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

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I just ordered a copy of that book, heh.

Based on that list of interests, I would look into *waves hands* something having to do with collaborative space design.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

very quickly because it's 6am and I am beat:
museography.
that job where you make up the design scheme for navigation through a space - linked to sign-making, like, but not - I forget the fancy word dammit!
information architect (websites and applications as virtual spaces)


might be back with more later... Gd'luck!

[wintercreek]

Not that you know me, but I can't help but jump in and say that, stating the obvious, "Librarian" does sound like a good job title for the interests and skills you mention. As libraries reinvent themselves for the "Digital Age" there's a lot more happening in the way of creative problem solving, interest in fields like Communication Studies and Folklore, new ways of classifying and finding things, and, of course, the need to size up what's going on and invent new ways of meeting user needs.

The whole field of Information Science might interest you, actually. It's one that seems to be requiring intellectually quick and adaptable people to synthesize all kinds of information, extrapolate from the past, and meet a variety of needs that no one ever foresaw. I say this as a second-year Masters student in Library and Information Services/Information Policy (double specialization) at UMich. If nothing else, the website and degree descriptions may give you some ideas.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this - I love procrastinating talking about my program.

[norah.livejournal.com]

Museum work, except that it tends to be ill-paid and hard to find.
Library work, natch
...

I don't know, I fell into my career and it more or less suits me, though I've used that book to fine tune it. Sorry not to be more help!

[cat-latin.livejournal.com]

Some kind of researcher, running studies, analyzing statistics. For example, I have a friend who is a research psychologist who studies prejudice. One of the studies he ran was interviewing straight men on their levels of disgust when presented with images of other men, from "macho" to "flamboyant," and using statistics to analyze the results.

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Just dropping in to say ditto on library and information science. As a librarian I have to analyze and evaluate services and user behavior; invent new solutions to problems and keep up with changes that I never expected; design new learning spaces and research tools; organize and collect resources; and learn subject areas so I can serve students and researchers in the field. There's always something new to learn and it's a field that can lend itself to a lot of things (a lot of the information architecture, wayfinding and museum studies suggestions above dovetail nicely with the information science/library degree as well). I'm also happy to talk about the field anytime.

The only other things I can think of might be game design or anthropology/communications/social informatics researchers--like the folks who do human computer interaction stuff or the kinds of researchers and designers they hire at IDEO (http://www.ideo.com/) or that go through the Stanford Design program (http://www.stanford.edu/group/dschool/) or maybe the MIT Comparative Media Studies program (http://cms.mit.edu/index.php). I know that doesn't help with job titles exactly but it's what comes to mind.

[morebliss.livejournal.com]

Librarian. Come join us! Very varied work as you can extend it out to be an 'information officer' or 'knowledge point consultant' for private companies. That's where the big bucks are.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Well, just to give you some unusual suggestions, I would want someone with that skill set to work on the following aspects of my job:

Conference organization and design (everything from organizing the poster presentation and board organization to ordering catering to communicating with the speakers to creating the abstract booklet).

There was a man who worked in the library at my graduate university who was the administrative go-to guy for getting your dissertation thesis bound and sent to the right departments/copies placed properly in the library. I always thought that would be a nice job description since all those students would be so damn happy to be talking to you.

A lab manager. Now, you didn't list my kind of basic science as an interest, so I don't know how much this would apply, but the psych program is also constantly running studies that require room and equipment set-up, so. We would have a lab manager doing a lot of the prep work for experiments, organizing specific frozen samples, doing a lot of the paperwork involved in ordering and receiving, and trying to stay a step ahead of the researcher's needs. I would imagine that a social studies experiment would involve signing up and organizing the participants. In my current university, there is a web-based sign-up system, but we all get reminders and study participation eligibility emails. I've usually known lab managers to have a master's in the field, but I'm in a very specialized field.

The administrative departments in general usually have a front man for lecture room sign-ups, organization of announcements, food and drink and any meal planning. These events could always, *always* use someone to solve the problems inherent in the system and make it work better.

In any case, in academia and elsewhere, someone with organizational skills is a blessing. No matter the field.

[kitsune13.livejournal.com]

ARCHIVIST, man. Especially for folklore -- they're needed. Transcribing old field notes and turning them into searchable databases is wonderful; they just recently got the Wayland Hand collection of folk medicine at UCLA up out of the basement and online. It's AWESOME STUFF.

Or, of course, get yourself a PhD. in folklore, and be a folklorist. :D

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

This may sound weird but you said you wanted that stuff :) My roomie and a few other friends work for Second Life, and the above (plus your internet proficiency, which I'm assuming) sound like they would all go together really well in virtual worlds. In particular, all of "design of spaces, communication studies, folklore, speculative fiction" seem to map very well.

[old-enough.livejournal.com]

LOL. What a great idea! List your skills and interests and ask your friends "What am I?"

