Expert

Tomorrow I got back to only doing one job at work. I've been seconded since March, and had a brief stint as Acting University Librarian, which other people seemed to think was an achievement but I primarily saw as an unwanted and embarrasing burden.

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted the Acting opportunity, and said so when my supervisor asked me. But I figured doing it temporarily was the best way to find out. It's been good to get a wider perspective of the organisation, and I can't say it hasn't also been gratifying at times to have a little more influence. But I will be pleased to go "back" to the job I was actually hired for, and be able to focus only on that role.

I read an article today from Psyche about "How to become an expert", through the lens of the traditional apprentice-journeyman-master stages. The way this is outlined, it became a little clearer that I consider myself to still be in the Journeyman stage. In the article Roger Kneebone points out that there can be a mismatch between positions in an organisational hierarchy, and levels of actual expertise. That's certainly happened to me in the past and whilst it was to my financial benefit, I'm not sure it was to my psychic benefit. I wasn't ready, and I knew it.

This time I'm listening to my inner voice telling me I have so much more to learn before I can consider myself an "expert" in academic librarianship. I don't feel bored or constrained by my official role at all. Quite the opposite: the secondment has stopped me from achieving what I wanted for my team, and it's been even more obvious since I've been back managing them directly (as well as continuing in the secondment, sigh).

So I've learned *a lot* whilst acting in a more senior role, but one of those things is that I wouldn't want to keep doing it, at least for now. I have too many more "hands on" technical things I want and need to learn. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it.

How to become an expert