Should I forgo job security for job experience?

I strongly recommend expanding one’s employment skills even if such a decision involves giving up job security. To survive in today’s difficult economy, an employee needs to acquire many marketable and needed skills. 

In 1980, after working as an editor/proofreader of scholarly books and academic journals at Penn State’s university press, located in the heart of picturesque and mountainous State College, Pennsylvania, I decided to leave my full-time editorial position in order to work as a freelance editor for other publishers and to also work in a bookstore. While working at the press, I had attended several national conferences, such as the Modern Language Association conferences and the College Art Association conferences and had also volunteered to oversee Penn State’s exhibits and to sell their publications at these meetings. I enjoyed editing books as well as selling them. 

My decision to leave a full-time position enabled me to gain more editorial job experience and knowledge–Princeton University Press hired me as a freelance editor in 1980 and I worked for the press until 1984–as well as book selling skills. Right after I left the press, I was very fortunate to have Arnie Rubin, the owner of the First Edition Bookstore in State College, hire me to sell literally thousands of books that his store carried. Resembling a Barnes & Noble bookstore, the First Edition carried everything–from art books to cookbooks to sports books and biographies to regional publications about Pennsylvania and its very rich history. And the children’s section was filled with hundreds of interesting titles. During this time, I took advantage of the employee discount and purchased several scholarly books to read at home. 

Located on several hundred acres of land in mountainous central Pennsylvania, Penn State University is an ideal setting in which to work, study, and read. And the bookstore in which I worked was situated on busy College Avenue, directly opposite the main campus, thus providing students, faculty, and residents easy access to thousands of books.  Hundreds of college students visited the store each day as well as professors and residents of other Pennsylvania towns, some of whom drove several miles to purchase their favorite titles, perhaps a biography, a history of Pennsylvania, books about gardending, or simply several romance paperbacks. When the Nittany Lions were playing a home game, about 150 thousand football fans conveged on State College to attend the game, and many visited our bookstore afterward and purchased several titles.

It was during this time that I met a few celebrities at the bookstore and on campus, including the octogenarian bandleader Fred Waring, who gave concerts and master classes at Penn State during the last few summers of his life, dozens of faculty members, most noteworthy, professor and author Stanley Weintraub, who is a specialist on World War II history and the biographer of George Bernard Shaw, and the great football star, Kurt Warner, who was an undergraduate at the time and asked me to recommend a good biography of Martin Luther King!  And, last but not least, while enjoying supper at an Italian restaurant one evening after work, I met Angelina Jolie’s uncle, Barry Voight, who at that time was teaching geology at Penn State. 

As for the manuscripts I edited for Princeton at home, some subjects included political science, philosophy, religion, history, and a study of Confucianism. Certainly, had I stayed at the press and worked full time, I never would have been able to gain the job experience that I did, thus enabling me to further my career in publishing.  In conclusion, if you can afford to forgo job security for a short time in order to gain other skills and job experience, I recommend that you consider your options.