Tag: work

Hello old friend!

Kiyomi's picture with caption Hello old friend!
Hello old friend!

I’ll buy a coffee next time I see you for the first person who recognizes the title quote and can tell me what it’s from and who said it. If you don’t recognize it you obviously weren’t watching the same geeky shows as I was in the late 90s.

As I mentioned at the very end of my last post I realize it has been quite a while since I posted on here. There are two reason’s for that. One is that I’ve been very busy, I’ll post a catch-up list of things I was up to at the end of this post to illustrate said business. Two is that I don’t believe in posting just to post. It’s one thing to scribble notes to myself in a Google Doc, pad of paper, notebook app, it’s another to write things for no purpose online, especially when you’ve built a website that focuses on sharing interesting facts, useful resources, and on occasion sharing a professional opinion. While I enjoy writing, and in some ways do find it relaxing there is an upper limit to how much I can write per-week that is actually decent enough to share with other people. In a different job that wouldn’t be an issue but fortunately or unfortunately I managed to find a job where I love a lot of the things I do which means that my work and my hobby interests tend to be very left-brain. When work gets busy I actually have to give up some of my hobbies or all I would do is left-brain activities!

Here’s a list of my major activities since I last posted. If you’d like to talk about any of them you are always free to email me at work. I am especially happy to talk about data management and issues of equity and professional development and retention.

Deards, K. & Springs, G. R. (Eds.). (2014). Succession Planning and Implementation in Libraries: Practices and Resources. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global. March 2014.

Deards, K. (2013). Health equity in academic libraries, not just for those we serve. ACRL 2013 Proceedings (Association of College and Research Libraries 2013 Conference).

Deards, K. D., Graybill, J. O. (2014). The role of professional protocols: recruitment, retention, and service. In Deards, K. & Springs, G. R. (Eds.), Succession Planning and Implementation in Libraries: Practices and Resources. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.

Deards, K. (2013). Why, how, and where we?re going next: a multi-institution look at data management services. CLIR Report: Research Data Management, Principles, and Prospects, 160, 43-63.?Link: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub160/pub160.pdf

Deards, K. (2013). Physics. In Cheryl LaGuardia (Ed.), Magazines for Libraries 22nd Edition. New York, NY: Proquest.

Deards, K. (2013). Why, how, and where we’re going next: a multi-institution look at data management services. CNI DataRes Symposium (Coalition for Networked Information).

Deards, K. (2013). Suddenly I’m consulting on data management plans. SLA First Five Years Council. [Invited speaker]. [Webinar].
Handout as PDF: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/library_talks/95/

Deards, K. (2013). Holistic approaches to service: connecting researchers to libraries through relationship building. 245th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, Division of Chemical Information, Library Cafes, Intellectual Commons and Virtual Services, Oh My!? Charting New Routes for Users into Research Libraries Symposium.

Deards, K., Dorney, E., & Kim, B. [2013]. Stealth librarianship: creating meaningful connections through user experience, outreach, and liaising. [ACRL e-learning webcast].

Allison, D., Deards, K., & Lee, K. [2013]. The easy button for data management. Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology.

Tales from the Tenure Track: Cost of Living

One of the most important things to consider when evaluating a job offer is the cost of moving to the location and the local cost of living once you arrive. For some company’s and many institutions of higher education some sort of moving allowance is provided. I’ll address the cost of moving in a later post, but for today I’d like to look at the day to day costs of living.

For the purposes of comparison I’ve attached below one fake set of living expenses (my expenses are higher and I am married) for a year and it shows how much money is left over at three different salary levels.

Here’s some things to consider if you decide to do your own comparison:

Don’t estimate for the cheapest places to live in a new area, you’ll probably want to live somewhere nicer, people who are single may be able to save money by renting a room but don’t count on being able to find one initially if you have a short amount of time from hire to start date.

Remember that the cost of health insurance, 401(k) contributions, and many other costs will vary greatly from one work place to another so be sure and input all your expenses for an accurate comparison.

Please note that for the 401(k) / retirement contribution line the cost per year cell is actually showing the % income being save, in this case 5.5% which is equal to 0.055. If you wanted to save 8% per year you would change the number to 0.08.

If you haven’t rented by yourself before please note that the numbers used in my estimate for utilities are a bit low for many months of the year, I just adjusted the numbers till the $40,000 column had a positive number of dollars left over.

Please do not mess with the taxes etc. column, it isn’t 100% accurate but it’s a decent estimate of combined government with holdings.

If you are married or single and have a child your health insurance may be more, if you are single it may be less. Be sure and count any annual shots or physicals, specialist visits, mammograms or colonoscopes, allergy shots, daily or seasonal medications, and of course allow for the possibility that you just might get sick once or twice in a new area. Don’t forget dentists, teeth cleaning, and eye doctors and glasses / contacts.
For car expenses remember gas, oil lube and filter changes, tires, insurances, maintenance, windshield wiper fluid, oil, and any ongoing or potential maintenance costs.

If you haven’t been attending conferences consider this a reality check, most major conferences run for $120-$1000 just for registration. Add in plane fare $300-$600 if you book it at a good time, and a hotel room, usually about $200-$250 per night for larger conferences and you can be looking at a hefty bill before you even pay for you food, cabs around town, and transportation to and from the airport. Depending on which conferences you need to attend even a hefty stipend may not go far, and some places don’t provide any support for conferences (which should be a huge red flag in my opinion since I have yet to hear of a library that doesn’t require conference attendance.)

And of course you need to budget for things like clothing, especially if you are moving to a different climate, shoes, undergarments (these do wear out, if you buy a few new every year you can avoid having everything fall apart at the same time and spread the cost out over time.)

If you are married don’t forget to put in your spouses expenses, especially if they don’t have a job waiting for them, you never know if they will find a job immediately or a year from when you move so plan to live without their income.

Be realistic and admit that you are going to end up spending money at restaurants and coffee shops. Even though I don’t frequent these places a lot on my own I have had many very important meetings over lunch or a cup of coffee so budget for these events accordingly on top of money to go out with your family/friends, etc.

There are some empty columns at the bottom you can fill in if you download the file or Google Spreadsheet.

Please, please please check your costs of living before you accept!

Image of a spreadsheet calculating estimated Cost of Living expenses at a variety of salaries. To access the file this image is based of continue navigating down the page to the links to an Excel and Google Sheets version of the file.

To play with your own numbers feel free to download a copy of the Excel file or click the link to the Public Google Document and save your own Google Spreadsheet to play with.

XLS Estimated Cost of Living File (Excel File to Download)

Google Spreadsheet Estimated Cost of Living File (Web Page, I recommend downloading your own copy in whatever format works best or saving a private copy to your Google Account.)

Remember, if you can’t afford to pay for all of your monthly expenses on the salary you are being offered you will either need to: find a secondary income, cut your expenses, or think about refusing the job.