Waiting
Much as I loathe doing it, I’ve got sending out job applications down to a science by now. Pick which of two basic résumés better fits the job. (I’ve got one tailored for digital-librarian gigs, and one for general systems librarianship plus a side order of reference and instruction.) Copy-and-paste an old cover letter; tweak as needed per new job description. Print, fire an envelope through the bypass tray, fold, seal, stamp, dump in mailbox. Easy.
I don’t even mind the on-campus interviews, tiring though they are and much though I despise air travel. Talking to people is fun. Getting a look at Other People’s Libraries is an education in itself.
What really gets me down about this process is the w-a-i-t-i-n-g. One could reliably judge my mood for the last month or two on how much contact I’ve had with potential employers lately. It’s been two weeks since the last nibble, and my fingernails are chewed to roughly halfway up my forearm.
(I know, I know, one of those weeks was spring break. Don’t ask me to be rational about this thoroughly irrational process.)
I’m writing off all the emailed applications as lost causes. I perhaps shouldn’t, but I am; I don’t appear to be such a sparkling catch that a late-day paper application is going to get me anywhere.
Funny, though. Per Roy Tennant (Managing the Digital Library was on the new-books shelf at SLIS, so I picked it up to flip through), I am a sparkling catch. His list of qualities a good digital-librarian hire ought to have? It is me, right down to the last crossed t. It just is.
If I’m so damn sparkling, why ain’t I employed? That’s what I’d like to know.
Ah, well. Fired out four apps last week. Waiting for the next one I like. Rolling a 1d10 to figure out how many résumés to print for ACRL. On we go. This can’t be over soon enough, say I.