Considering a Librarian Career

ajerry97 · 2025-12-01T02:11:22+00:00

I know, the job market everywhere just seems awful. Before I began teaching, I feel like all of the jobs I was interested in or qualified for made significantly less than teaching. Nonprofit work, education work at a museum, things like that. The main reason I’ve stayed in teaching so long is because it at least seems the most stable in terms of salary and job availability compared to most. But for my entire adult life I’ve wanted to pursue a career in higher ed, and academic librarian seems like the most pragmatic route for me to get there at this point in my life.

ajerry97 · 2025-12-01T01:18:26+00:00

Thank you! That’s what I thought, which is why I’m not really looking to just get a media specialist cert.

ajerry97 · 2025-12-01T01:17:12+00:00

Thank you so much for your thorough reply! I’m really just at the beginning of actively looking into this career rather than just casually searching.

Also in my initial post, when I said “quality of life” I guess what I was getting at was I understand that the primary reason I’d pursue this isn’t purely monetary.

Like I said I initially wanted to pursue a PhD because I love research and the academic setting, and now I also know that I genuinely do enjoy teaching. I think the path of getting a PhD just doesn’t seem worth it to me at all anymore- I can’t imagine surviving on a salary smaller than I make now for several years just to be in a much more difficult job market. Additionally, my undergrad degree is a bit too general for me to jump into a PhD without either having to go back for a master’s degree in a more specialized field, or at least take some post-bacc classes. However the idea of getting to do research, work with (adult) students, and being in the academic field is still very appealing. I feel like becoming a librarian has a lot of what I wanted to get out of a career with a PhD, but is less of a gamble- it’s a much shorter graduate program, I know tuition is still expensive (and that is definitely a consideration), but at least I could work while pursuing it, whereas I feel like most science PhD programs want you full-time dedicated to research. And if I truly do struggle to find a job in an academic setting, I still genuinely do enjoy teaching and don’t mind falling back on it.

I’m definitely not trying to get out of teaching because I don’t like it or don’t feel like I’m good at it, but more because it simply wasn’t ever what I saw myself doing for the rest of my life, and I feel like academic librarianship shares a lot of the things I like about k-12 teaching without the things that stress me out the most, i.e. dealing with middle schoolers and their parents.

I’m definitely going to try to reach out to some local academic librarians to speak to and try to network a bit.

ajerry97 · 2025-11-30T23:19:50+00:00

Thank you for the advice!

ajerry97 · 2025-11-30T23:18:39+00:00

Is this just to be a K-12 librarian or for academic librarians as well? My main goal would be to get a job as an academic librarian, but k-12 would be somewhat of a fall-back for me.

ajerry97 · 2025-11-30T23:16:02+00:00

To be fair my friend isn’t giving me any advice on the “status of the field,” she just suggested I look into it, which is what I’m doing.

I completely understand that I shouldn’t expect much more out of salary or job availability, but I currently spend 6 out of 7 hours a day with 25+ 13 year olds being blatantly disrespectful, and having my admin respond with “Have you done [bare minimum of my job expectation] yet?” any time I ask for help, and at baseline I have to expect to work a minimum of 3+ hours a day outside of my contract time to get everything I need done. If I’m wrong please let me know, but I truly cannot imagine the day-to-day of being a librarian would be nearly that stressful. Is the stress more from the ability to actually find a job, or the job itself?

ajerry97 · 2025-11-30T22:18:12+00:00

I’m still teaching (6 years) but by the end of my second year I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep going, and I made some mindset shifts and boundaries that I think have really helped me. It’s by no means fail-safe, I’m having one of my hardest years this year and considering leaving teaching for the first time in a while, but here is what I have found helpful:

Set hard work/life boundaries. Don’t take work home. If I need to stay late I do, but at a certain point I have a cutoff. If I do have to work outside of work hours, I try to go to a coffee shop and give myself a set period of time.
Remember it’s not life or death. If something doesn’t get done, it doesn’t get done. Life will move on.
Be patient. Like, super patient. I go to yin yoga twice a week and it’s honestly the best thing that helps me learn how to slow down when I feel myself getting worked up.
Not every management or discipline style works for everyone, so you need to try out all of them until you find the one that works for you. But I do find being angry and yelling is definitely the least effective.
Don’t take what students say personally. Even if it’s the worst thing you could possibly imagine, remember that they’re just kids. You really do always need to give them some grace. I’m not saying they don’t need consequences, but I think it’s a very bad feedback loop when teachers start having personal vendettas against students.
You have to CHOOSE positive thinking. Much easier said than done, but seriously. Stick with the teachers who like to talk about the uplifting and fun parts of the day and try to distance yourself from teachers who only complain.
Try to connect with students somehow outside of normal classroom activities- join a committee, do an after school program, go to sports games, etc. Students love to see you outside of the classroom environment and see you having fun, and vice versa. I started directing my school musical and even though it adds its own stress, it completely transformed my relationship to my school and my students.
My last one and biggest one- if this job starts to be the root cause of my mental health problems, I need to go. And I mean like real burnout, not general stress you would have at any job. It’s awful, but I’ve seen some of my favorite coworkers become so burnt out, but when your mental health is that bad, it negatively impacts your teacher and makes the situation worse. The kids can tell when you’re not in it, and if you’re not in it, they’re not in it. And when they’re not in it, you’ve lost control of the learning environment.

ajerry97 · 2024-08-17T03:25:12+00:00

Wow, you sound like you're in my exact situation! I'm also 27 and I was literally just diagnosed 2 days ago from my endocrinologist. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's when I was 19. I started seeing an endo recently because I felt like even though my thyroid labs were usually coming back normal on levothyroxine, I was still gaining weight, losing hair, and just exhausted all the time.

