jobs – just moving along like everyone else

agingwunderkind:

raspberryrose6:

Absolutely 😃

I’m passionate about my work and enjoy it immensely. It is incredible to work hands-on with original documents day to day, ensuring their survival into the future and communing with the hands and minds that created those documents and held them before yours. You find the doodles of a bored young scribe in the margins of an illuminated Medieval Psalter…pocket diaries kept by soldiers in the trenches of WW1…letters from scorned lovers…thumb prints on seals. Your heart beats just a little faster at those moments.

The other aspect of the job that delights me is that, as an Archivist, I work to Make Things Neat. That is very satisfying to me. You really need to be a tidy person, in both your physical surroundings and in your own mind, to be an Archivist, as you need to run a tight ship and keep everything in order. It’s not always easy when you’re dealing with huge volumes of material, but it’s a beautiful thing to make order out of chaos. Quite often people deposit large quantities of documents in a right old mess. It also helps if you love stationary and enjoy packaging things nicely! Brass paperclips, acid-free boxes and unbleached cotton tape are the tools of the trade, and there’s a purity to that aesthetic that calms my soul.

To get a place on one of the Masters courses in Archiving, you need an undergraduate degree (mine was in Ancient and Medieval History, but other subjects are acceptable so long as you can prove you genuinely love History) and some work experience in the sector to prove your commitment. Back when I was applying for the Masters, they required a year of experience, paid or unpaid, but I think they’re less strict on that now. I literally wrote to all the Archives I could physically get to and asked for experience, and went to a variety of placements through the year, some paid and some unpaid.

The Archives Masters are available at a handful of universities across the U.K., and I went to UCL. I’d definitely recommend it. My qualification was in Archives and Records Management which means I’m also qualified as a Records Manager, but the title and content of the Masters courses vary. After you complete the course and qualify, you can apply for professional level positions.

I now work in a Local Government (County) Archive which means I curate the historical records of a specific geographical area. Day to day, my work is very varied and involves a range of activities. Typical tasks are:

-taking in records from members of the public who wish to deposit them with us
-accessioning those records which means assigning reference codes, packaging and quick-listing them
-cataloguing them which means a more in-depth study of their origin, context and content
-publishing catalogues in hard copy and online via our electronic software
-contributing articles/blog posts/preparing catalogues for our website
-I do a lot of the social media work for my workplace so I organise content for that to go up on a daily basis. I’ve set up Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and it’s good to see our following grow on our various channels.
-Ingesting catalogues and scanned images of the documents in them, into our digital preservation software. Archivists also need to be technologically savvy these days; I have a digital strongroom that mirrors my physical one. Digital archives are archives too! #equality 😉
-managing volunteers, which means organising projects for them and supervising/assisting with those. Plus baking them cake at least twice a year to say thank you!
-dealing with enquiries from the public via telephone, face to face, letter and email, which requires research skills
-trouble-shooting! For example, inevitably, with miles and miles and miles of archives, occasionally a sheet of paper here or there is misplaced and finding it is A Thing!
-copyright enquiries. If people want to publish images from our archives, we have to research ownership of both the documents and their copyright. It’s complicated! Copyright is something we’re trained on whilst qualifying.
-work experience students come and go throughout the year, as-like you-they want to know more about what I do and need pre-course experience.
-preservation work. I work with a conservator but I’m in charge of the preservation of our archives. It’s like this: the conservator is the surgeon and I’m the GP. He does the surgery where needed but I ensure the daily comfort of my ‘patients’!
-exhibitions. These are always going on in branch as well as for special events, to which we bring travelling exhibitions with us.
-outreach, which can mean many things but a key example would be giving talks to groups who want to learn more about the Archive or about a specific element of local history. Can be scary but it’s also fun to share your passion and tell people all about the Precious Things you look after.

I could go on but this is already way too long and I think this is enough detail to give you a taster! Good luck if you decide to go into Archives as a career, it’s fab 💕

My original chosen profession. Xoxox

porcupine-girl:

ryukodragon:

drcalvin:

kleenexwoman:

johanirae:

dreadpirateekre:

ok so let’s talk a bit about jobs vs passion. my last fulltime job was at a big game development studio; the kind of job you’re (supposedly) passionate about. most of my colleagues adored the games we made, and so they didn’t care that the company had a major diversity problem, that our salaries were below average, that we didn’t get overtime compensation yet stayed ‘til 11PM more often than what’s healthy, and that the company promoted an unhealthy alcohol culture. because we were passionate. this was the kind of job you grow up dreaming about; don’t go throwing it away because some colleagues are harrassing you or because you get no recognition for your efforts!

for more than a year I was tired. stressed. in constant pain. my anxiety was through the roof. I worked on these “dream projects” and I felt dead inside.

when I quit that job I started freelancing as a writer. I got some really good jobs. I also got a bunch of small-time, low-paid, “hey at least your name is on it so isn’t it enough to pay 10$ for this text?” kind of jobs.

with the typical millenial housing situation of an apartment that I could barely afford on a fulltime pay and a constant stream of job offers that were underpaid I spent four months doing what I love, while constantly overwhelmed by stress. my insomnia got really bad, and when I managed to fall asleep I would dream about my bank balance. I would dream of losing whatever stability I had left in my life, simply because I couldn’t afford a “normal adult life”.

and so, today I got a job. it’s a fairly standard QA job at a medium sized game development studio. unlike any other game companies I’ve been at they offer humane working conditions. they don’t expect me to show up too early and stay too late because I’m passionate. the hours are nine to five, and they disapprove of overtime. the pay is slightly above average, and I get health benefits. I’ve been through several interviews, and at no point has someone tried to belittle my career or tried to convince me to work for less than I’m worth.

for the first time in many years of my career, I’m happy. I’m at ease. I applied for this job because I wanted to get away from the passionate part of the industry. I wanted a job where I could go home at five and dedicate my freetime to my own writing projects. I wanted to work at a place that didn’t eat my heart and soul and energy as I contributed to projects that wouldn’t even bear my name in the end credits.

so what I’m trying to say is that there’s nothing wrong with having a “normal” job. you’re not giving up on your dreams if you take a job outside your main interests. if it offers stability in your life, it’s enough.

This really resonates with me because I left the architectural industry last year. The hours were unreasonable, work stressful and devolved into the new projects filling me with dread. My boss kept hinting I wasn’t doing enough, I wasn’t passionate enough… I finally left, and after a difficult half year, I finally found a job outside the industry. It is not a dream job, and it is not where my passion lies, but the work lets breathe. And I tell you, I now value “breathing” over “making my dream come true” any day.

if you have a job that you can do reasonably well without intense stress and leave at the office when you leave, you can actually spend as much free time as you like Making Your Dream Happen

like, yeah, you can settle down in a cafe on sundays and write your novel, because you have that time carved out and you can afford it. you can put extra money towards materials for your sculpting project. save up for a kiln or fancy paints or whatever. get a gopro and convince your friends to act in your arthouse zombie movie on the weekend because it’ll be fun.

dreams can be dreamed on many levels. jobs only have to be successful on one level, and that is the level where you make enough money to live your goddamn life.

Work to live, don’t live to work.

To all my followers who want to write, animate, and create – this is very real and true! Please take note!!

Academia is really bad about this. “Passionate” is conflated with “willing to work 60-70 hours/week, move anywhere in the country for a new job once a year, live apart from your significant other for years at a time, put your family life on hold, etc etc.” If you’re not willing to do all that, you just don’t want it badly enough. Fuck that. Fuck any employer who thinks that way.