SI Admissions Blog: Ricah

The Search Continues

Yes, I graduated, and I'm in the process of looking for an archives job. Should I be stressed out about not having a job after I graduate? Some people think I should, but I'm not. I'm taking my time. For the time being, I'm working at an archaeology firm (CRM). I get to be outdoors and travel around the south (it may not sound appealling to many people, but it's fun for me). So, I'm staying busy doing that. I'm also traveling to Spain next week. This was a graduation present to myself. I had a rough fall semester (personal issues) and I wanted to take a trip on my own. I'm looking forward to it. In fact, I'm planning my itinerary as I type.

When I get back, I plan on doing more fieldwork but the job search will intensify. Looking out west for jobs in the major cities and even in the small college towns. My life has taken a turn where I'm free to do what I want. And I'm going to take it.

I'm an SI Alumna!!!

On December 17th, I, along with 10-12 students, graduated from the School of Information. The ceremony was small and intimate. Only family and close friends were allowed to attend. Olivia Frost, Judy Olsen, and Nisha Erinjeri spoke at the ceremony. Olivia had something special to say about each graduate. She took a segment from each graduate's statement of purpose. Of course, I could not remember what I wrote for my statement and I was nervous about what sentence she would use to embarrass me in front of my peers. Fortunately, she chose something positive. My statement was about how my work experience prepared me for the demands of grad school. And I honestly think it did. I've been asked by some prospective students about entering grad school immediately after undergrad. In my honest opinion, unless you know that's what you want to do, I believe that work experience is good preparation for a professional program. In my case, I worked for 4 years in an archaeology firm. Working there taught me about working in groups (an important characteristic of SI), deadlines (time management), office politics (avoid by all costs as long as possible), producing quality work (do not piss off the client or the boss), and flexibility (things do not often go as planned). More on this topic later. It's my bedtime.

It's already December?!

With 2 weeks left in the semester, many of my classmates are scrambling to get their assignments done. Most are taking the full load (4 classes). I am only taking 2, so my workload is not demanding. I'm taking it easy this semester because the last four were brutal for me. What time I have leftover is being used to job hunt and to spend time with my friends. Anyway, with 2 weeks left, I have to start packing my things and think about where I'll be next year. Where? I'll be living in the west coast. The people at the Bentley have been generous to offer their help with my resume and provide contact information from their colleagues in Washington/Oregon/Californina. I can't stress the importance of having a network. SI, from the very beginning, has always emphasized their strong alumni network. And it should be taken advantage of. I also plan on cold calling places this week. We'll see what happens. I'm taking my time on the job hunt. I have other things to plan for before I do the 9-to-5.

Post-Thanksgiving

I just got back from NYC last night. I visited my brother and his wife. They've got a place in Jackson Heights and it's not too far from midtown. I had the best intentions of getting my school work done over the break, but I couldn't work on it consistently. too many distractions. i should have left my work behind because it would just worry me when i'd see it tucked away in the corner of my brother's apartment. I imagine my homework saying stuff like, "pssst, ricah. why don't you work on me a little bit? if you don't, you'll end up pulling an all-nighter. do you really want to do that to yourself?"
yes...yes, i do. and stop telling me what to do!

Outside of school

Grad school isn't supposed to preoccupy all of your time. I realized that this past semester. It's been great to take time to spend time with friends and take advantage of what Ann Arbor offers. Like this weekend, my friends and I went over to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube to skate. We're thinking that this would be a great weekly outing now that it's gotten cold. Also, there's a great paintballing place in Pinckney. It's good exercise and you get to take out your frustrations on your fellow paintballers. There are also 2 great indie movie theatres in town and a dollar movie theatre in the mall. So, I can watch the new Almodovar film and then watch a crappy romantic comedy for a dollar if I want to. So, get out and take a break. There's more to life than school.

Bentley Historical Library

One of my non-SI friends asked me what I do at the Bentley. The Bentley is a repository that holds Michigan historical collections and the University's records, therefore there are 2 departments within the Bentley. I work for the Michigan Historical Collection, and I process incoming records/papers. Processing seems easy, but it's not at first. For my first collection, I had so many questions on what I should do: what should I keep? what should I discard? how do I arrange the records/papers? how do i write up a finding aid? My supervisor, Tom Powers, must have been annoyed with the barrage of questions especially ones that were nitpicky. And when I question myself about little details, I felt very inadequate at my job. Now that I've been there for a year, I feel more confident about what I'm doing and I'm processing collections quickly.
Since processing is the only thing I've done at the Bentley, I feel that I don't have the full archivist's experience. I should have been more proactive about getting more reference work under my belt. So, for future archives students, I recommend that you do a year of processing and a year of reference. Doing both will make you more marketable.

