Oh. Hi. You still there?

Wow. It’s been nearly a year since I last posted. Sorry about that.

So, um, what’s new with you?

Admittedly, part of my reluctance in posting has come from the little career dilemma I’m going through. Namely, I am not doing the job that I thought I would be doing, and I’m not exactly working as a librarian or information professional right now. I think I’d be ok with that had I not shelled out $35,000 for graduate school (or rather, taken out loans).

Now my degree isn’t for a total loss. I am probably the only project manager on the team who gets databases at all and understands what the heck the databases administrators are talking about. I’m also the only one who gets the concept of “metadata.” Yet I find the work I’m doing not to be nearly as involved with metadata, documentation, organization as I thought – or as Ticketmaster thought either.

On the plus side, I make good money – nearly 30% more than I would make as an entry-level librarian in L.A. I can afford my loan payment. I can afford my car payment. I live somewhat comfortably. I get treated fairly well – much better than the University ever treated me – and as you can imagine, working for Ticketmaster comes with its share of perks.

On the downside, there’s a lot of knowledge that I accrued with the intention of using that I’m not using. I’ve also managed to do yet again what I’ve done in my last few jobs – do a good job at something no one else was good at and/or wanted to do. Thus, I keep getting more of that crap work – because I’m so good at it. This usually results not only in job boredom and frustration, but it has stalled any chances of promotion in past jobs. After all, if they move me into a new role, who can they find to be successful in the old one?

Then there’s another thing: a few months back, I went to an alumni dinner here in Los Angeles. I was the only alum in the room who wasn’t a librarian. Let’s just say that the reaction I got was chilly. I was hassled about working for Ticketmaster and I was sneered at for not staying within the profession. The only folks that were genuinely supportive of me were the librarians who worked at the University I formerly worked for. The experience was saddening – especially as I was hit up for money as I walked out the door by one school official who didn’t even bother to talk to me the entire meal. The fact that these people – my fellow alumni – could be so judgmental was so disappointing.

So here I am. I love information science and would like to do more work in that arena. I still plan on going to ALA – if only to pretend to be a librarian and soak up some information goodness. Yet I’m still not convinced that being a librarian is the right move for me.

What to do…what to do….