Choose Your Own Adventure

I may be a little biased since I planned and organized this panel, but I thought it was actually pretty good! (Cara & Melvin can attest to that, I'm sure).  This panel was part of the UCLA Alumni Career Forum Series (All panelists were UCLA alum -- mostly around the time that I graduated, but one of them was earlier than us and was already a Principal Librarian)

The theme of our panel was based, of course, on the Choose Your Own Adventure Books and focused on everyone's journey through/into librarianship.  I moderated, and my panelists were totally fabulous, funny, candid, and insightful.

Some take-aways from the panel:

• Replace the word "fear" with the word "wonder" to see where it will get you -- Instead of "I'm afraid to take that next step" say "I wonder what will happen if I take that next step"
• Follow your passion and core values.  Make sure that whatever it is you're doing incorporates enough of them for you to be satisfied
• It's okay to be sad when you move on to the next big thing -- Dana Vinke said that every time he got a promotion he was worried he was giving up the best job of his life
• If you can, follow the yes and see where it takes you
• Your journey is your own and you can't let anyone else dictate that to you.
• Find a good mentor

And to close, the fanciest slide created from scratch I've ever seen in my life: