Get Your Career Kicks on Route 66 (06/08)
By Elizabeth Cavendish
For my vacation this year I decided to go off the beaten path. Literally. I spent a week driving through small town America on what remains of Route 66. This trip was a departure from my usual vacations which often consist of rushing to my destination, then rushing around with my tour books and checklists of things to see and do, and then rushing home afterwards. This time, the trip itself was what mattered.
I stopped in a field in Texas to read the graffiti at Cadillac Ranch. I took a few minutes in Catoosa, Oklahoma to gaze upon a huge, blue, cement whale jetting out into a pond. I even stopped in various places along the way to snap photos of old neon motel signs between meals in old-fashioned diners.
During this trip, I hit a milestone birthday so I was in the mood to wax nostalgic. Driving by myself in a car for hundreds and hundreds of miles gave me the opportunity to do so. While embracing my new “the trip’s the thing” mindset, I thought about other long journeys I have been on in life. One, of course, is my career. What I discovered about being a librarian is how over time, and with new challenges, we build a strong personal knowledge base as we continually hone our skills and increase our value. Thus creating satisfying careers.
When entering the profession, our goals are usually quite modest. First, finish classes, survive comprehensive exams and then obtain the degree. Next, decide what kind of library we will most enjoy working in and find an entry-level position. Over time we move on to gain additional responsibilities. We may work towards entering the managerial level or moving on to a larger firm or a more prestigious law school, or even creating our own less traditional opportunity. How often do we take the time to look at our career as a whole while we are experiencing it rather than just waiting for the career montage at our retirement party?
This examination is a great exercise. First, what a wonderful opportunity to congratulate yourself on jobs well done. Also, the perfect time to appreciate how far you have come: from being a panicked librarian on your first solo day at the reference desk to being head of reference, or the first time you tentatively conducted computer assisted legal research to now confidently training other users.
This review is also a good time to find and fill those gaps necessary to prepare for the next step in your career. If you need more project management experience, design and implement a project to solve a problem you deal with at work. You will gain valuable experience while showing initiative. If you feel unprepared for new trends in the field, watch for seminars on the topic or attend a session at a conference. You can then even work on your presentation skills by creating one for your colleagues on how the trend affects your library.
When we take the opportunity to examine our own careers in a great profession, I have discovered that we become even better librarians. If you need a place to ponder this, I highly recommend hanging out and having coffee with the giant blue whale as he has lots of road-gained wisdom to share.
