working professional

 Last week I mentioned that I will be starting a new job, but the other applicants hadn't been notified yet. But now I can tell people.

On Thursday, February 23, I had a video call on which I was offered a long-term part-time job as an editor for Utah Historical Quarterly, an academic journal published by the Utah Division of State History. The lead historian, who offered me the position, was very flattering. She told me my interview and writing sample were nearly perfect, and she said my references only had good things to say. So that was reassuring.

But I couldn't accept the position immediately. I had applied to a full-time editing position with the Church History Department, and I hadn't heard back yet. If they offered me a position, which would I choose? Would I have two part-time jobs (my current Church History Department contract and the state job) or would I choose one full-time job? So I reached out to the hiring manager for the Church job to see if they had made a decision. She called me and told me they offered the position to someone else.

So I was glad I didn't have to choose. But even if I had to choose, I think I would have picked the two part-time jobs. That way I don't have to choose. I'm literally working for church and state at the same time! My Church job has me doing history, while my state job will have me editing history. I think this arrangement will ultimately be better for my career. My Church tasks right now are fun and exciting and will give me some great opportunities, and honestly I think I would miss some of the opportunities if I had the full-time Church job I applied for. And all my professional experience in academia has been at the Church and BYU, so it will be nice to get some academic experience outside of the institution.

Still, it is a little frustrating that I still don't have a permanent full-time career yet. I've just spent my whole life not knowing what things will look like in the not-too-distant future, and that will continue for now.

Three years ago, I interviewed for a part-time editing job for state parks. They didn't hire me because I was going to grad school. That would have been a fun job because my geology background might have been relevant. But for many years I have thought it would be fun to edit for Utah Historical Quarterly, and now that will become a reality!

It's nice to feel like I'm actually going somewhere with my career, like grad school is starting to pay off.

On February 25, the Church History Department hosted a women's history symposium. It had originally been planned by Kate Holbrook, who I worked with on At the Pulpit, but then she died last summer, so they held the event in her honor. I don't know that I'm especially cut out for academic conferences like that; sometimes I had a hard time focusing, especially when the speakers had accents or laryngitis. But if I want to consider myself an academic, I need to get used to settings like that. And I asked what I thought was a reasonably intelligent question during a Q&A.

This week I was doing some research, and the sources I needed were not digitized, and the microfilm was not available, so I had to call up the nearly 170-year-old original documents up to my desk. I couldn't help but think, Who gets to do that?! Is this real life?

I feel like I haven't really taken advantage of all my free time the last couple of months. I haven't done a lot of fun or memorable things. But this week will be my last part-time week, and I will be helping out as a middle-school judge for National History Day, which is like a science fair but for history.

I'm looking forward to starting a new phase of my career next week!