The Path to Corporate Life (Part 1)
So let me start to explain about myself and a little bit about how I got here.
I've worked in libraries of one sort or another for over 15 years now. I started out as a page (the person who shelves the books and retrieves stuff) at the Santa Cruz Public Library back in 1987. (Holy cow, that makes me feel old.) While at the SCPL, I had a few roles: page, clerk, doing interlibrary loans, and, lastly, acquisitions. After that, I took a job at the local community college library, working with the reserves collection for about a year and a half.
Primarily through financial need, I then switched jobs completely, going to a company called West Marine Products, based in Watsonville (about 20 miles south of Santa Cruz). If you sail or boat, you know West Marine; if you don't, you have no idea what West Marine is.
In any case, going to West Marine was a job culture shock. By the time I started at West Marine, I had been in library settings (city, county, academic job structures) for almost ten years. In those settings, in my experience, roles were very clearly defined; you had regularly-scheduled breaks; overtime was frowned upon; promotions and job changes were very structured and regulated; and money was always scarce. This is what I was used to.
At West Marine, it was a true corporate setting, but one I was completely unfamiliar with. Number one, they had money. This was probably the biggest shock. You need money for a project? Here's some money. You need to work overtime to get something done? Great, go for it. We'll pay you for your overtime.
This was a setting where "thinking outside of the box" (something I hadn't heard of before) was actively encouraged. You want to do something outside of your usual role? Great, go for it. Got a good idea? Let's run with it. And your manager and your colleagues were the same way.
Looking back, this is typical corporate attitude, something that's second nature for me in a job now. But at the time, this was revolutionary. I'd never seen this before.
And that did it. I'd caught the corporate bug. I was hooked. For someone who likes challenges, occasional chaos, and has a relatively short attention span, this was an environment in which I could thrive.
Through my five years at West Marine, I was able to move around a lot - sometimes through my own initiative, but more often by the business seeing a need for my skills. I worked in Inventory Control, Replenishment, I did reporting, I was a tester during the Y2K conversion, and I did training as well.
I was pretty happy doing all of these things. In retrospect, I see that I was gathering a lot of diverse skills. I was becoming a pro at Microsoft Excel and Access. I was learning about testing procedures and programming. I was learning how to conduct training effectively. And, interestingly enough, I was continuing to build my skills as an information professional.
A couple of years in, I decided I wanted to go to library school to get my degree. I realized that boat parts weren't my future (though I loved the dynamic nature of the corporation). I didn't exactly know what I'd do with my degree, but it made sense at the time. When my managers and colleagues found out I was going to library school, they started coming to me with reference questions - many of which I could answer, to their surprise and to mine.
Starting library school was another experience altogether - and another added twist to my experience in both libraries and corporate settings. (Library school rates its own entry - more to come.)
