Podcast: Career Tips from the Wall Street Vet

BNET Useful Commute podcasts are short interviews, usually less than 8 minutes, about business topics. Many of the interviewees are business writers--promo for their books, obviously--and this interview is no different.

This interview, Career Tips from a Wall Street Vet, has to do with self-evaluation and reflection on performance, making yourself better at work--a good idea if this is your first placement, or if your job is temporary or a contract and you want to seem career minded.

[Update] I also have to add this one from the FTPress, Three Tips for Surviving the Recession, because of No. 1: Stay focused on facts. This is the hardest to do if you spend any time watching the news. It is really easy to get a severe case of CNN poisoning.

Both podcasts will take about ten minutes from your day.

Job-seeking in U.S. Public Libraries

And lo, after predicting that knowing how to help people with their job search would be an asset to a public library, the ALA releases an Issues Brief on Job-Seeking in U.S. Public Libraries, which ties libraries, their knowledgeable staff, media literacy skills and access to technology to the ability to successfully find employment or to apply for unemployment benefits.

According to the report:

Aiding job seekers was increasingly viewed as a critical role for public libraries, with 62.2% of libraries reporting this service is critical to the library's mission, up from 44% one year earlier. (p.2)

Maybe I should take up writing horoscopes as a sideline.

Librarians as job counselors

According to this interview on NPR, librarians are increasingly acting as job counselors. Libraries are increasingly seeing more people who need to use library services--computers, books, and, possibly, the library space for job clubs--to keep their personal costs down.

Though the headline is about librarians as job counselors, they aren't really offering job counseling. The library is an information space and labor market information is just one of the items that patrons are investigating.

I hope what this will mean for libraries is the redevelopment of new or the expansion existing career information centers within libraries. If you are graduating, this may be one of the areas where you can offer your skills and services, especially if you have a background in vocational guidance and job searching techniques. If you're still looking for your capping project, developing a career information center within a library is a great project. It is also a great project to talk about at an interview.

Are you a good listener?

Are you a good listener? Some of us think that we are, but never analyze our behaviors or ask people if they think that we are paying attention. But listening is an important skill for librarians. Of course, the obvious is the reference interview, making sure that you have the best information for the client's problem--but we need our listening skills when our managers or colleagues give us directions, when we attend committee meetings--especially when we are learning about a new topics, such as student awards--and we need our listening skills in the interview.

Listening is an active process: you need to know how to select information that people say to you and repeat it, so they know that you get it. Therefore, it is not enough to just listen, but to listen and repeat or listen and respond.

For managers--or anyone who hopes to be a manager--Leila's House of Corrections has a video on how to listen.



You can also practice listening:

• When you take phone messages, are you an uh-huh-er, just grunting your responses and saying, yeah, I'll make sure she gets that? Start reading back the message you have recorded and ask if this is the correct message. Ask if they have anything to add, and make sure that you have a courteous sign-off that mirrors theirs, not just a thunk down of the phone.
  
• Instead of reading a recipe and creating a meal, listen to a recipe on a podcast and make while listening. Obviously, you will need to listen more than once, especially when assembling the ingredients, but because this is an active exercise of input, the recipe, and output, dinner that tastes good, you are practicing active listening. 
• Many librarians love books and reread or write down favorite lines. But do you love audiobooks as much, and, if so, can you repeat back the lovely line that you just heard? Here's a test: use the bookmarking feature (or archaic rewind), say the line out loud and check to see if you are right.
• Raise your standards. Are you really hearing what people say, or are you content with the gist of it? Recently, I have noticed that I don't always hear all of the lines that are spoken on TV--age probably, but probably a result of years of headphone abuse--and I used to content myself with the gist of it. But if you watch Pushing Daisies or a frenetic episode of the West Wing, you're lost. Don't be satisfied with the gist of it anymore.

Listening is more than just pouring words in your ear, it includes some output and a cogent response. Test your listening skills to see if you really are as proficient as you believe.

You may already be a listening "expert": what tips or exercises do you have for people to improve their listening skills?

I just want to work with you, I don't want to eat with you

Spotted on ERE.net 

This interview is supposed to describe a "non-traditional" method of interviewing--going for a walk and coming back for dinner--but it sounds like most academic interview marathons. I like her idea of taking the time to know someone, but here is my problem:

Do I have to accept your food if I am a strict vegetarian? Listen to how she describes it: the meal is all about presentation and fit, still part of the interview. Sounds like I can't abstain.

