Nora- I cannot tell you how much I relate to your story. Even being encouraged to get a Master's I am reluctant, because I feel it will make me overqualified. But you up and moved to New Orleans. And, like me, you are probably not actually suited to office work, and it is going to be great for you there!

ETA: I have been actually told by supervisors that I should not work so hard or fast, because I would never fit in in University culture, where everything was slow, and not that well done!

Kat, when does your Vitamax arrive??

javachick, according to FedEx it's in Reno right now.

Well, the president of my division is a former World Languages editor, but I'm not sure that could happen these days when even our current Editor-in-Chief is actually from Sales (which is how my job became 50% market development). Le sigh.

Yeah, I've never had anyone like this as a mentor. I don't think I've ever had a mentor. I just mostly try to scrap by best I can. Mostly to not much success.

My sistah!

most of my jobs have had move up potential, but it sometimes easier to go up by moving. And I've seen lots of people move out of the library and into other parts of gov't.

I'm sorry, Nora, I didn't mean to imply that everyone with those characteristics just naturally gets up the chain. Not at all. I know far too many people who excel in their jobs and are still miserable.

I wish I could mentor more people. Actually, if I ever do leave my current workplace, it will be to go somewhere where I've got a good-sized team again. I really like coaching people, especially when I have the means and resources to really reward them with a job well done.

Even being encouraged to get a Master's I am reluctant, because I feel it will make me overqualified.

Yeah, I'm starting to think that myself. I've been framing the Masters getting as an indication of my ability to multi task and succeed. (doing that while working full time).

I have been actually told by supervisors that I should not work so hard or fast, because I would never fit in in University culture, where everything was slow, and not that well done!

Yeah, I run into this slow ineptitude everywhere, yet somehow I get bitched out majorly when I fail to read my boss's mind and include specific headers and footers in an Excel document.

At this point, I'm just about ready to concede that I will never climb the job ladder in a serious way, and just hope that I find something (community oriented) that I actually like to do. Preferably in a place that's not so goddamn hierarchical.

I'm VERY lucky though, that I have a partner that makes a good salary.

Oh- librarian question--

Is it pretty much necessary to have a masters in a subject area before being hired as a librarian at a college? Because I feel like that is something I could do, but it seems silly to get the masters in library science if I couldn't actually get a job. Of course, I saw an MLS or and IT degree listed as a requirement for a data analysis research jb here in the school of nursing.

My two main interest at work, which I perform above and beyond the admin level at, are graphic design/writing marketing copy and database management stuff (at a very low level for IT, but high leel for AA, and I like the logic in it). I would love a way to marry the two, but I have no idea what that would be.

I'm sorry, Nora, I didn't mean to imply that everyone with those characteristics just naturally gets up the chain. Not at all. I know far too many people who excel in their jobs and are still miserable.

Oh, not to worry java- I didn't think that was what you were implying. I'm in a fun self pity stage of my professional life and it doesn't take much for me to get going on that!!!

Oh, whew~! I was afraid I was coming off as a jerk.