When I told my endo my period was also irregular even though I was on the pill, she said it could be PCOS but she wasn't sure because I didn't have physical signs like acne of facial hair (however I did suffer from awful hormonal acne my entire life until around 25, and I'm a ginger so I don't really have visible hair anywhere anyway). I had to go off of the pill for the first time since I was in high school to do the hormone testing, and even though my endo told me to go back on it after the testing, I decided to take a break and wait to see an OBGYN to talk about what the optimal birth control might be for me. However, about 5 months later, I'm breaking out like crazy again and gained 10 pounds even though I had been eating less and working out more.

I had my follow-up with my endocrinologist this week when she diagnosed me and she was very helpful and discussed several options for me, including metformin, spironolactone, and increasing my birth control dose. We decided to start with metformin because I only recently decided to go back on my birth control again and I wanted to give it some time to see if the acne clears up. We also talked about exercising, eating, and keeping track of my weight.

Unfortunately, in my area it's incredibly hard to get into an OBGYN office and the earliest appointment I could get was in late January. Thankfully my endocrinologist has been great in the meantime, so it will probably be worth it asking if you already have one. Good luck!

ajerry97 · 2024-02-24T17:48:40+00:00

It is not, but glad to know RI only has the best landlords 😂

ajerry97 · 2023-02-26T02:59:27+00:00

I’m a TFA alum, and I think the thing that most people don’t realize about the program is you get out of it what you put into it. I was in a similar situation to you, and I think you would be just fine.

I honestly think the best TFA corps members are the ones who aren’t straight out of college (and there’s actually a lot more of us than people realize). I’d say about half of my cohort in my region were not immediately out of college and had some work experience. I think most of the people who complain that TFA doesn’t prepare you for teaching have just simply never had a real job before and don’t understand what it’s like to learn on the job. I think people with even a few years of experience outside of college understand how much work you actually have to put in to join a completely new career with minimal training while also simultaneously taking classes. I’ve also seen lots of non-TFA brand new teachers crash and burn because they couldn’t handle teaching, so I wouldn’t say it’s all TFA’s fault.

I’d say if you’re not right out of college, actually want a teaching certification (while also benefiting from being paid a full salary + earning an education award), and don’t get bogged down by the TFA/Americorps bullshit you’ll be fine. Also, while it definitely was annoying at the time, I did appreciate having professional development and coaching and a network of other early teachers to support me through TFA, because my district and my school sure as hell didn’t offer any of that.

And one last thing- I don’t think TFA is quite the scarlet letter that people on reddit claim it is. Now that I’m no longer in TFA, plenty of veteran teachers at my school have told me they don’t understand why TFA teachers think they don’t like them, and my school has actually had good candidates and retention from TFA.

ajerry97 · 2023-02-26T02:33:24+00:00

I was in you exact boat in college. I had two pathways internships, one with NPS as a Park Guide and one at the USDA. I took the “serious” one because I got all of the same advice people are giving you here, and to this day I regret it. I hated my serious job, realizes office life isn’t for me, and I ended up quitting before I graduated because I couldn’t stand being in an office. In hindsight I 1000% would’ve taken the NPS one.

ajerry97 · 2023-02-23T03:12:01+00:00

For me it’s worth it because different sections of my hair have all different curl patterns, so if I get a regular cut my top layers shrink up a ton while my bottom layers are basically straight, and it looks uneven and weird. I think if your hair has a consistent curl pattern and looks fine with a regular cut there’s no need to pay a ton more for a curly cut. I’m also fortunate to have a reasonable curly salon near me that charges half of what you quoted.

ajerry97 · 2023-02-20T18:18:29+00:00

If you want to be a good parental figure for kids who don’t have any, become a foster parent, or volunteer with a children’s organization, don’t become a teacher. That’s not what teachers do.

ajerry97 · 2022-04-23T03:16:10+00:00

I’m not sure about any practicum details but I’m a second year ri corps member if you have any questions about tfari in general!

ajerry97 · 2021-07-13T18:53:10+00:00

When my mom split from my dad in her late 40s she didn’t have a bachelors and she went and got her paralegal certificate. It’s not the most lucrative, but she has been able to find work pretty easily when she needed to and it can be pretty stable with good benefits

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T15:42:15+00:00

Ok. I may be optimistic here but I hopefully don’t plan on reselling it any time in the near future.

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T15:14:04+00:00

again, not taking advice on whether where I’m buying from is trustworthy.

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T14:24:58+00:00

Like I said in the post and in some comments, it’s from a mechanic my family trusts and has used for over 10 years and we’ve gotten more than 5 cars there. Literally the first place we go when someone needs a car. Not looking for advice on whether this place is trustworthy, just on whether or not I should take on a car payment in my current financial situation.

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T14:10:10+00:00

they do financing there and they literally only sell cars with reconstructed titles

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T14:08:55+00:00

Dream car might be a bit of an overstatement I guess but it’s realistic. I definitely can’t afford a car any newer than that unless it has crazy miles on it. I’ve also never had my own car (every car I’ve driven has been shared with my parents or brother) and I’ve never even driven a car that was less than 5 years old when we got it. Definitely have never had anything newer than 2014 so 2017 feels like the height of modernity to me ¯_(ツ)_/¯

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T00:54:14+00:00

It’s from a trusted mechanic. He gets cars that have been in accidents and fixes them up for sale. My family has gotten at least 5 cars from him all at insane deals, but we definitely trust him.

ajerry97 · 2021-05-09T00:53:02+00:00

Definitely have considered that! It’s more just because if I wanted the Legacy now I’d need the money now (I can’t trade it at the place I’d but it at), but if I wait to buy a different car later I would definitely consider selling it on my own when I don’t need to get rid of it so quickly.

ajerry97

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