Third time’s the charm: choosing a career in librarianship

P. S. McMillen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Available at: http://www.lisjobs.com/career_trends/?p=96

Abstract

While many come to librarianship from other careers, I made my third major career change to the profession after a somewhat atypical process. I made myself the subject of a formal assessment process while completing a certificate program in career counseling. One of the first things we learned in the career counseling program is that most people take essentially an opportunistic path to their various jobs and careers, e.g., you know someone who does something that sounds sort of interesting, or someone knows someone else who needs someone… It’s often a very generic process and is, in fact, why so many people end up doing jobs that are not a good match for their temperament, interests, and skills. I quickly realized that I was one of those people who had more or less stumbled into my previous careers.