Midterm Tomorrow

I'm having difficulties studying for my midterm. My mind is a little disorganized and so are my notes. But I think I can pull off a decent test.

As for job hunting, found a few postings that I'm interested in. If I don't hear from the employers, I've told my friends/family that I will go ahead and move out to my desired location. Apparently, some employers look favorably on those who have residence in the same city. I'm willing to take that risk!

Meeting First Years

I have to be honest...I haven't been very social with the first years in the program. Fortunately, there's a SAA meeting this thursday for mingling. At Leopold's. I have to talk about my experience in the program. Here are a few things I'll talk about:
-take advantage of career services for resume/cover letter help
-participate in SAA events (go to national conference)
-get experience from working (work/volunteer at different places)
-do a summer DFE
-develop a relationship with the archives professors
-it'll go by quickly

Before I Leave AA

I've been in AA for 4 years and I feel that I've done most of the usual stuff that people do when they live here. But there are a few things that I would like to do before I go in December:
1-see a hockey/football game
2-rock climb at Mclimb
3-play a serious tennis match inside the tennis center
4-eat a pasty(sp?)
5-play beer pong at an undergraduate party
6-scream in the middle of the diag during class changeover
7-join a game of paintball
8-ice skate at burns park without using the 'walker' or holding the railings
9-spray paint a stencil on the sidewalk
10-attend a cheese tasting at zingerman's

simple enough. i think i have time for all this.

Fall Break

Fall break went by fast. I went down to TN with 2 of my friends. We stayed at one of their parents' house. Her folks live in Kingsport, so it's close to the mountains. Her home is located on a ridge and it overlooks the town. Her parents cooked for us and they took us out hiking, boating and biking. This trip was what I needed. This week, I plan to seriously start looking for a job. I've found some postings for assistanat archivist positions in NY and DC, but I'm not too keen on living there. I really want to look out west. Why? Because I've never lived there and I want to go outside my comfort zone. To start fresh. I have friends on the west coast, so I won't feel too isolated. The hardest thing is being far from my family, but they promise to visit regularly because they love it out there.

]]> Must add: I'm petrified of the job hunt. Am I going to find a job that I'm qualified for? Can I find a job in the ideal location? Will there be interesting jobs to apply for? What if I don't find something right after I graduate? I don't want to live at home! Nor do I want to stay in Ann Arbor (actually, I wouldn't mind at this point because I've got friends here). These are my fears. And I think the best way to approach them is to just send in my resume (after I have it revised by Career Services) and wait. And keep sending my resume until I hear from someone.

Convergence of Technology, People & Information

Today, Laura, Marsha, Mary and I were at grad fair to talk to perspective students. The most popular question we got was, "What is the School of Information?" And we gave them the standard line: The School of Info is a convergence of technology, people and information..." What else can we say? We did mention that the school encourages the students to mold their curriculum to their interests, so our education is flexible. Mary is a good example of that. She's tailored and she has taken classes from all four specializations. For me, I've taken mostly archives classes, but I've also taken library courses so I can be marketable to libraries. We also mentioned that we have many opportunities outside of coursework to gain the experience we need to offer future employers. We're encouraged to do directed field experiences. I'm interested in museums and archives, so I made sure to intern at the Smithsonian and the National Park Service museums. If you have time, volunteering is another way to try your hand at a different skill. And of course, finding a part-time job with a library/archive/museum on campus adds to your resume. The opportunities are there, but you have to find them. They won't be handed to you.

Saturday Night

I'm with Beth, Patrick and Jeni. We're sitting at my apartment, and we're all doing our homework. Studious SI students. This is what our weekends are reduced to. Homework, homework, drinking and homework. The semester is in full effect. Since we're together, we're having fun with our work. And I get to entertain them with food, drinks and tv. And the occasional smoke break. Next weekend is fall break and we're all going out of town. Looking forward to that. Jeni is going to Seattle. B & P are going to Tennessee. I'll just say I'll be out of town and I'll be taken care of. I'm going through a tough time and I have friends who promised to feed me and hold me.

