So what are you going to do with that?

Well, if you're already a librarian--and know that you still want to be one--you will do library-stuff. But for masters and PhD students who are thinking about leaving an academic career--or one of the many librarians who left ABD for library school, and I know a few of you personally--you should spend an evening with this book.

So what are you going to do with that?: Finding careers outside of academia, revised in 2007, is the project of Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius. You may have read Susan Basalla's columns in the Chronicle, or seen the authors posting on WRK4US. So what are you going to do with that? helps students and academics with what I think personally is one of their greatest problems: a lack of knowledge of careers outside of academia.

Let me give you an example. If you don't want to do what your parents do, who do you see next as a professional or worker? You guessed it: a teacher. Now, some of us also visited the school library, or spent time with the school nurse (maybe a truant officer) but most of us saw teaching as a noble--and powerful--profession, since they held the chalk.

Then you went to college and ta-dum, you met the professor who controlled the PowerPoint and drank beer in the off-hours like a normal person. At the same time, you either a) worked crap jobs that you didn't want to do for the rest of your life; b) gave into your parents and got a degree in something that was supposed to lead to a job; or c) asked around or read a book about some other options. Many of us did not do complete part c before going to graduate school, so now we know very little about jobs, occupations and professions. So what are you going to do with that? is part of option c, which all of us in college should do--yes, read a book about careers. Now is the time!

Anyway, back to the book. Basalla and Debelius provide profiles (including Todd Gilman, a librarian who has also written for Chronicle about library and librarian stuff) of what former academics have done since departing from academia. They provide advice on how to research careers, including one of the best recipes for information interviewing, and even some sample resumes. Quotes from former academics and their advice on how to leave academia are spread throughout the book, providing evidence for how career management can work for people with advanced degrees.

One of my favorites, which I'll quote here, is from Jennifer Stone Gonzalez, who explains why grad students don't like to network:

In the business world, the most important information flows through people, not texts. Most of what you learn in business comes from informal dialogue, whether in person, on the phone, or via e-mail. This is one reason why people in the business world work so hard to establish interpersonal alliances. People in the business world read so they can cull information for us in conversations that fuel this exchange of learning and solve practical problems (p.79).

The emphasis is not on solitary analysis but on information sharing--which librarians learn to do and begin to like to do. See, you can network.

So what are you going to do with that? provides basic career management advice and resources, both print and online, that you can use to begin to acquire more occupational knowledge. If you're a graduate student about to leave the papered nest, you should read this book.

Jobs created, jobs lost

Repackaging the job creation/saved interactive map on Recovery.gov, HR Guru has put together an interactive map of job losses/creation by state, and created a slideshow by industry.

Now, librarians can be found in any industry, especially if they work in special libraries, but if you take the "traditional" classification--if you're in public libraries, you're usually lumped in with recreation, if you are in school or academic, you usually get counted in education--those two sectors will see the lowest losses, and some gain in the education sector.

Where, oh where, is Superman?

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

Don't waste your do-over.

Rubrics

If you're working on your cover letter, resume or interview skills, and aren't quite sure how to judge your work, NACE JobWeb has a series of rubrics (for resumes, cover letters, interviews) that you can use to evaluate your stuff.

If you're working on a presentation for your library, you may want to compare some of your materials to theirs, or direct your attendees to also take a look at the material on JobWeb.

I'm baaack

I was on holidays, and I don't do work on holidays, because, well, it's a holiday and blogging is work. (Anyone who thinks that blogging isn't work, doesn't blog.)

Glad to be home.

Job losses lead to worldwide instability

Some people may be hearing REM after they read this article about how worldwide job losses are leading to global political insecurity. Stories like this indicate that it may not be as easy as HBR proposes for American workers to join a global diaspora in search of work.

However, it is great news, some indication that we may be entering a stable period, now that the stimulus plan has passed.

Rebound in 2010?

Moody's Economy.com is predicting a rebound for jobs in 2010, and USA Today has taken their data and made an interactive map of the current status and the predictions. The Bank of Canada made a similar prediction for Canada, but we didn't make a cool map, though we had a cooler line: "we don't do spin."

