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

[ilyena_sylph]

My job, in Up-Goer Five:

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.