]]> And this month, I start looking for jobs. My search is not focused, and I'm not picky about location. Since I'm an archives student, I'll keep track of the SAA employment listings. My friends in Chicago told me to check with Hotjobs.com. And I will pinpoint my search to individual archives (going to their website and talking to the archivist or HR person). A couple of my friends suggest I take a look at corporate archive jobs. Sell my soul.

This week at SI

This Thursday I will be giving a presentation about my summer internship at the Everglades National Park Service - South Florida Collections Management Center. This was a 10 week internship. I got it approved for a DFE and registered for the Fall class - SI 681. Because it's a DFE, we're required to keep a weekly blog and bi-monthly report on our activities. And in the fall, we give a powerpoint presentation on what we've learned. So, what did I learn? What can I say about this experience? Along with 2 other interns, we worked with the museum/archive collections. These collections was comprised of natural/cultural historic materials and accumulated research from the park's researchers. Each intern worked on one collection during their term. I was responsible for processing the Everglades Aerial Photograph Collection, and that entailed conducting an inventory, testing for degradation, background research, conservation, arrangement, cataloguing, and rehousing. In addition to processing, we had to conduct weekly/monthly duties at the museum such as integrated pest management, environmental control and old-fashioned housecleaning. So, I'll be talking about these things and about the NPS institutional culture. There's a lot to talk about but we only have 5-7 minutes alloted to each presenter. I like to keep my presentations quick and simple, so I know I won't go overboard.

]]> Before I forget, I am so happy that I took this opportunity with the NPS. It's a definite consideration when I will be looking for jobs this fall.

Because I can...

After some contemplation, I decided to take 2 regular classes and my DFE/PEP (SI 681) class. I was going to fully load up, but I wanted to spend time job searching and enjoying my last semester. I'm currently taking Reference (SI 647) and an 20th century architecture (HISTART 473). I talked to Xiao-Wen (acaedmic counselor) and she said that I only have to take 2 classes to graduate. Music to my ears! 681 fulfills all my PEP requirements (6 credits). It requires me to create a presentation of what I did this past summer. This summer I did an internship at the Everglades NPS, so I get to talk about my collection and my overall experience...in Powerpoint! SI 647 is a reference class taught by M. Holland. Learning a lot so far. It's given the class an opportunity to answer real questions posted to the IPL website, and it's teaching us how research and search for common and obscure sources. HISTARt 473 is my outside cognate. I took this class because I've always been interested in modern architecture. It's not what I expected. I thought we would look at slides containing images of beautiful buildings, but instead, we're learning about the fundamental theories behind the modernism movement. The prof makes it interesting, and my classmates are sharp, so it's not a throwaway class.

Before I go on...

I am a grad student at the School of Information. I'm specializing in archives & records management, and I hope to work at either the National Park Service, a natural history museum or a special collections library. I'm interested in digital archives, creating better access, and good old fashioned preservation/conservation methods. Fall 2006 is my last semester. My time at SI has been stressful if not interesting. There were many times during my first year that I wanted to quit because I've never had to work that hard. But I'm glad that I went through the program because it kicked my ass and I actually liked it.

SI isn't the only thing I want to write about. I've lived in Ann Arbor for four years, and I admit, it's not my favorite place on this planet. But I know I'm gonna bawl like a baby when I leave because there are things about it that has endeared itself to me. For instance, I love being able to walk or bike anywhere. I also love: Zingerman's (deli and roadhouse), Dominick's, Ashley's, Old Town, the city parks/trails, the YMCA, Dawn Trader bookshop, summertime, the fall, the Amtrak station, arboretum, the fancy Whole Foods, Kerrytown market, Big Ten Burrito, Blimpy Burger, Ypsilanti (it's so close), the recycling program, and of course, the university.

Now, the things I don't like about Ann Arbor: the living expenses, the winter time, the crazy spring time weather, art fair, the distance from Detroit, the lack of indie-rock venues/shows, football saturdays, the pampered undergraduates (i know, some aren't), the numerous sandwich shops, lack of good tex-mex, the indoor tennis options (only one), lack of good bars, late-night coffee shops, the mall, and it's not athens, GA.

Overall, AA isn't that bad especially if you're here for a couple of years. And my dislikes aren't deep flaws. These are things that I've come to miss from living in a bigger city (Chicago/Atlanta). It's no big deal.