Professionals: What 3 nuggets of advice would you give to a young person starting out in your field?

In My Humble Opinion
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Agreed. College work was so cool.

However, in the rest of the world (even a cool science place like pharma), 99.9% of the work is writing traditional database apps.

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Oh, yeah. Except add in the librarian and the IT staff. These people can save your butt. Don’t flatter yourself by thinking they are in any way beneath you. High school teaching is a team effort, and they are key members of your team.

My three for anyone considering becoming a high school teacher, adding to what has been said:

  1. If you cannot honestly say “I like teenagers”, run. Now. Don’t say “Well, I like motivated teenagers,” or “I like teenagers, if they aren’t too rowdy.” You have to like teenagers in general. If you don’t, please don’t try to teach them.

  2. The two scariest things you will ever do in your life will be your first day of student teaching, and your first day soloing with a class of your own. This feeling will pass. Fake it 'till you make it.

  3. Always have a Plan B. The day you don’t will be the day everything goes wrong.

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Whoops, my mistake!

Do you mean secondary lesson plan or secondary job skills lined up?

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I mean a secondary lesson plan. For example, if you’re planning to show a movie, what will you do if the projector in your classroom simply refuses to cooperate? What do you do if there’s a bad flu epidemic going around the school and literally half your class is out sick?

You don’t need to write out a Plan A and Plan B for every lesson. Just have some back-up lesson plans ready for emergencies - worksheets, games, writing workshops, whatever is appropriate for your subject(s).

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Retail Management:

  1. Realize early on that you’re essentially MARRIED to your job. This job will come first over your SO, your kids, your day off, any extra free time you have. There is a reason why TPTB cater to either the just-out-of-college or the empty-nesters. If you’re not either of those and you have a family, be forewarned.

  2. Be prepared to find yourself near the bottom of the hierarchy if you should breach #1.

  3. You should be a natural multi-tasker able to complete tasks as quickly as possible. If you’re not a natural at either or both, you are going to find this position very difficult.

  4. Never, ever, be rude to customers, no matter how busy you are or how nasty they may be to you. *They{/i] are the reason why your job exists. Treat them well, and you’ll sleep better at night.

  5. Invest in a multiple pairs of shoes with good support. Your feet willl thank you.

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Public Librarian…

  1. Expose yourself to EVERYTHING that happens in your library. Learn the ins and outs of circulation procedures and software. Shelve a cart of books. Gather up requested items. Shelf read. Remember that, in a lot of ways, the people who do these jobs are WAY more important than you.

  2. Remember that you don’t have to like all of the items you select for the collection, your patrons do. But also remember that it’s OK to get something just for yourself sometimes, especially if it’s something that other patrons might enjoy as well.

  3. Understand that screaming people, rowdy teenagers and feces where you never realized feces could go is all part of the job. They don’t mention that in library school, and if you can’t deal with it, you’ll crack.

3a. If you’re under 30, some of those screaming and out of touch people will be your over 50/60 year old co-workers having a fit because they don’t understand young people. You have to ignore this too, but console yourself with the fact that they’ll retire soon.

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CEO of Fortune 100 company:

  1. Be completely confident of ALL of your ideas - even if 80% of them are crap, be so confident that you can convince the board with a couple sentences and a simple hand gesture.

  2. DO NOT EVER accept less than $20million per year, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. If your crap idea that the board agreed to because of your 2 sentence presentation and confident hand gesture just caused a net loss of $50b in market cap, then you are owed even more money because you just exposed the chairman of the board - you have done the stockholders a necessary service.

  3. Employees are a liability. Fewer employees means fewer problems which means more productivity which mean more profits. Start chopping TODAY.

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Coming from the other side, I agree with Flodnak; as a librarian in a school, I’m available to help make learning more interesting, not to think for you, do your students’ homework for them, and I am not a secretary. You may not understand what I do all day, but believe that it is as important as what you guys do. I’m a professionally trained researcher who knows what’s available in our databases and our physical collections; if you need a way to incorporate technology into an assignment and can’t think of one, I would be a good starting point. Additionally, plan ahead and fill me in on your plans if you want to use my library; last minute emergency stuff very rarely helps the students, the library, or the teachers.

From my public library days:

  1. If you are easily shocked, this may not be the job for you. People will tell you their innermost secrets, try to lie their way out of $0.50 fines, steal their most sacred texts, and do all sorts of other things that you never would have expected in a library. It’s a fun job if you like information and books and talking to people, but you have to be able to do the research and talk to people you may not like without showing your dislike of people.
  2. I have never been in a public library that was quiet for more than 20 minutes. Don’t expect to be shushing people all the time-- it doesn’t work for most folks.
  3. Until you’ve been working the desk for a while, people will surprise you with their behavior. Good behavior, bad behavior, unexpected for the person standing in front of you behavior. There are rules and regulations set forth, but really, the library is there to serve the public and you are an advocate for that service being available.
  4. You are not above any of the jobs of those who are below your level-- if they need help, assist them.
  5. Anyone you come into contact with in the library is also a human being, regardless of behavior or appearance. Treat them as such, even if you have to enforce rules that they are not following. Respect goes both ways, and talking to tweens and teens like they are the nearly-adults that they are helps a lot toward getting them to respect you and do what you ask.
  6. Your hierarchy may be flat or multi-tiered- get to know who works in what department, what each department does, and how they work with your department. Friendliness, even in a casual “niceties from across the hall” manner, will go far to making sure you are not reviled. Know your boss, know your boss’s boss, and know what to do and who to turn to if you need counseling/advice outside of your direct supervisor.
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I worked in Architecture but returned to school. My advice would be to people deciding to go to Architecture school.

