Thing 10: I never knew I always wanted to be a librarian

This week's 'Thing' sounds like a good excuse for everyone to show off about their qualifications and experience! 

I think very few people want to be a librarian from a young age; I certainly didn't, my only contact with libraries had been the public library as a child and with academic libraries at FE college and university.  My route is probably pretty standard: when I finished my degree I didn't know what I wanted to do, however, when I had finally finished my dissertation and I was handing back my books I saw an advert asking for library assistants for the next academic year.  I decided to apply with the thought that I could work there until I found something else.  I had been there for about 8/9 months when I saw another library assistant job advertised in my home town at a college of further education.  Thankfully I got the job and with the benefit of hindsight the decision to move back home and apply for this post was the best decision I ever made.  I enjoyed this job so much that I started to seriously consider librarianship as a career; I was working as part of a small team of 7 and I therefore got to experience a wide range of duties: budget management, the selection of stock, cataloguing & classification, display work etc.  

After I had been there a year I started the process of applying for a place on a full-time Masters course; I applied to City and UCL.  I decided to accept the offer from UCL to do the MA in Library and Information Studies.  I really enjoyed the year; it was an opportunity live in central London and I made some great friends. 

I soon realised that I was going to need to supplement my career development loan and so I worked part-time as a senior library assistant for a university in central London.  When I finished my Masters degree they were unable to offer me a full-time post (they were going through a period of re-structuring and all posts were frozen).  The economic conditions in Sep 2008 meant that professional posts were virtually non-existent, however I needed a full-time job and I ended up taking an information assistant post (I moved internally after six months to one of their subject teams).  Although I love my current job and have learnt so much about subject liaison work, I still feel I have taken a backward step in terms of my career.  

Taking part in 23 things for CPD will hopefully act as a springboard to help me re-build my confidence by providing ways of reflecting on my skills and knowledge.  This together with some hard work will at some point lead to a successful application for a professional post -fingers crossed!