Read a little farther past the map and you'll come to a link to this article, Recession's reach limits our ability to find work by moving which explains one of the reasons why Americans are really suffering in the slump: a loss of labor mobility. They can't flee the turmoil in one state and move to another, 'cause the fire has spread throughout the house. Relocation, however, is still a good strategy to get your career off the ground (shameless link to my article on LIScareer about relocating). This is especially true for librarians, who don't have to get recertified in each state or province and because, wherever knowledge is, we need people who can organize it and remember where they put it.

For librarians who deal with the public who are looking for work, I want to call attention to this statement from one of the people interviewed for the article:

"I've not (formally) applied for a job since I was 19 years old. I've always gone on to the next one, so it's going to be an interesting experience."

Sadly, these are the people who are going to need a resume writing class, some interview prep, and maybe a shot in the arm when they ask why they aren't getting any call backs when they've had their resume on Monster for a whole week. If you are opposed to violence, you can hug them afterward, but they still need a shot in the arm if they think they are going to google their way out of a job loss.

Job Angels

ERE has a post about a recruiter who is using his Twitter network to help "just one person" find a job.

This can work for librarians if you use two methods: one, library recruiters and HR managers share out their postings on Twitter, or, two, a local network is posting jobs that will help people they are connected to. In both methods, you need to have people subscribed to your tweets to get connected to the postings (a if the bird chirps in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? Web 2.0 conundrum).

Recession support groups

The Globe and Mail has an article today about recession support groups, either online, for example on Facebook, or meeting in public places using Meetup. The emphasis is on positive thinking and strategies for surviving the recession.

How to stream your presentation

Presentations: a requirement in almost every library interview. But if you could make your pitch before the live audience, should you?

Though clearly showing the effects of too much Red Bull on the undergraduescent Hack College explains the technical issues very pimp-ly...um... simply.


And he's right: why not get more mileage out of your classroom presentations? If you have to make presentations in class or during your internship, and you are comfortable with being filmed and the audience is game, go ahead. There is no guarantee that all of your effort is going to lead to a reward, but if we looked for a reward for all of our efforts, we'd just stay at home and watch reality TV.

You might want your video to look more like ZdNet's Whiteboard video, (and use a tripod but not a spider), and for more ideas on how to use pictures in presentations, read Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam.

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.

Surviving a telephone interview

Personally, I feel that anyone who does proper preparation for a regular F2F interview will be prepared for a telephone interview. There is no secret to surviving the phone interview: there won't be any less or more BDI questions, because these are still dictated by the whims of the interviewer, or the stage of the interviewing process; there will be silences, but there will be silences in any interview or forced conversation; technical glitches, like dropped calls or hissing speaker phones; no body language, but then again, many people deceive themselves into thinking they are adept readers of body language when really they are so clueless we wonder if they have a body. Yes, you can show up for this interview in your pajamas, but if they ask if you would enable your web camera, you're screwed.

Here is the number one difference between F2F interviews and telephone interviews: you control the environment. Normally, the interviewer controls the environment: the room is quiet, the door closes, there are limited distractions and usually no interruptions. They know what to expect and so do you, in their little interview cocoon. Telephone interviews usually go awry because they aren't under the environmental control of the interviewer.

The candidate has spent so much time memorizing their 30 second pitch for tell me about yourself, and how time saving it will be to wear pajamas, that they have not thought very much about their environment. Where are the kids, the dogs, when will people arrive home, can they be told to shush up without you losing your concentration or temper? We forget about our environment because we are so accustomed to it, turning the volume up and down in our heads as we need to pay attention. We forget what it is like to be strangers in our own house.

You should also check your phone. Have you called someone and asked, what can you hear in the background? If they answer, nothing, but you breathing like a psycho killer, you might want to think about replacing your phone because it is a little too sensitive. Unless you really do sound like you're auditioning for When a Stranger Calls.

When I graduated from library school, I had several phone interviews, and most went well because I was prepped. The interview I blew, unfortunately for a job I really wanted, happened when I was 2 minutes into the interview and my dogs started howling like they were out on the moors hunting for postman flesh to devour. I managed to get them to shush (away from the phone, thank god, I know some words that sailors don't, cuz I'm an over-educated person) but I just couldn't get it back together when I returned to the phone. I just kept thinking, will it happen again?

So, the best way to survive a phone interview? Do all of your preparation, as usual, and take control of the interview environment.