________________________________________
From: Vernon Rood [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:12 PM
To: Archives & Archivists (A&A) List
Subject: Re: [archives] Career advice for a new and probably clueless graduate
[Please forgive my tardy response to this topic on the List. This
message consists in part of a re-posting of information I sent to the
List in 2007 and 2009 in response to the same question, plus new
thoughts from 2012.]
Re: Archival Catch-22
Give me your poor, tired, huddled masses . . . of unemployed college
graduates . . . yearning to be . . . employed . . . and I will give you
. . . employment . . . eventually . . . if you are flexible.
- The American Colossus (21st century version)
Dear Recent Graduate:
You have hit upon a conundrum in the archival field, that employers
demand experience but do not want to give experience. The situation was
exactly the same when I began my career, over a quarter-of-a-century
ago. This Catch-22 was one of the reasons that I opposed the Certified
Archivist program when it was first proposed, because it was open only
to people who already had jobs. It was a case of the rich getting
richer.
Your escape from this Catch-22 situation could be the same as
mine—federal employment. The federal government employs large
numbers of archivists and records managers, both in obvious places like
the National Archives and also in many other agencies.
In addition, there is a subset of federal information professionals who
work almost exclusively with security-classified records. It is well
known that the American national security apparatus produces an immense
amount of security-classified records. It is less well known that the
government relies on smart, dedicated specialists to store, to access,
and eventually, to declassify this information. There are good careers
to be made in this field.
If you are put off by the well-publicized fact that the National
Archives has recently ranked at the bottom of major federal agencies in
terms of worker morale, there are still numerous other agencies to
consider. The State Department, for example, has a very active records
program and declassification effort, including the publication of the
documentary editions in the series entitled, “Foreign Relations of the
United States” (FRUS).
If you are interested, inquire at the personnel office of any agency
that produces and holds security-classified records, that is, the armed
forces, intelligence agencies, the FBI, the State Department, and
others.
All jobs in the field of declassification require security clearances,
and many require polygraph tests (lie detectors)—though not yet at the
National Archives. It can take a year to get into a job, perhaps less
if you work for a contractor. Work with security-classified government
records is definitely a growth industry.
Note 1: All of the above information is available from public sources.
Note 2: These opinions are entirely my own and do not reflect the
opinions of the National Archives or the federal government.
BTW: If you want to know what federal workers are paid, check out the
below-listed website. Thanks to FOIA, about 70% of federal employees
are listed online, together with their salaries:
http://php.app.com/fed_employees11/search.php
V. Paul Rood, Archivist
National Declassification Center (NDC)
National Archives
College Park, Maryland
U.S.A.
>>> Chris Krause <[log in to unmask]> 5/19/2012 12:02 AM >>>
Hi all,
Here is a blog post I made with the combined personal correspondence
that was sent to me including advice on how to get into the field, get
a
job, network, avoid pitfalls and generally survive:
http://www.krauselabs.net/?p=1457
NOTE: All correspondence has been made anonymous and all identifying
information has been removed. If you don't want your message to me made
public please message me and i'll remove it immediately.
I got a lot of good guidance, thanks to those who responded!
Chris
--
Chris Krause, MLIS
[log in to unmask]
631-576-4975 (office, try here first)
631-455-5322 (mobile)
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The ARCHIVES & ARCHIVISTS (A&A) LIST is sponsored by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The opinions expressed on the A&A List do not necessarily represent those of SAA and are not endorsed by the Society.
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