  1. If you are sure that you want to study Architecture, do not go the route a lot of people do: doing your two years of basics first. The reason is that most Architecture schools begin core classes freshman year. You must take these courses to advance to the next year. Most of these types of classes are not offered at community colleges. So, if you take your core classes elsewhere, you will be in effect, 2 years behind in your architecture courses.

  2. Only pursue this field if you really are passionate about it. Hiring in this field is really bad right now. There is a really good chance you will NOT find a job in this field right off. The firm I was working at closed as did many firms. About 25% of my former coworkers have not found work in architecture 2 years later. Proceed straight to grad school if you can - you will more than likely need to depending on your state’s licensing and your university’s program.

  3. Assuming #2, that Architecture is a passion… look at other buildings in person as much as possible. I understand that the Rome trips, etc, are rather expensive… but I am STUNNED at the amount of students at my university that do not view local “big name” architecture. DFW is not NYC obviously but we do have a lot here. The Kimbell, for example, is considered a masterpiece. I overheard a student saying he had never been. It’s only 20 minutes away!

Bonus:
You are young. Take chances in life while you can:

Try to work for firms that are doing work you admire. Consider alternative work situations or working abroad.The pay might not be the best but you will get a lot of experience.

Travel as much as you can! It is easier to stay at hostels, etc. Once you start working you will get minimal vacation time. Should you get married and have children, taking off for Italy will be really difficult.

In short, Carpe Diem. I know the phrase was done to death with movies and such, but I really believe in it.

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Read & remember: All I Really Need to Know I Leanred in Kindergarten. One of the best moral essays ever, and it laumched the writing career of Robert Fulghum, one of the best modern day philosophers.

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And if you are the youngest librarian/library assistant/intern in the bunch, expect to get 90% of technology questions directed at you. Expect to have bribes offered for you to come to their house and either a) fix their X piece of technology or b) file their taxes :smack:.

You must be an excellent teacher then. I can’t even count how many college professors have announced “Oh, the projector’s not working…I guess, uh, we’ll…:confused:”

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Engineer:

  1. Communicate, work on your verbal and stand-up presentations. Stagefright and nervousness take years to work through, get all the practice you can. “I know that guy…” will save you from more layoffs and get you more jobs and advancement than your technical mojo ever will.

  2. Start your requirements broad and then plan down to the details. Never do anything until you’ve exhaustively mapped those reqt’s and had them agreed to by your customer and mgmt. You will live and die by the costs of those reqt’s as they change (and they will change).

  3. Take project management classes, training, seminars, etc. If your bosses, auditors, and customers can’t understand your tech-speak in their terms, then you’re just going to get pushed around by unrealistic expectations and changes.

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Radiographer

  1. Join professional organizations such as ARRT and your state equivalent. They are a valuable resource for CEUs and industry news.

  2. Even if you want to spend your entire career as a staff radiographer, get a license in another modality. Such as, CT, MRI or DXA. You may one day find yourself working in a rural hospital where the x-ray tech is also the CT tech.

  3. Get to know the radiologists. No matter how many are on staff, learn what size sterile gloves they wear, how they prefer the room set up for certain exams and what tools they prefer, what exams each radiologist excels at. Try to match patients with radiologists. Some rads can come across as a bit gruff and a sensitive patient may take that the wrong way.

Bonus: keep a notebook in your locker/personal space. Document any incident that happens during your shift. Whether it is a disagreement with a co-worker/patient or the contrast media infiltrating during an IVP. You never know when you might have to give a deposition and those notes will be invaluable.

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Hey you up and coming architects out there…

Here’s a freebee from an ordinary Joe:

When you design a cool modern building that has trendy angled windows, kind of like that long sunlit hallway in CSI Miami, please reconsider…

My employer has a beautiful long hallway constructed in precisely that manner, and I regularly find myself having to hold back the urge to dramatically don my sunglasses, like Horatio Caine. The mental image is marred by the *streaks of bird poop *that run down every other pane.

In short, don’t forget what the elements (and birds) will do to your works of art. Plan accordingly.

75

I work in a public library in various departments. My advice will be for someone who wants to work as a librarian, or assistant (in childrens or adult ref)

It’s not what you know, it’s knowing how to find it.

If you like what you do your days will mostly be good ones.

Build up sick leave, you will need it when a cute little snotty 5 year old sneezes and coughs in your face while asking for books on dinosaurs.

If an adult comes up to the ref desk and asks if you have any books on: “Alien human anal probing/sexual assault” - don’t laugh, he may be absolutely serious.