{"id":20862,"date":"2013-05-03T12:45:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T16:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=20862"},"modified":"2013-05-27T13:06:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T17:06:34","slug":"the-library-job-search-a-trip-upstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=20862","title":{"rendered":"The Library Job Search: A Trip Upstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Library Job Search: A Trip Upstream<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"sarad<\/a>Recently I went kayaking on the Wakulla River in north Florida.\u00a0 The day was beautiful, and I was so optimistic.\u00a0 As I started paddling upstream, as the tide was going out and making it rather difficult, I was struck by just how analogous the job search was to this kayaking trip.\u00a0 Bear with me, folks.\u00a0 I know it might sound cheesy.<\/p>\n

Over the last couple weeks, I\u2019ve seen my share of rejection.\u00a0 It is hard to remain optimistic in the midst of rejection<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s like paddling upstream as the tide is going out. \u00a0The trip upstream seems to be rather long for those of us trying to break into the library field.\u00a0 I keep hearing stories of our colleagues working for 1 to 2 years or more before getting a job.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of rejection to face.<\/p>\n

But as with kayaking, the trip does not have to be all difficulty.\u00a0 When kayaking on the spring-fed Wakulla River, I have \"inaljbiopic\"<\/a>often seen manatees swimming beside and under my boat.\u00a0 The river has beautiful, majestic trees that line each bank, with Spanish moss dripping down.\u00a0 I see abundant wild birds, turtles, and even alligators (which are not scary until they start moving under the water).\u00a0 In the job search, it can be difficult to see the magical moments if you just<\/i> concentrate on paddling upstream against the current and neglect to witness the beauty of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Ok, I know you are thinking, \u201cBut, Sara, what magical moments are there in the job search?\u201d\u00a0 Ok, so maybe magical is a little too far of a stretch.\u00a0 But there are good things about the stressful job search.\u00a0<\/strong> Each interaction, whether an application submission, a follow-up, a phone call, or an interview: they are all learning experiences. They become opportunities to reflect on where we have been in our lives and where we hope to go.\u00a0 I have also begun networking as a part of my job search. \u00a0Networking with my fellow head editors in the INALJ group and other librarians in the field has been hugely rewarding.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great group of people that I may not have met otherwise.\u00a0 So I will keep paddling<\/strong>, because eventually, inevitably I will get to turn around and drift downstream.\u00a0 And I will find magical moments in that too.<\/p>\n

Good luck out there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sara Dixon, Head Editor, INALJ Kansas The Library Job Search: A Trip Upstream Recently I went kayaking on the Wakulla River in north Florida.\u00a0 The day was beautiful, and I was so optimistic.\u00a0 As I started paddling upstream, as the tide was going out and making it rather difficult, I was struck by just…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3708,3860,16,266,4236,4235,3836,4237],"class_list":["post-20862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-kansas","tag-job-hunt","tag-job-hunting","tag-job-search","tag-kayak","tag-kayaking","tag-sara-dixon","tag-upsteam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/sarad-kayaking.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-5qu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}