Sewing and a Job Search

So I continue to look for a job and sew. I just added this nifty toolbar to the lefthand side so you all can access my latest reviews. I suppose it's more efficient that way.

Now about the job search. My problem I think is that I like too many aspects of librarianship. My first love was public libraries, then I worked in an archive and loved that, then worked with a public library as a VISTA and decided I liked that better. Then I worked at Eastfield and decided to go for academic libraries. Sigh. I am sort of too malleable. There are many pros and cons to the various types of traditional librarianship. (Ya'll will notice, I'm totally not looking at Corporate, Law, or Medical librarianship.)

Academic
Pro: Lifelong learning environment, 2nd Masters degree encouraged, pays the best on average for starting vs number of positions, lots of vacation, looks good on the resume
Con: heavy competition for positions, hefty interview process, can be a bit boring when helping a class on a project and they all want to look up the same thing, not the most room for advancement, usually one role (IE systems, aquisitions, reference, cataloging), answering to the college

Public
Pro: Lots of positions, room for advancement, can be exciting depending on who oversees you, variety of tasks, variety of places, the public, reader's advisory, working with local organizsations, newsletter, speaking before groups
Con: Low paying, doesn't look as good on the resume, lower paying, lack of excitment based on your supervisor's perception of your ideas, the public, not many opportunties for reference, answering to local government

Archive
Pro: Organizing things, touching history, not having to be on every day, can still organize activities, get to speak before local groups and can still put together something like a newsletter based on the institution
Con: No chance to work with the public, few jobs, doesn't usually pay as well, lots of minutiae, begging for collections, unpredictable level of work, not much room for advancement, the para-professionals and assistants get to do the fun work most of the time, would be good to have archival certification or degree

Well, I am most excited about public libraries. It's something I am really interested in because most of the time I am a people person. Some days I just don't want to deal with it, but others are great. I know that I eventually want to be a library director and so accepting a public library position is what I should look for. Hopefully somewhere I can stay for 5 years while I gain experience and then go off elsewhere looking for a director job. I just know that I want to be the one in charge, lol. It's strange, when I can younger, I dreaded being in charge and telling people (except my siblings) what to do. I also hated talking to strange people and I'm kinda okay with it in professional settings. I'm still kinda agoraphobic in groups when it's not work-related. Yes, I hate going out in public. If I didn't force myself to do things, I would never leave the house except for work and the occaisonal shopping trip.

Anyway, so I have just about convinced myself only to apply for public library positions until thee end of the month when I will broaden my focus again and I think my focus for the week will be on jobs in the Southeastern US, yes, I think it would be nice to live out there. I think I would like to live in a city or a small town only if within easy reach of a city and hopefully something natury like the ocean or a protected forrest. I've been applying for some more rural positions, but maybe I should stop and look only at the cities...