My understanding of it at the time was that in academic libraries, b.i. duty usually went to the most junior librarian. Now, keep in mind I live in a part of the world where the ratio of people to institutions of higher learning is a lot different from that in the Boston area. 
Ahhh, good point! Thanks.
Wanted to be: strawberry shortcake
Ended up As: jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none
I’ve changed life plans like socks.
In college I wanted to a scholar in medieval history and ancient languages. I went to the right school, met all the right people, and was ready to go do my PhD and fulfill my dream. I had a well-deserved crisis of confidence and recognized that I just was not ready for a real PhD program. In April of my senior year in college I had to find a real job, since I had completely missed the corporate recruitment boat at my school.
I ended up finding a job working in nonprofit civil liberties activism. I was enamored of it for awhile, and even thought I would go to law school like 99% of classics majors to do civil liberties law. A year spent in the nonprofit trench disabused me of this desire real fast. Disillusioned, I thought it would be the right time for me to go back for my PhD. I applied to the program where I went to school as an undergraduate thinking I would do medieval comparative literature, which was always my real passion to begin with. I even got a terrible paralegal job in bankruptcy law to help save some money. I dreamed of doing great work on medieval epic and lyric poetry. I learned the Occitan language on my own backwards and forwards.
For various reasons intrinsic and extrinsic to my application, I was rejected.
I definitely needed a change in direction. Working for big NYC law firms definitely convinced me not take a stab at law school. I really needed to try something completely different and proplel myself out of loserdom. So I took the Foreign Service Exam. I wanted to make use of my flair for languages and cultural interests, so instead of history and literature, I figured I would try policy. I passed both the written and oral exams and was en route to a career at the State Department. I ended up getting into a MA program in political science in another major university, figuring that with a MA, i would start at a higher pay grade. My degree was very expensive, but there are many repayment possibilities when you work for the government.
Then I met a woman and fell in love with her. Shortly after we met, she became disabled. The US tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib and the embassy where I wanted to work in Central Asia was attacked. I did not really want to be the face of the United States in a Muslim country in 2004, and I could not bring my wife-to-be into a country with a limited medical infrastructure.
So again in April, about to finish my MA, I had no job and no clue. But this time, I was $55k in debt.
I was unemployed for six very tense months. I applied everywhere I could think of. My masters program was extremely quantitative: we treated politics like economics and made full use of game theory and econometrics. I managed to get a job in corporate finance for a large credit card company, and am now a strategic consultant who works on analytics projects for global merchants.
I have a wonderful wife and we own our apartment. I do not make big money by NYC standards, but we are comfortable and have what we need. I am not doing my life’s work, but it can be reasonably interesting all the same. I try to keep up with my interests in my spare time. I have applied one more time to a new and very unusual program in ancient studies and am trying to finish my PhD once more. I’ve been in the private sector for the past five years, but it is time for a change. I think I am very close to bringing everything together at last. For what it’s worth, I am 31.
What I wanted: Job was always kind of destined to be “something in computers”. This would be wrapped up with a long, happy marriage to the wonderful man I met at age 19, own home, own holiday home, three holidays a year, no kids, planning towards long happy travelling retirement. Three cats.
What I got: Widow at age 44, had to sign away the holiday home and remortgage the first home. In therapy. Pretty young to be a funny old cat lady, but that’s how I’m starting to feel.
I’m really sorry for your loss Scougs.
Plan: When very young I was the kid who could draw really well. So, I was going to be an Artist!
Reality: Very small town, little support or opportunities, no discernable path to being an Artist! I haven’t drawn a picture in decades.
Plan: In high school I fell in love with theatre and acting. So, I was going to be an Actor!
Reality: Pursued professional training and career for a while. Didn’t have what it takes to build a career as an Actor! Did not have the advantage of being really good looking.
Also, to some degree due to growing up in a working class environment I have always felt the need for the stability of a regular job. So, for a long time I worked in a bank. There I learned about computers. Then I decided that if I were going to work for a living, it might as well be in the business I liked. So, I got a job in HR systems in a major studio. This eventually led to working as a consultant implementing HR systems. That is what I do now.
Plan: In high school I also fell in love. We were going to spend the rest of our lives together. We were going to get married and live to be 100 together and be in the newspaper because we had been married for 80 years. We were going to have beautiful genius kids and life would be good!
Reality: No kids for us, infertility knocked the foundation out from under us after being together for over 20 years and we split.
So, at the moment I’m on my second wife. She has kids but we only have custody in the summer. She basically sees me as a housekeeper and bank account. We own a house but the mortgage is under water so we’ll probably never get around to fixing up the bathrooms. I’m frugal by nature but my wife likes to live beyond our means, so money is a constant stress. Art - nope, acting - nope, kids of my own - nope.
Current plan: Not to be broke when I’m old. And to have someone around to claim the body when I die. Based on the success of my other plans I’m not hopeful.
Yay for me!
Pretty amazing story, Maeglin. Thanks for sharing, and I’ve got a question for you.
I’m sure that your poly sci masters program with its quantitative approach helped you out with analytics, but do you find that your background in medieval history and ancient languages helps you too? It seems to me that if nothing else, study of these subjects would give you research skills, but does the knowledge itself help you approach your work with a unique perspective?
I ask, because on the advice of a friend, I’ve recently gotten through Richard Altick’s The Scholar Adventurers, and it makes the point that such a background is a great help in quantitative sciences such as yours. As a librarian, I desperately want to believe that, but I’d be interested in your take.
Never had any particular plans, ended up drifting into financial journalism. It’s OK.
I wanted to be a creative freelance jack-of-all-trades, who could write my own ticket, go from strength to strength, and do what I loved and let the money and everything else follow.
Instead I got to be tired, cynical, unappreciated, and alone. I reckoned without the debilitating power of depression, and the poor preparation of an early life spent getting by on natural talent and smarts. The money didn’t follow, and neither did the everything else. I am happiest when I am doing nothing and going nowhere, because then I at least feel some peace.
Absolutely yes, for a large number of reasons. I have tried to defend the liberal arts perspective many times already here, and I hesitate to derail the thread as much as I would enjoy it. To make a long story short, my training and abilities in other areas have been absolutely instrumental in my career so far.
So you are a scientist after all.
Do you at least have anger management issues?