Interior decorating
I finally got around to taking my collection of work decorations into the office, and yesterday I put most of them up in my cube. I guess that means this is my job now.
I've talked about this position a little bit under lock, but not generally and not in any detail. About a year ago, I was working on contract for a tech company, but the work was wrapping up (actually, it wrapped up about a month before the contract officially ended). When I mentioned this to my friend D, she asked if I would be interested in taking on some part-time work for her organization, a social science research non-profit. It took a few weeks of back and forth and wrangling with the main office, but I came on at about half time to work on two projects. Those projects ended, and then other ones came along, and it's been going on like that ever since. I recently signed on with a project that includes hours at least through the end of the year, and I took that as a sign that I should start thinking more-long term.
At the moment I'm an hourly employee, working on projects as they come up. My title is Research Associate, which in this organization can also mean secretary, but so far I've managed to focus mostly on projects that use my librarian talents: literature reviews, constructing search terms, reviewing documents for relevance and categorizing them, even a bit of writing. I've talked with HR and my manager from time to time about formalizing my position, but I suspect that would mean taking on more of the grunt-level administrative tasks. Also, I like the flexibility of being able to work more when there's more work to do, and less if things or slow and/or there are other things going on in my life (travel, vet appointments, etc.). Going permanent also probably mean giving up on finding librarian work, at least for now. I haven't actually applied for a librarian position in awhile, so I suppose that's just a formality, but I want to preserve the option.
So, that's the status. Even if not my dream job, it's interesting work, and I'm hoping I get the opportunity to learn more about the social sciences and non-profit land. In particular, I'd like to get some experience with grant writing, since that's one of the easiest ways to make money as a freelance writer, and I continue to think about moving more in that direction. It's pretty good, and if it ever stops being so, it will be easy enough to move on. I've also continued doing personal assistant work for another friend (I recently finished cataloging his library!), generally one day a week. So it all chugs along. Maybe someday I'll want to kick the career back up a notch, but for now I'm fine for that to take a back seat to other things in my life.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/741270.html. There are currently
comments on DW.
I've talked about this position a little bit under lock, but not generally and not in any detail. About a year ago, I was working on contract for a tech company, but the work was wrapping up (actually, it wrapped up about a month before the contract officially ended). When I mentioned this to my friend D, she asked if I would be interested in taking on some part-time work for her organization, a social science research non-profit. It took a few weeks of back and forth and wrangling with the main office, but I came on at about half time to work on two projects. Those projects ended, and then other ones came along, and it's been going on like that ever since. I recently signed on with a project that includes hours at least through the end of the year, and I took that as a sign that I should start thinking more-long term.
At the moment I'm an hourly employee, working on projects as they come up. My title is Research Associate, which in this organization can also mean secretary, but so far I've managed to focus mostly on projects that use my librarian talents: literature reviews, constructing search terms, reviewing documents for relevance and categorizing them, even a bit of writing. I've talked with HR and my manager from time to time about formalizing my position, but I suspect that would mean taking on more of the grunt-level administrative tasks. Also, I like the flexibility of being able to work more when there's more work to do, and less if things or slow and/or there are other things going on in my life (travel, vet appointments, etc.). Going permanent also probably mean giving up on finding librarian work, at least for now. I haven't actually applied for a librarian position in awhile, so I suppose that's just a formality, but I want to preserve the option.
So, that's the status. Even if not my dream job, it's interesting work, and I'm hoping I get the opportunity to learn more about the social sciences and non-profit land. In particular, I'd like to get some experience with grant writing, since that's one of the easiest ways to make money as a freelance writer, and I continue to think about moving more in that direction. It's pretty good, and if it ever stops being so, it will be easy enough to move on. I've also continued doing personal assistant work for another friend (I recently finished cataloging his library!), generally one day a week. So it all chugs along. Maybe someday I'll want to kick the career back up a notch, but for now I'm fine for that to take a back seat to other things in my life.
This entry is also posted at http://owlmoose.dreamwidth.org/741270.html. There are currently
comments on DW.