Hose or no hose?

Since I'm talking about appearance, I came across this article on WSJ about hosiery and dress codes. I think I would still wear panty hose to an interview (or really nice socks ;->) but I will be bare-legged during the summer under my skirts.

I got to be honest: I hate hose, it's a waste. It can be cute, but I wear them as frequently as I will wear nail polish.

This one is strong in the scent

Since I take the train to work, I have gotten a good whiff of people, not to mention some of the memorable trips snuggled right into people's armpits. I have to say that though I am not a fan of BO, excessive perfume is just a killer. I walked on the deck this morning and took a deep breath of some sweetly toxic miasma and prayed I would find a seat in another car. I couldn't imagine being trapped in a room with the person and being able to think anything but, you smell funny.

If you are going on a interview, ease up on the scent. Both men and women, since men can get a bit exuberant with the spray bottle, too. Despite what you believe about allergies to scent--there is a yes/no argument about how affecting perfume is and if scent allergies really exist--if I believe that your perfume is aggravating or will give me an asthma attack, I'm not thinking kind thoughts about you. Small room, huge smell? I'm not going to be thinking about what you are saying, just when can I escape. You should also be aware that there are some workplaces that are going scent free.

And no one likes to talk about smell: it is a basic, animal sense and our reaction is instinctual and sometimes hard to control. Who wants to say to someone, you smell...odd? Doesn't seem nice, does it? But if a scent, too much of good or bad thing, is too over-powering, it could leave the wrong impression.

And I am not saying, don't wear any perfume; I'm saying, moderation is a good idea. Think about it: you go to the perfume counter and you smell a wide variety of scents. You don't like all of them, but someone will buy the others that aren't to your taste. Imagine that you have purchased and worn the scent that makes your interviewer's back teeth ache. Yeah, you aren't buying either.

So, for one day at least, spray once and step in.

Layoff, not a fun way to start the week

I've seen a bit of chatter on some of the listserves that I subscribe to about recent and upcoming layoffs. Layoffs in the public service sector--as public librarians, that's where some of you fit--are the result of the economy's belt-tightening--or the mistaken belief that less spent on public services, the less it looks like government waste. Just when the public needs us the most.

A layoff is not a firing: it has nothing to do with performance--but it still hurts like a son of a bitch. It may also be temporary and not permanent--don't we wish rent and groceries could be the same? Put it on my tab, or trust me, the cheque is in the mail.

I'm trying to soothe at the same time I'm giving a smack: it's intentional. If you are afraid of a layoff, or imminent layoffs have been announced, I don't want you to wait. I want you to get your resume ready, find some job postings, line up some freelance stuff. Why? Not just because eating is important but because I'm betting something most outplacement specialists don't think of: you still want to be a librarian. And if layoffs come, the pool of available applicants will be that much bigger.

If you look at most layoff survival advice, it's buck up, or take this as a learning experience or opportunity to switch careers. I bet most of you don't want to: librarianship is cool, it's fun, we have great colleagues, nice places to work, the pay is mediocre to abysmal, but we can read and talk to people who are interested in knowledge and books and call it work. It's not just the dream, it's the wet t-shirt whipping cream dream. I would give it up to make my mortgage payment, but not forever. And you need to plan for how you will stay on track, not at a place, but in a particular occupation.

So, what are you doing to stay librarian?

More on microloans

CNET just released an article, At microloan sites, the new college try, today about microloan sites and student loans. Basically, a microloan is a "small" loan given to a person who is not eligible for or who has exhausted other forms of credit, with terms of repayment. The loaners are not always banks--though they or other agent can become a middle man--but could be normal people who just want to help someone. For example, I just made my first Kiva loan this past week, purely out of interest in the idea of microloaning. But I wonder: could I have had a greater impact, in line with my professional goals and personal beliefs, if I had helped someone with their education?

I have some other questions:

• Will a microloaning movement in education affect the amount of money people give to scholarships? A loan is different from a scholarship, but recycling money with microlending may appeal to some givers.
• Will it affect how much people give to their alumni association--which also disperses funds to students--if they are tapped out from giving their "charity" to microlenders?
  
• Should student financial aid offices or faculties start looking for funds for students by acting as agents or intermediaries to vouch for students?
• And, would you loan money on this site? Would you look for a library student who needed funds to complete his or her education?

I think this area is going to see a lot of action in the next year, possibly affecting some students this year and more in the years to come as credit gets tighter.

Office Pranks

I don't think pranking is a good idea.

Whew, caution out of the way: here is an effective use of skills--drywallin' and video editin'--with the end result of a no-person harmed laugh.



I have a day off and I'm going to make dinner for my grandma and my aunt. Happy Friday. L8r.

Microloans

I made my first loan on Kiva today. I decided to do it because I read Banker to the Poor over a year ago and I was interested in the premise. However, after I did it, I wondered: can you get a microloan to pay for college?

Yes. And expect that more companies may be throwing their hat into the ring in this area of lending. Why? Because lenders can see who they are giving money to--a feeling that their money is helping a real known individual--and, if they do their research, the lender can feel that all of their money is going to the recipient, little or no money to administration.

Here's microloaning in a nutshell: a person who is unable to get a loan from a bank, gets a loan, which they have to repay--loan not gift--that suits their smaller needs. Some people like this model--personal, just feel so warm and squidgy after, and if the loan is repaid, the credit can be reapplied--and others wonder if it is really helping: banks turn these people down for a reason and/or the terms of the loan may make them difficult to repay. For more information, check out Microfinance on Wikipedia, or this article from The Tyee.

