Tapping into the network

[resonant]

Or: Who wants to help the Res decide what she wants to be when/if she grows up? (Not cutting because I want maximum input, but I'll try to keep it brief.)

I've been doing the exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute, and have ended up with a list of transferable skills and a list of interests.

Skills:

Analyze
Solve problems/see patterns
Evaluate
Imagine/invent
Classify/organize
Plan

Interests:

Social sciences
Design of spaces
Communication studies
Folklore
Speculative fiction
Libraries

The next step is to ask everyone I know: Do these suggest any job titles to you? Do they suggest any job fields to you?

The best job I ever had was one that I didn't know such a thing existed until I found myself interviewing for it, so I'm very open to unexpected suggestions from you brainy and extremely diverse people. (Please feel free to share this post; I'm very interested in advice from everyone, whether I know them or not.)

Comments

[pun.livejournal.com]

So are you an archivist? I've been considering getting a degree in archival studies but am totally uncertain. My under graduate degree was in History, and I love history but don't want to be a professor, you know?

I'm sorry, Res, I don't mean to hijack a post that's about you and what you should do with your life. I just meant to come in here and say thank you for this post because I'm struggling with these same questions and it helps just to know that I'm not the only one. I'll definitely check that book out. I'm always wary of anything too self-helpy, but I think I need to just get over myself and check it out.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

It's an excellent book, though the tone of it gets annoying after a while. If you don't know what you want to do, skip the first couple of sections and go straight to the self-knowledge part.

Other tip? There's not a huge difference between the 2007 edition and the 2008 edition, except that the old one you can buy used on Amazon for about a dollar. Then you have your own copy that you can write in.

[kitsune13.livejournal.com]

Nope, sorry -- English prof, with degrees in folklore and children's lit. But I <3 archivists and their work, and want moooooore of them. :D

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm interested, too -- you make the field sound very enticing. Do you know any archivists who'd be willing to have a brief e-mail or phone conversation telling me about what they do and what they like and dislike about it?