I worked in a glorious term position for three fabulous
years. I loved everything about my
job. The people that I worked with, the
students, the work itself, teaching – all of it! I felt competent. I felt successful. I had never dreamed that I would be a
published author. I never dreamed that I
would be compelled to research and disseminate my finding; that this would be
become a priority in my professional practice.
Every week, I say (to myself or to one of my colleagues) there is a
paper in that. I love it!
But then the worse thing happened. I wasn’t the successful candidate. I didn’t get the job in the place that I
loved. So what then? I had been wise enough to not put ‘all of my
eggs in only one basket’ so there were other opportunities, but how do you go
out into the world leaving behind a job that you loved? I am not scared of change, but what about
change that you did not choose for yourself?
How about change that was imposed upon you? You are probably saying to yourself, most
change is imposed on you from external source, so how can I say that I embrace
change? Well I guess here is the caveat;
I have embraced change where I felt a sense of ownership, where I have been an
active partner in the change, or that I felt there was a strong reason or
purpose behind the change. This change
was simply too personal and I threw out all of those points and decided to be
stubborn instead.
Enough about that. So
what? So I had to apply for a couple of
jobs? Go on a couple of interviews,
prepare a couple of presentations? So
what? I was offered a job within 7 days
of my last job finishing and I accepted within 10 days. I was luckier than most. I didn’t have to move to a new city, and my
new job had a minimal effect on my family.
So why don’t I feel lucky?
As I reflect on the last 7 months, I believe these are the lessons
I have learned:
·
There are pros and cons in term positions.
o
The pros:
§
You learn the role and you gain valuable
experience
§
Hopefully you proactively seek opportunities to
work on committees, build programs, and you learn, learn, and learn some
more!!!!
§
A term position is like a soft launch or a pilot
project. There are expectations, but
they are not the same as they would be if you were in a permanent position. They give you a chance to test the
waters. Explore the world of pre-tenure,
without actually having all of the pressure.
o
The cons:
§
You establish relationships that have an
expiration date
§
You involve yourself in work that may extend
beyond your last day. Do you have the
strength of character to continue working with your past colleagues? I am finding this increasingly
difficult. At the beginning I wanted to
hold on tight, but now I find it far too painful to see how they are moving
along without me. I am finding that I
need to distance myself, because I need to protect my heart which brings me to
my next point...
·
You have to give yourself time to grieve. No matter what, it is a loss, even if you
pick yourself up again immediately. Even
if you hold your head up high and smile through your sadness. It is ultimately a loss and you need to give
yourself time to heal.
·
A wise woman once told me to place ‘trust in my
competence’, a fancy way of saying ‘believe in yourself’. The lesson here is surround yourself with
people that support you and believe in you.
These individuals make you into a better person and are worthy of your
respect and admiration.
·
Hopefully you learn to believe in yourself and
your accomplishments. In the beginning,
I experienced many sleepless nights. I
was concerned that I would never find success again or find a job that I loved
as much. Well we all know that is not
true. But I haven’t yet found my
spark. I haven’t yet found my place in
my new work force. I mostly feel
uncertain. So the lesson here again is
patience. It is not like I was
immediately successful in any of my past work places. It takes time, and you have to give yourself
that time.
·
Find someone who has a really good cover letter
and ask them for advice.
·
Write a new cover letter for each place that you
apply to. This part I found very hard,
but it is true, you need a new letter each time.
·
Put yourself out there. I was incredibly surprised by the response
that I got, once I did. I was the one
holding me back. I should have been
applying for every job that interested me along the way.
·
Be loyal to yourself. At first I thought of all of my
accomplishments as the institution’s accomplishments. Now, I try to look at them as an investment
in myself. All of that hard work was for
something. It established me as a
librarian worthy of note. Even though I
am no longer involved with those projects, I gained wonderful examples to
discuss at interviews. They gave me fabulous
ideas that I bring with me; experiences that I can share, experience that I can
freely offer to my new employer.
·
When I worked in the private sector where
layoffs were frequent, I used to say, “work until you are told otherwise, and
make sure that they miss you when you are gone”. I think this advice holds true in term
positions. Make sure that you find value
in the work that you do and perform it to the best of your ability. I choose to think that I had an impact in the
lives of the students that I worked with.
Perhaps they simply learned that there was a friendly person in the
library who was always willing to help them.
Perhaps it was larger than that.
So, would I do it all over again? Of course, in a heartbeat. Ultimately my experience led me to where I am
today. You can only move forward and
learn from the past. Learn to be
grateful and to acknowledge your gratitude.
No comments:
Post a Comment