As it gets more difficult to get loans for education--or if you just need an "emergency loan" and you don't want to go through the scholarship office or get a line of credit that has exorbitant interest--more people may opt for the microfinance option for their studies. And grad studies--short period, usually for professional education with higher learning potential (=pay back loan) may be an answer for some students.

Is your minifeed blasting?

With Friendfeed, Twitter and the updates from the minifeed in Facebook, our friends and professional colleagues could get tired of us. And since Facebook has changed the setting so you can't close the minifeed in your profile, I have gotten a good look at how much information I am blasting out to my friends: tons. No wonder people think I'm on Facebook all the time: the constant blare from my apps is noise on their dashboards every check in.

You might want to tone down some of your apps. Each of these apps in Facebook has their own privacy settings, on the right hand side of the privacy dashboard.

Once you've selected from the apps menu, you can pick and choose the level of privacy. By default, most of my apps only let friends see what I am doing, but this means that I am constantly shouting out to my friends. For now, I'm going to switch off certain apps, knowing that I can go back in, turn on others, and tell them about other stuff that I am interested in (ie not always into the book learning, sometimes looking for new music).

One of my friends says she checks my profile for stuff to play with on Facebook (back atcha) but getting the habit of presence control is a good idea, especially if there are some days or some hobbies that you would like to go below the radar on. Reduce "spit".

Career Jet

Career Jet is a new vertical search engine for job postings. Since the vertical search engine market for job postings is a bit crowded, I'm not sure how successful it will be. It does have some strengths:

1. The search engine is international, with international and multilingual versions of the engine available from one main page. (A Big Number One.)
2. There's a directory on the main page. You can search occupation keyword, but you can also explore by industry, which a bonus for special librarians who may be looking for "information officer", "researcher" or "evangelist" positions, but don't know what the company will call the job.
   
3. Filters, such as job type, and alerts are available, but this is a pretty standard feature for these types of engines.

Drawbacks:

1. Need to work out wonky results. I searched in the Canadian version of the site and got back a library director position located in Pennsylvania that had the SK (Saskatchewan) identifier attached. This was an early problem with SimplyHired (which decided to just throttle outside US jobs instead) and may be worked out in coming weeks.
2. You can't toss out duplicates or remove postings from third-party recruiters. This inflates your job search results, making you think there are more postings, when you are really just seeing fifteen scrapes of the same post. Indeed has had a duplicate, as well as a recruiter, filter for over a year.

Despite the drawbacks, Career Jet is a good multilingual vertical search engine to add to your job search tools.

Managing Millenials

I actually hate the use of types to categorize people--I'm an individual, but I think that because I'm a Gen-X--but if you are interested in the beliefs people may hold about your generation, you might want to check out these videos:

The Infamous 60 Minutes expose on Millenials. I really liked the underwear advice--does butt floss count? Get the feeling the wise interviewers and Millenial-tamers are ignoring the signs and feeding the animals at the zoo? They're not patronizing at all.

Managing Millenials from BNET



Wall-to-wall flannel, uncombed hair and sneers.

Generation Y Shoots Back. Watch this video if you ever felt you were dismissed by an employer because of your age and their pre-conceived generational horns/halos.

Sexy Librarian

I initially saw this post on the Brazen Careerist (who I think is a cleavage career guider and I both nod at or loathe her opinions, so this is not a recommendation to follow her blog) about how people--as young as traditional college grads--are thinking about or financing plastic surgery to give themselves a career boost. Or a start, if looks really matter that much. Apparently, there is some science behind this, or a really catchy press release for the book Looks: Why they matter more than you imagined.

Of course, this has implications for people looking for work: if your teeth are yellowish or your boobs need some support or you are asymmetrical--somewhere--can it affect your employment prospects or earnings over time? According to some of the sections of the book, yep, appearance matters (available on the publisher's website; I would also recommend the podcast since it focuses on looks in the workplace from hiring to evaluation). Since I have not read the book--on my shelf right now--I have some additional questions that I hope the book covers:

• What if you are too dark for the culture's beauty standards?
• Eyes aren't round or big enough?
• How aware are some people of the interplay of beauty and what they think is attractive?
  
• And of course, the eternal question: boobs or butt?
  

While researching this post, I came across I really depressing article from Dateline NBC where they tested a variety of scenarios--lost, dropped papers, cut in line--with models of both genders and average looking people of both genders, and, well, you guessed it, cuteness got better service. The author of the Looks book was quoted at several points about their tests and his own research.

Sorry for the delay in posting: two conferences and two presentations in two weeks was just too much. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Why where you live is the most important decision

I don't know that where I live is the most important, but Richard Florida makes a compelling argument for how a community can give you more opportunities, despite the argument that interconnectivity is making "real" community an inessential consideration. For a brief sample of his argument, check out the Useful Commute Podcast from BNET
Why Where You Live Is More Important Than Ever.

Best Interview Book, Ever

One of my favourite interview books, one that I still use for prep all of the time is 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions. They aren't the toughest questions--unless you don't know what BDI questions are. If you don't know what a BDI question is and since most interviews are made up of BDI questions, you might think about having this one on your bookshelf too.

Now in its fifth edition, this book has a formula that I think works really well for first time study of BDI interview questions. The book poses a question, gives you some rationale on how to answer the question and then gives you a "green light" (good) answer and a "red light" (bad) answer. This method gives you a good example to follow and can help you analyze a response that you gave that your interview partner thinks it "bad". Questions are grouped into chapters by the type of information or soft skill the question is trying to get information about.

There is also a substantial first chapter on general interview skills and prep that you might skip if you are pressed for time but you should go back and read it when you have time.

There are other interview books on the market, some even using a similar formula, but I think this one is the best for BDI beginners.