So, I'm breaking with my usual enforcement of silence to talk about my job, and the only reason for that is because I don't have it anymore.
My tenure with my previous employer ended yesterday, as another percentage of the employees were let go as the result of a buyout. For all the complaining I did sometimes, it really was the best job I ever had, and my coworkers were some really great people. I'll miss the job, and them, quite a lot. On Thursday, the new owners allowed us all to go out to a Tigers Game on the clock, and we had a great time. I've only ever been to two major sporting events before, and the experience was fun and very enjoyable. I'd definitely do it again -- I surprised myself by how much I remembered about the rules of baseball, and had no trouble whatsoever following the game. To make things even better, the Tigers won, and even threw in a home run for good measure. I also got to try some weird stadium food that I'd never heard of before.
Now I'm out looking for work. I'm looking for web design / office administrative work in Kalamazoo, Portage or Battle Creek. I don't really want to go much further afield; I have about a 30-minute restriction on driving -- any more than that and I can't get comics work done. Anybody knows of anything, please email me at fierystudios at hotmail dot com.
I'm also toying with the idea of Grad School via the internets. The only problem is that I probably don't qualify for most financial aid, as Paul and I make too much money, but with a $30K price tag for out-of-state-tuition, there's no way I can afford it unless I get a fellowship or other consideration. Tish, you used to work in FA, but that was undergrad, right? Any of you post-masters-grads have suggestions or ideas? ALA offers some scholarships, but they're almost all for public/school librarians. I'm pretty sure I could plow through it in a year, but it'd mean no full-time job and (sigh) no comics to speak of.
UIUC GSLIS has some really fascinating areas of study that I'd love to get my teeth into, but since I'm largely uninterested in working directly with the public on a daily basis, I think that school and public librarian are probably really not my best bet for a career change. However, the Data Curation MS gives me pause for consideration. It's actually pretty close to what I do already, only adding database building, entry and retrieval, something I'm actually interested in learning more about. I also think that it'd be a natural progression from my existing skill set, and that I'd make the transition fairly easily and pick up the new concepts quickly. Jim? Kat? This is pretty close to what you guys both do, right?
The one real roadblock, even more than finances -- 'cause hell, I'd take out some loans if I thought it'd do me right in the long run -- is the presence of jobs in this area that I could use the degree with. I just can't justify dumping two-brand-new-cars'-worth of cash and a year of my dedicated attention on a degree that leaves me right back where I started from: no jobs for my skill set in Kalamazoo. Anybody know if there are actually jobs for this degree in Michigan, other than U of M? I'm really not interested in leaving Kzoo if I can help it.
So yeah. Lots to think about. Fortunately I've been granted numerous blessings through the loss of my job, the largest of which is the luxury of not having to rush right out and get another job -- any job -- immediately. I have about a month or two to sit and think and plan, and that's something I've never had before. Trust me, I know what a huge benefit that is; I'm totally taking it seriously and trying not to waste the opportunity.
Thoughts, anyone?
At work. Short comment. More to follow if squirrel-brain remembers.
You can get loans/financial aid for grad school, but usually not enough to cover tuition:
http://financialaid.syr.edu/gradloans.htm
Most grad students end up using a combination of loans, stipends from their programs, TA/GA appointment funds, scholarships, and sponsorships (yes, some students actually find wealthy benefactors to pay for their education. I have no idea how.)
As for your financial qualifications, I'd say - always apply for aid through the financial aid office. Always, always, always. There's a lot that goes into the calculation for aid, not just raw "how much did you make last year". To give you an idea, I was making ~38K gross when Matt was in school, and his tuition was ~3K a year. He still qualified for a NY state grant for $500 off each semester's tuition. You just never know.
You're too late to apply for most programs that are starting in the fall - or at least, too late to apply and receive a stipend award, unless they have someone who flakes out and refuses to attend at the 11th hour.
My recommendation if you do decide to follow this path is:
- Talk to the program director or department head of the program you're interested in. Find out what sort of assistance they can provide to their students.
- Meet with a financial aid counselor. Hopefully they have someone who specializes in grad fin aid.
- If you're looking to do an online program, they should still have a program director and a fin aid person to chat with. You may need to dig or spend 6 hours on hold to find those people, but they will have them. Somewhere.
OK, gotta go. Like I said, more when I think of it.
Oh. One other quick thing. If you are thinking about going back for a second bachelor's, you have a different criteria and amt of money you can get in loan money than when you are going for your first bachelors. You'll have more leeway because you haven't taken out student loans before; there's a lifetime maximum (even if you've paid back all the previous loans you took out) that you can have, but there's also other limits. So if you're thinking of going that route lemme know and I'll dig up that info too.
There really aren't any library jobs... anywhere. Good librarians can spend 8 months to a year searching for a job, and the jobs they get are nothing to write home about. And write home they must; relocation is pretty much mandatory if you're a librarian. Librarians search for jobs nationally and apply for hundreds of positions nationwide before receiving a single offer.
If you're not excited about relocating to Arkansas to take a job paying $24,000 per year (yes, the Arkansas State Library just advertised such a position less than a month ago), you'd best invest your hard-earned money in a degree other than in Library and Information Science.
Here are some blogs to look at:
http://unemployedlibrarians.blogspot.com
http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com
http://librarian-shortage.blogspot.com/