Sorry, I don't have anything to add to what they've suggested, partly because I'm so busy looking up all the things they have suggested for you. I'm actually giving some serious thought to growing up at last, and well, um, you see... your list of skills and interests almost exactly matches mine, so... I'm really busy taking notes here. :))

[archant.livejournal.com]

Variant on information management / librarian : patent searcher!

[tevere.livejournal.com]

Developing literacy programs for the developing world that draw on the oral history and folklore of the recipients' culture?

My partner and I are developing a literacy program here, and some of the resistance we've encountered is the fear that written language will destroy existing oral traditions. Ideally written language will help preserve oral histories and folklore and use them as a basis for development into an equally rich written culture, but it's a valid concern.

And you don't even have to live in the developing world. You could just visit!

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

Knowledge management (KM). It's a division in my office and, I've been told, a growing field. They run the office library, work on internal communications, organize the intrahnet, plan internal training, etc. They work with the Communications division a lot, but they're more internally focused. I work for an international health NGO, but I understand a number of different businesses are incorporating this position. Most of the people in my office's KM division have masters in library science.

[pxr5.livejournal.com]

project manager. You need the social science and communication de rigeur in order to get *anything* done, and the skillset is almost perfect.

Take a look at the PMI (pmi.org) and see if you agree.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that off the top of my head that all adds up to Feng Shui Consultant. Which could be fun, but is unlikely to be lucrative.

[indywind]

Consider looking in libraries, nonprofit organizations, colleges & universities, and perhaps the occasional socially-conscious corporation whose product or service you have knowledge of or interest in. Job titles might not help all that much, because the label does not always have much to do with the work (frinstance, I have the same job title as another guy in my department, "Administrative Specialist," meaninglessly vague as that is, and our jobs are pretty much dissimilar--he does budgets and managerial paperwork--works with numbers, I organize seminars and grant proposals and PR--work with words and people).
Still, you might want to look at jobs called things like:
Project coordinator, project manager, [something] services coordinator (I've seen a "coordinator of information services" job title somewhere and I have no idea what it means but it sounds cool)... museum educator or museum education coordinator or exhibit designer, researcher, social worker...

You might also look into training in architectural design, cultural anthropology, sociology... or if you're not up for a ton of education, seek work as an assistant to someone in one of these fields, which can be nearly as rewarding as doing it yourself.

[lurkmuch.livejournal.com]

Your skill set pretty much screams "librarian" to me - then again, I'm working on my MLS and thus have it on the brain. *g*

I'm not working in the field yet, so I leave to other people here who are. But my own interest list would overlap pretty closely, and I'm definitely finding ways to indulge those interests while in library school.

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I used a lot of those sorts of skills when I was an archivist, particularly when working on the appraisal side of things, which I specialised in.

And of course that's a branch of information management/science, too.

[gnomad.livejournal.com]

Industrial/organization psychology sounds like it would fit. You bring in the social sciences as well as some of the design of spaces, communication studies, and pretty much all of your noted skills.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

I know, this is probably not useful. But it seems clear to me that you should be a (best-selling) novelist, writing folk-based speculative fiction.

[cathalin.livejournal.com]

Well, you wanted us to think outside the box, so I'll admit that when I read List 1, I thought, hmm, sounds a lot like what a lawyer (some types) does. Though law appears linear, and some aspects of it totally are, in reality there's a lot of problem-solving, creativity, and making connections between disparate things involved in many types of law.

Also, that list sounds like some jobs working for local, state or federal government, where you're dealing with policy choices or coming up with solutions to things. You can work for an official or a legislator, or for a department that oversees a certain aspect of government - e.g. environment, human servies, communications, justice, transportation, etc.

Finally, the top list also sounds like what a teacher does when planning out what and how she's going to teach something. So, teaching one of the things on your "interests" lists could work - e.g. social studies or literature.

And yes, frighteningly, I have personal experience with all of these. *g* (If for some reason you want info on any of these, just say the word).

(p.s. You should *so* write novels for a living, omg!)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

O, Res, you are using that book! I worked my way through that book last spring!! It's a great book!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Librarian.
Urban planner.

[nudaydreamer.livejournal.com]

Well if you like fields that no one has ever heard of until they end up there, are you familiar with research administration? You could work in a university department or central office (I've done both) so you get to be close to academia. It requires the ability to long- and short-term plan, multitask like crazy, communicate clearly (especially in writing), maintain all kinds of files, constantly learn new guidelines, deal with a variety of electronic databases and systems, keep people out of jail, work easily with numbers, learn something new every day (seriously), put up with grumpy old professors and naive young grad students, translate gibberish into human speak, say "no" in an unlimited number of ways... it's sometimes crazy but never boring. :) And universities are often desperate for people to take these jobs. They were ideally looking for someone with 3-5 years experience to take my current position, but settled for me after 1 year.