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the_lady_lily) wrote2011-01-23 02:14 pm
the_lady_lily) wrote2011-01-23 02:14 pm
Entry tags:
Bibliography
Remus - T. P. Wiseman
I'm trying to get into more of Wiseman's work, as he seems to be One Of Those People who does interesting stuff with early Roman history and I want to know more. This one will be of no interest to anyone who isn't a classicist. Basically, it's an analysis of the Romulus and Remus myth and its origins, asking when it probably came into being and what the forces behind its origins were. Wiseman has a bit too much fun picking apart the holes in the comparative mythology approach before exploring various material, literary and archeological evidence to come up with an explanation of why Remus turns up in the myth, why he's a twin, and why he needs to be killed off. Wiseman's hypothesis is that the myth developed over the course of a generation and stuck, fuelled by political fighting between the patricians and plebians, and that various elements of the myth got added in for various other groups' use.
Now, I should highlight that this is the kind of academic work What I Am No Good At. It involves looking at material historically in a way that I just can't get my head around, and I'm jolly glad other people are better at it than I am. But it was a worthwhile read to see what the point was, and to bear this is mind if I ever do get around to working on Plautus, who is the closest I'm ever likely to get to the historical period that Wiseman is dabbling in.
What Colour Is Your Parachute? - Dick Bolles
This is another step in my pragmatic 'what we do if the academic world doesn't work out' program. Parachute is a classic of the career change/job hunt manual genre, although I should add that it isn't actually a manual; a fresh edition is published every year, which must add to its success as it manages to stay relevant. (I read the 2010 edition.) There seems little point in listing exercises and so forth, but I am going to say a little bit about Bolles' overall approach. This makes a lot more sense when you read the first appendix in the Green Pages at the end of the book - because Bolles is coming at this from the perspective of an ex-Episcopalian minister. He thinks of people being drawn to jobs by their innate qualities. In fact, the entirety of the approach this book takes could be summed up by the lovely sentence from Fred Buechner - "the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet".
None (or very, very little) of that makes it into the pages outside the Green ones, I hasten to add, but it does inform Bolles' approach. For, if you are to find where you are going to be happy, you have to know what your deep gladness comes from, which means knowing yourself. A lot of Parachute is dedicated to finding Stuff Out About Yourself, which in some ways is actually quite helpful, as through the medium of something called The Flower Diagram he gives you the means to articulate Important Stuff in a handy quick-reference way that can be your reference point through the job search. Part of where I am right now is working this sort of stuff out, about skills and abilities and so on, so this is actually incredibly helpful for me, and now that I've read through the book I will be going back through to do the exercises that I've marked as potentially helpful.
A lot of the job hunting advice is... well. Bolles implies there are people out there who seem to think that posting your CV on the internet is enough to get you a job. I cannot imagine anyone actually thinks that works. He provides stats to back his claim up, but even I (poor wee mite of an academic) know that's a just plain stupid strategy. He does offer a lot of other options, with various percentage success rates, a lot of which operate on the premise that there is a 'hidden' job market that you need to work your way into by means of talking to people and just plain asking if someone who could hire you somewhere you would like to work would be interested in someone with your skills. This is all fine and dandy, but I will admit it makes me cringe the tiniest bit. I think this is going to be far more useful for helping me sort out my what-on-earth-am-I-doing and finding new keywords to describe what it is that I want to do than it is for actually giving me job search techniques - but, at the moment, the more ways I can find to sell myself, and the more skills I have to sell, the better.
I'm trying to get into more of Wiseman's work, as he seems to be One Of Those People who does interesting stuff with early Roman history and I want to know more. This one will be of no interest to anyone who isn't a classicist. Basically, it's an analysis of the Romulus and Remus myth and its origins, asking when it probably came into being and what the forces behind its origins were. Wiseman has a bit too much fun picking apart the holes in the comparative mythology approach before exploring various material, literary and archeological evidence to come up with an explanation of why Remus turns up in the myth, why he's a twin, and why he needs to be killed off. Wiseman's hypothesis is that the myth developed over the course of a generation and stuck, fuelled by political fighting between the patricians and plebians, and that various elements of the myth got added in for various other groups' use.
Now, I should highlight that this is the kind of academic work What I Am No Good At. It involves looking at material historically in a way that I just can't get my head around, and I'm jolly glad other people are better at it than I am. But it was a worthwhile read to see what the point was, and to bear this is mind if I ever do get around to working on Plautus, who is the closest I'm ever likely to get to the historical period that Wiseman is dabbling in.
What Colour Is Your Parachute? - Dick Bolles
This is another step in my pragmatic 'what we do if the academic world doesn't work out' program. Parachute is a classic of the career change/job hunt manual genre, although I should add that it isn't actually a manual; a fresh edition is published every year, which must add to its success as it manages to stay relevant. (I read the 2010 edition.) There seems little point in listing exercises and so forth, but I am going to say a little bit about Bolles' overall approach. This makes a lot more sense when you read the first appendix in the Green Pages at the end of the book - because Bolles is coming at this from the perspective of an ex-Episcopalian minister. He thinks of people being drawn to jobs by their innate qualities. In fact, the entirety of the approach this book takes could be summed up by the lovely sentence from Fred Buechner - "the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet".
None (or very, very little) of that makes it into the pages outside the Green ones, I hasten to add, but it does inform Bolles' approach. For, if you are to find where you are going to be happy, you have to know what your deep gladness comes from, which means knowing yourself. A lot of Parachute is dedicated to finding Stuff Out About Yourself, which in some ways is actually quite helpful, as through the medium of something called The Flower Diagram he gives you the means to articulate Important Stuff in a handy quick-reference way that can be your reference point through the job search. Part of where I am right now is working this sort of stuff out, about skills and abilities and so on, so this is actually incredibly helpful for me, and now that I've read through the book I will be going back through to do the exercises that I've marked as potentially helpful.
A lot of the job hunting advice is... well. Bolles implies there are people out there who seem to think that posting your CV on the internet is enough to get you a job. I cannot imagine anyone actually thinks that works. He provides stats to back his claim up, but even I (poor wee mite of an academic) know that's a just plain stupid strategy. He does offer a lot of other options, with various percentage success rates, a lot of which operate on the premise that there is a 'hidden' job market that you need to work your way into by means of talking to people and just plain asking if someone who could hire you somewhere you would like to work would be interested in someone with your skills. This is all fine and dandy, but I will admit it makes me cringe the tiniest bit. I think this is going to be far more useful for helping me sort out my what-on-earth-am-I-doing and finding new keywords to describe what it is that I want to do than it is for actually giving me job search techniques - but, at the moment, the more ways I can find to sell myself, and the more skills I have to sell, the better.
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Also, the parachute book is written for the US industry job market, which is quite different from the UK situation because we have more legislation stopping employers from exercising complete nepotism all the time.
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One of the graduates that came on our course last year got a job from spending a few days in London, calling into offices of all the interior design companies she could find, and dropping off her CV and trying to get a few minutes conversation with either the head of the agency or the head of recruitment.
It starts to work once you have specialised a bit, when you can sell yourself not just as "talented person looking for job" but "hi, I'm here, this is what I can do for you - are you interested?" I found it impossible straight after my PhD, but now I'm getting a bit more specialised and experienced in my area, it makes a lot more sense.
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*sigh* I suspect I am stressing myself out about this all far too early, but at least I should have a firm idea of what I can actually say to people in terms of 'hi, here are my skills' by the time I leave the US. Which will be precisely when, according to my records, the temporary job ads spiked. Sigh.