I’ve noticed that most of my recent ramblings involve work. It’s a subject that lingers in my mind and one which I am particularly neurotic about mostly because I feel terribly priviliged to have a job in my chosen field, but partly because my prospects were absolute crap for so long. No other way to say it but to be blunt. They were crap. I earned my BA at the height of the recession in ’08. There were no jobs available in my area, at least not for new graduates with little to no professional experience. I jumped straight into grad school–twice–in order to become a viable candidate. In many respects, I am a classic case of Gen Y or Millennial delayed adulthood. I’m now in the latter stages of twenty-somethingness. I live at home because I have too many student loans to pay. And I am incredibly pessimistic about job security (was there ever such a thing?). I actually learned I fit the Millennial bill during a teaching workshop where I was one of three young ‘uns among seasoned professors and suddenly found myself being categorized as a sort of clingy child with tech skills that wants to be coddled by adults. It was an odd experience to say the least. I reject much of the Gen Y characterization, but the security of living at home has certainly made up for the lack of professional security so I will fly my clingy child flag for now.
But back to my neurosis about work… I love my job but I have no real faith in my long-term prospects within the field. I’m a librarian; it’s a tenuous area if the library and/or institution it is affiliated with fails to adapt to changes in academia. The bchan (otherwise known as the boy I’ve taken up with) is going through his own lack of professional security and delayed adulthood. He’s in the social services field. If my field has taken a hit, it’s nothing compared to his. Social services are tied to all kinds of government and charitable funding that just isn’t there. They are also tied to good management and that is a rare gem among the organizations in our area. He may or may not get a pink slip this week in another round of cuts. My own negative outlook on work prospects since becoming part of the job market make me a poor candidate to offer blind hope in that area. It also makes me go all quiet when the students I work with discuss their hopes and dreams after graduation. I’m not sure I can ever get over this feeling of doom.
marginalia and such 