How can I be more patient with my career trajectory?

May 4, 2015 11:03 AM

I'm very new into my career and I'm finding it difficult to be patient with my career development. I spend too much time worrying about my career and it's honestly negatively affecting my life, at this point.

Background details: I'm in my mid-20s and my field is relatively small (libraries), I just completed the program I was in last spring. I've been in my current position since January and, all things considered, I'm really enjoying it. My coworkers are good, I have a level of independence and autonomy that I LOVE, and my benefits are great, BUT it's only part-time. I'm currently working retail as well, but it's not really enough for me to completely move on my own.

I've been really worried about my career path lately, I just feel so impatient about everything. I'm planning to stay where I am for at least another year and then look for full-time opportunities. I'm really worried that I've made a GIGANTIC mistake by choosing this field in the first place. I keep trying to remind myself that most of my cohort isn't doing much better than I am, but then I remember those who do have better positions than me and it makes me feel so upset. I wonder what I'm doing wrong and how on earth I can fix myself, so I can one day get a better position.

I wasted most of my Saturday afternoon looking up vocational diploma/masters programs to apply to so I could have a "better" career. In my frenzy I looked up MLIS programs, accounting & business programs, teaching programs, etc. It was ridiculous. I don't want to go to school again and I can't IMAGINE enjoying most of the programs I was looking at.

I'm in a better position than I was last year at this time of year, etc. so I am improving and going forward. How can I be better accepting of this and be less anxious about my "future"?

(I am in therapy, but due to extenuating circumstances I probably won't be able to make an appointment until July.)

posted by modesty.blaise to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Do you have a firm idea of where you'd like to be in terms of career development? While there's nothing wrong with being aware of whether your career is going the way you'd like it to be, I'm having a harder time sensing from your post where you expect yourself to be or want to be (which may be adding to the anxieties). It's also reasonable to ask yourself what you're impatient about, and what your expectations are.

Is it "my current part time position in the libraries is not going to provide me with growth opportunities I need to further my career in the libraries."? In those cases you'd be well served to find a person in the libraries that's doing what you think you want to be doing and picking their brain and learning all about their background and experience as to how they got there. If you can't find a person or see a reasonable promotion path from there, then seek out other people who have the educational background you do and see what they're doing. Think about why you selected the field in the first place, and perhaps seek out your school's career office or previous professors to discuss potential career paths with your degree.

How your cohort is doing and whether they're doing "better" than you is moot when compared to your own career track. Those folks will have their own gripes about their jobs, and it sounds like it's unclear whether you'd even enjoy the jobs they're working at. If you do think you would be interested in that, look at these people as resources to find out more about where they are and how you can get there.
posted by Karaage at 11:27 AM on May 4, 2015

There's a TED video by Professor Zimbardo (sp?) about how to balance one's future, present, and past senses. if you dwell too much in the past you don't worry enough about present and future, and so on and so forth. Right now you seem to be a bit too future-heavy.
posted by kschang at 12:12 PM on May 4, 2015

Best answer: If you're worried your current career track has pigeon-holed you, I would be willing to take on duties outside of your job and gain new experience wherever you can. Most places are understaffed or people don't know what they are supposed to be doing, so they end up doing stuff that isn't really their jobs. That can be annoying, or it can be a big opportunity to expand your skill set and resume. This exact thing has managed to put me on a couple different careers that I never planned on or expected.

How long have you been out of school? How badly do you need the retail work money? Is interning or volunteering an option in order to get a foothold in a new career path? I know someone who got a degree and ended up doing a corporate version of that work after college, hated it, and wanted to move into doing the non-profit version of that work, but lacked the experience or connections do to get a job there. So she quit the corporate job, interned at non-profits while doing a part-time job, even though she was not in college anymore, and it eventually got her into her chosen field. Now, some 15 years later, she's had a very long and successful career in the non-profit work she struggled to get into at first. It's not exactly your situation, but the moral of the story, as with my first point, is that I don't think you need to necessarily go back to school and get another degree to do something else.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:34 PM on May 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: In my experience, your career isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. There will be ups, downs, lulls, easy times, advancement, frustrations, and back-to-the-drawing-board moments for everyone. If you graduated with at least a part-time job in your field, you're ahead of a lot of people right now.

Agreed with everything AppleTurnover said.
posted by Pearl928 at 2:14 PM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Do you have a firm idea of where you'd like to be in terms of career development? While there's nothing wrong with being aware of whether your career is going the way you'd like it to be, I'm having a harder time sensing from your post where you expect yourself to be or want to be (which may be adding to the anxieties). It's also reasonable to ask yourself what you're impatient about, and what your expectations are.

I think that's part of my problem. I've honestly never been a hugely "ambitious" person in terms of my career aspirations. Honestly, I'm at a point where I really don't "care" what I do (in terms of title) as long as I can work full time and, therefore, be independent. Maybe that's where I should be looking instead of careers, but I'm seeing the "career" as a means to an end.

Right now I don't see anything in this field that would allow someone with my experience to actually work full time. If I could do the job I currently have full-time, I would be in heaven and I probably wouldn't have written this question. But I can't do this job full-time (budgetary reasons), and there are just no other full-time jobs that my field is offering to someone with my level of experience. I'm not sure what other jobs I would really be qualified for, even administrative jobs in my city ask for people to have an office management diploma. I'm just not sure if I want to go back to school again, I'm worried that it won't be worth it. I don't know if it's worth it to be patient and wait it out in my field and hope that one day I'll get a more substantial, full-time position.
posted by modesty.blaise at 3:00 PM on May 4, 2015

Best answer: I have twenty years experience in libraries in Canada. Am I correct in assuming you have a library technician diploma? I think the last stats I saw were that over 80% of the jobs LibTechs are in are part time. So your frustration shouldn't be with your abilities but with the industry. I would look at another industry first (seriously, sorry but that is the reality of libraries in Canada) or secondly corporate libraries, and school libraries third (still not full time work most of the time). Apply for FT now, don't wait a year. Personally, I think it is disgusting how library management in Canada expect self-funded post secondary education but are only willing to pay part time wages. Shame on them.
posted by saucysault at 4:57 PM on May 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Saucysault, wow wow wow, I never heard that statistic during my education (lol I wonder why?). That actually makes me feel a lot less paranoid about my actual abilities. I'm working in a school library right now, and I really enjoy the environment (more the school than the library, I think). I am really tempted to try to find a way into records management, my program has very basic courses on that area of the industry. I think I might really try to research my options in other fields while working, or see if I can get a different role in the school system I am in. Although, I can't help but think I'm an idiot for even going to school for this in the first place. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
posted by modesty.blaise at 6:41 PM on May 4, 2015