. In the future, I'd like to write about belief and religion in society for a slightly larger audience. I'm practicing through my blog and podcast at the moment. I love it. I'm a once-and-future disability rights activist - it took a lot out of me, and got me down, so at the moment I'm taking a break. It's part of my life's work, though, so I'll be back. I love to paint (I'm not amazing, but I enjoy it).
no subject
Date: 2013-07-21 04:03 pm (UTC)I work in my house and watch children. They are loud. It makes me tired.
My body makes me tired too. I am sick and it is hard to get better.
I write stories, sometimes about people who never were, sometimes about gods, sometimes about other things too. I want to make things more but the children are loud and make me tired.
Today I am tired. Do you see that?