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I don't think the job market in the UK is as bad as in the US - or maybe it's just different. You certainly don't need a PHD or (non LIS) masters to get an academic library job, I worked in the commerical legal sector for ...god, almost seven years, and no library professionals I met had a law degree (which I believe would be pre-requisite in the US). My advice would be get as much volunteering experience as you can, and don't even waste your time looking to start anywhere but from the bottom. Maybe I lucked out, but my first library sector position was as a 'graduate trainee' in an academic library - I don't know if those positions really exist in the US. In theory these roles are one year fixed term positions for peope with no experience in the library sector, which give a range of the jobs within the library and some extra training. In theory after that you would then go on to do a LIS masters for a year and then get a professional level position, but I think that path is now rare. After my grad trainee position was finishing I chose to switch to the commercial legal sector, in hindsight this was probably a mistake but I can't complain too much (now that I'm out of it). The job itself wasn't bad - in fact I think the legal sector is probably one of if not the most interesting and intellectually challanging sectors in the library world - it just turned out to be not what I wanted to do. It also pays a bit more than academic or certainly public. I got the job in the legal sector initially by basically spamming a legal library mailing list asking for advice on how to get a job - one of the responses was a CV request, so that sort of thing does work - though I tried it again a couple of times later and didn't get anywhere. After a year the legal sector position offered to pay me through a part time LIS masters - which was obviously great as I don't know how I would have paid for it otherwise, but did tie me into that job and sector for another two years, and I had already decided that I wanted to get back into academic. I found the MLIS fun, I guess, and I enjoyed my dissertation (the preservation of video games) but not really challanging or relevant. What I did in my MLIS has never come up in an interview. When I finished my MLIS (and job, which was only fixed term and also ending) I assumed that as I had a graduate trainee position, three years varied experience in the commercial legal sector and an MLIS under my belt I'd have no problem getting that professional position in an academic library - didn't even get an interview. Eventually I got another job in the commercial legal sector, which was to last 4 years. Again, I can't complain about that job too much, especially in the last two years of it I really started to develop some experience that may come in handy in the future, like dealing with suppliers. But I hated my boss, and I was all too concious that my academic experience was retracting further and further into the dim and distant past, and I seemed likelier and likelier to be stuck in a career that just wasnt what i wanted to do. But now six months later I am in a job in an academic library (one of the significant ones in fact, one of the few that is known independantly of the institution it is a part of*) - doing a professional level job I enjoy in Open Access/Digital preservation. So how did I get it? Well, as with all these things luck probably played a part, but lets ignore that. There are a few things that I know I wouldn't have got this job but for: a ) I volunteered around my full time jobs. I had a month gap between my legal positions, so filled it with volunteering at interesting museum libraries. I got into the idea of digital preservation after my dissertation, so took a week's holiday and volunteered at a significant digital preservation project. That in particular probably opened a few doors (admittedly only doors to interview rooms, but still). b ) Most importantly, I got a saturday job at the academic library. Before then I couldn't get an interview for ANY full time job, after that...I started getting interviews. Even though the worth of that experience over my weekday job was...dubious at best, that little toe hold in the sector and institution was what was necesary. c ) I took a risk. I went for, and eventually got a job that was offering a wage below what I'd need to survive, and which was temporary for only 6 months. Earlier in my career I would have dismissed that - this time I went for it, got it and took it, and after a month another position in the dept came up and I was told to go for it. (I still get paid significantly less what the legal sector job was) *Now, not that that means it treats its employees any better - I knew someone who worked at the London Library, one of my fantasy libraries, and they said it was pretty hellish conditions for staff, but the one I'm in actually does seem to be pretty good for career building. And god, I admit it, I am pretentious and I love that I can work in that sort of institution. mediadave fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 21:28
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