Careers Advice

 As a former librarian, I was amused to come across this little anecdote in a book I'm reading (for review) about John Carter and Graham Pollard, the bibliographical sleuths who exposed the notorious book forger (and thief) Thomas James Wise. When Carter, a debonair Etonian with a taste for book collecting, came down from King's College, Cambridge, he had no clear idea what to do next...
'At first, he seems to have contemplated librarianship. A chance conversation with Bodleian librarian, Arthur Cowley, soon disabused him of that notion. The money might seem acceptable for a young man fresh out of university, Cowley explained, "but what do you suppose you will be getting when you are forty, and irretrievably addicted to wine, women and song?" The older man gave an embittered little snort. "Go away, my dear boy, and think again."'
  As it happens, I left librarianship at the age of forty.