Now, since I don't eat many shared meals with my co-workers--we have lunch together all the time, but not the same food--this is not really an issue. The last time I looked for work was before I joined the Green Side, so this hadn't been a problem. Now it is: how will I decline the pig on a stick?

Most people will think this is easy. It is not, as most vegetarians will tell you. The reasons that people become vegetarian are usually quite diverse and may be very murky, filled with dark secrets about arteries, could have to do with their religion, or beliefs about peace and nitrates, and, well, I really don't want to explain. Do you really want to hear about my arteries? No more than I want to hear about your Metamucil intake. I just want to say, No thanks, you go ahead. And drink my green tea (though, that's a lie, it would be hi-test black coffee). And not have to answer any more questions about it. I just want to say no.

Vegetarians are not the only people with this problem. Many religions have dietary rules that cross Appleby's off the list of places to go for a chat. You may also be taking out a candidate for lunch during her religion's fast day or period.

You might be able to see where I'm going with this but I'll be clear:

1. The interviewer just doesn't know about other cultures, religions and their rules.
   
2. The interviewer does know and knows she can't ask at the interview, so she is going to see if the candidate passes on the food and the reason for the pass.
   

Now the nice lady in the video is just trying to find "fit" and is possibly just the jolly Seinfeld cake pusher she appears to be, so I don't think she is Type 2. Type 2 is more insidious, especially if you have to work with a diverse client culture. I should be able to decline politely and move on. What I eat, when, and how, has nothing to do with my job performance.

Do I say skip the meal? Not at all. But I am sure it has come up for others in the past: how do you decline food without insult?

Your attitude sucks

Inspired by 21 Keys to Magnetic Likability by Marc and Angel Hack Life

Now, we can't always be Pollyanna, but there are some people who definitely act like someone urinated in their cornflakes every morning. And they're just no fun to work with. They are also a difficult hire because they look combative or stubborn.

You know who you are: you answered a question about using the catalog and answered by redesigning it with tags and a mashup, or you told your interviewers that since story time numbers are down, they should do reader's advisory for manga, or you helpfully explained why undergrads are incapable of understanding RefWorks--and here's how you would fix undergrads. Your beliefs--and maybe you're right about tags, manga and undergrads--are not the tools you need to answer the question. A concrete example, with some proof please, is what they are looking for (#13 and #14).

When people are smart, they can be likable, but they often struggle with #13 and #18 because they are so damn smart--and so sure they are right. Try to adopt a more moderate style, not giving in, but making the delivery better with kindness and evidence.

Hiring is hard work (from Business Week)

Jack and Suzy Welch have a column in the back of Business Week magazine and last week they discussed some of the difficulties of hiring. They are reminding employers--and yes, job seekers--that there is more to the candidate than good paper and charm. Here are some of the other qualities they look for:

• Good references. Note to self: Did you check with your references and make sure that they are available to take calls?
• They have good paper but do they give good face? Note to self: your resume may look good, but if you didn't do some interview prep and got feedback on your attitude--too aggressive or too humble--you may not be portraying yourself in the best light.
• There are some jobs where they are desperate to hire. Note to self: what can you do that others really, really want? In libraries, licensing, dealing with e-books, developing distance programs and services. Are those skills coming through in paper and in presentation?

Of course, these check points are huge and they involve looking at your resume as well as evaluating how you answer questions. If you aren't sure how to do it, you should get some help.

Too technical

If you show up for the interview and the whole Best Buy handheld devices section slides out of your briefcase, can you look like a tech addict? If HR googles you and discovers your blog, your Flickr stream, your Facebook, your MySpace, your tweets, before they find your capping exercise/thesis, could you look too techie, and too troublesome?

When I had my first internship placement, I got a mid-placement evaluation and my supervisor said that I tended to use the Internet too much. Now, this was the early days of the millennium, and there was still a lot of suspicion about the Internet and its non-fun/non-porn value for libraries, but I did listen to her and repented and used more print resources. (I wonder how much of that stuff is only accessible as a database now?) But I think, to her, I looked like too much of a techie, too quick to look for the power button before the table of contents. I wonder if tech savvy is not read sometimes by HR as tech savagery: we look too high maintenance, like a temperamental wireless router.

I have thought of my technical skills as a benefit, since I am not afraid of any new items that we want to introduce, nor any project--and there are more of them lately--that require some knowledge of the internet and its many languages and gestures. I am also aware of the eye-rolling when I gush over my blackberry or get excited about extra USB ports and I do try to tone down my excitement. But it does make me think: Are too many internet or technical skills a deficit?