Making a good impression
I was called to Long Island in the spring of 1990. Five months after getting my library degree, I had still not landed a job, so I was enjoying the title of "World's most overeducated library assistant' at the Phoenix Public Library. In March and April, I had a flurry of promising interviews, but still had not landed. The biggest disappointment was getting an offer from the Chicago Public Library, but I decided I'd better go take a look before I made such a radical move.
The good news in Chicago was the library which was absolutely beautiful and enormous, which would give me a position in Audio Visual to use my first master's degree. The bad part was the pay, which would qualify me for a one room walkup flat and food stamps. Then there were the unsubtle things my wife and I heard. Multiple times we heard "If librarianship doesn't work for you, you can always teach at one of our wonderful colleges." I had been in libraries 25 years, so I didn't doubt that this was my career choice. What I really heard was "With your publication record and advanced degrees, you are too intellectual for us." I agreed, and went back to the killing fields. Back home, a friend told me "I am so glad you did not get Chicago. You and Donna are just not cut out for big city life."
I interviewed in California for a giant bibliographic nonprofit. I didn't feel like a good fit for them either. The thing I remember most vividly is a large rain storm that kept me from seeing much of California. A week later, I was flying to New York to interview with Adelphi University. Their administration was on the warpath to have librarians justify their faculty status by publishing. Since I already had three articles to my name, I looked tempting to them.
Nobody from the school met me at the airport, but they had arranged for a limo to take me from JFK to Garden City, at a hotel next to the Meadowbrook Parkway. As soon as I had cleaned up, I walked to the Carle Place train station to visit my wife's cousin in the city. The first thing I noticed was the care that people took in their houses. In Phoenix, most people took reasonable care of their homes, but on Long Island, you could see that the residents thought of this as their gold mine. Up and down, I noted that the most normal type of store involved kitchen or bathroom renovations.
On my first full day on the Island, I rented a car for six hours. I first headed north and ended up in Oyster Bay. Then I drove south all the way to Jones Beach. I parked and looked around for a bit. I couldn't believe that I could just pick up the big sea shells and take them home. On the way back up the Wantagh Parkway, I saw that people were taking advantage of the pedestrian and bikeways along the road. In Arizona, the parkways are ugly, but these are filled with trees, and they were covered with fresh new leaves. In Arizona we did not have spring - we just went from winter to summer. Seeing a New York spring was a revelation. It looked like paradise, but my next stop was at a real estate office in Hicksville, and I got an earful of the real dirt. I will make that a separate post next time.
The next day, I went to Adelphi University for a full day of interviewing. I had not really expected much because it is fearfully hard to move from public libraries to academic, but that day I was in the zone. When a colleague drove me back to the hotel, she said I should think long and hard about my future, and whether we could pull up stakes and make such a radical move. I was on my way.
The good news in Chicago was the library which was absolutely beautiful and enormous, which would give me a position in Audio Visual to use my first master's degree. The bad part was the pay, which would qualify me for a one room walkup flat and food stamps. Then there were the unsubtle things my wife and I heard. Multiple times we heard "If librarianship doesn't work for you, you can always teach at one of our wonderful colleges." I had been in libraries 25 years, so I didn't doubt that this was my career choice. What I really heard was "With your publication record and advanced degrees, you are too intellectual for us." I agreed, and went back to the killing fields. Back home, a friend told me "I am so glad you did not get Chicago. You and Donna are just not cut out for big city life."
I interviewed in California for a giant bibliographic nonprofit. I didn't feel like a good fit for them either. The thing I remember most vividly is a large rain storm that kept me from seeing much of California. A week later, I was flying to New York to interview with Adelphi University. Their administration was on the warpath to have librarians justify their faculty status by publishing. Since I already had three articles to my name, I looked tempting to them.
Nobody from the school met me at the airport, but they had arranged for a limo to take me from JFK to Garden City, at a hotel next to the Meadowbrook Parkway. As soon as I had cleaned up, I walked to the Carle Place train station to visit my wife's cousin in the city. The first thing I noticed was the care that people took in their houses. In Phoenix, most people took reasonable care of their homes, but on Long Island, you could see that the residents thought of this as their gold mine. Up and down, I noted that the most normal type of store involved kitchen or bathroom renovations.
On my first full day on the Island, I rented a car for six hours. I first headed north and ended up in Oyster Bay. Then I drove south all the way to Jones Beach. I parked and looked around for a bit. I couldn't believe that I could just pick up the big sea shells and take them home. On the way back up the Wantagh Parkway, I saw that people were taking advantage of the pedestrian and bikeways along the road. In Arizona, the parkways are ugly, but these are filled with trees, and they were covered with fresh new leaves. In Arizona we did not have spring - we just went from winter to summer. Seeing a New York spring was a revelation. It looked like paradise, but my next stop was at a real estate office in Hicksville, and I got an earful of the real dirt. I will make that a separate post next time.
The next day, I went to Adelphi University for a full day of interviewing. I had not really expected much because it is fearfully hard to move from public libraries to academic, but that day I was in the zone. When a colleague drove me back to the hotel, she said I should think long and hard about my future, and whether we could pull up stakes and make such a radical move. I was on my way.
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