Creating your own summer job

It is possible to create your own summer job or internship, if the postings coming up at your school don't match with what you want to do for the summer. Here are some of the steps you will need to take:

1. Write an employment proposal. What are you going to do for this organization? What do they need from you? This means you need to look at the librarian tasks that you are qualified to perform and explain how they would help your target organization. Your resume should also be part of this package.
   
2. Find an organization or sector to send your proposal to. You can use a directory like the Canadian Company Capabilities Directory or CHIN to find an organization to work for. I would also suggest trying to meet with them in person, so see if you can find contact information for their human resource person or find out if they are going to be in attendance at any upcoming career fairs. If they aren't hiring librarians, ask them if they have accepted employment proposals in the past and if they may be amenable to receiving yours.
   
3. Figure out how you will get paid. There are subsidies for employers, like STEP in Alberta or some of the Sector Councils have money available, whether in grants for a project or wages, that the employer could apply for so they can pay you while you work for them. I recommend the paid route: volunteering is great, but once you are on the books and in the budget, people tend to remember what you were there for.

This summer job solution won't work for everyone, but for the entrepreneurial amongst us, you just need to have an idea, a written plan and the courage to ask.

Recovering from an illness

From today's Career Q&A in the WSJ, Perri Cappell gives advice on how to disclose a recent, life-threatening illness to an employer when it led to extended time off. The person who asked the question has received treatment and is in remission, but he wants to know how to deal with an employer who might be concerned about his...longevity?

I agree with Cappell that you can disclose it to an employer--and if you look at recent cancer statistics, you may be across the desk from a survivor, or a person who may have an invisible, chronic disease--and who will understand that part of healing and living means returning to work.

Personally, I feel if you have been treated and are "healed", that you need not disclose unless you are reasonably sure that it may have an impact on your job performance. But disease is nothing to be ashamed of, either in refusing to disclose or deciding to lay it out there.

Hating BDI Questions

Nick Corcodilos--author of the long-running newsletter, website and book of the same name, Ask the Headhunter--disdains Behaviour Descriptive Interview questions. In his recent foray into blogland, he has even sprung out a hate-on for BDI questions. Though I agree, somewhat, with many of his arguments, like past behaviour doesn't always express future success and that the BDI interview can be rigged in favour of the glib, there is one enormous problem with shedding BDI questions: what else are people going to ask?

Well, more intelligent questions that are trying to elicit information about skills, such as:

• Give me an example of a collection development project that you worked on: how did you plan it and what was the outcome. -Or-
• Give me an example of a time when you accepted a teaching assignment with very little time to prepare.

Wait, those are both skills-based and BDI questions. Could it be that BDI questions aren't bad but are just selected and delivered by people with little or no interview experience?

I would also beg you not to throw the BDI out with the bathwater since we have scripted interviews for very good reasons:

• for the unimaginative, scripts are good
• for the grandiose and easily distracted, scripts are better
  
• we need to measure fairly and objectively
• an unstructured conversation can also favour the glib
• structured interview questions, with rules, also allow the candidate to think logically and reflectively about her presentation and delivery

BDI is part of the proportions of a mix of interview questions, but it shouldn't make up all of the interview questions.

Here's my card

Do you need a business card? If you're a freelancer or contractor, yes, definitely. You should have the services that you offer--editing, research, indexing, etc.-- and contact information so the person who receives the card can get in touch with you.

It is very helpful to have a card ready for conferences, since there are draws and networking events. I was once asked to put my book proposal on the back of my business card and place it in a fish bowl, so you never know.

You can make up your own card if you have the following:

• Stable contact information, including a personal homepage.
• A specific service that you could sell and proof of your work.

You would use the business card so the person could engage these services.

Try to avoid any slogans or taglines in the card. Personally, I think branding is for cattle or pop, so I would scoff mockingly at any business card with a double-J of readers' advisory.

I would avoid handmade business cards since they look like an arts project and macaroni doesn't fit in a wallet. You could do something like a MOO card if you have some good pictures, but be careful because these could come off looking cutesy and not like a real business card.

Generalist cards are the easiest to make, but also the easiest to discard and if you are looking for a "general" library job, your resume is a better letter of introduction.

She shoots, she scores: goal setting

Goal setting is an important part of career management, especially if you are a rookie at the "managing" part. Currently, you probably have one enormous goal: get a library job. But you can break this goal into manageable steps, milestones, that will help you tackle the whole.

• Tell your friends and classmates you are on the market. Some of them may not be there yet--a surprising number of people take a break to travel after graduating--or they may have decided to keep their marks up and not look for work until their exams are done. I, personally, think that is too late, but who am I to ask you to forgo the job postings they could pass your way?
• Read job postings every day: flag your favourite sites and visit them when you are checking your email. Use RSS, vertical search engines, and load up your Google Reader.
  
• Brush up on your interview skills: read some of the questions posted here, schedule a mock interview or work with your friends.
• Is your resume perfect? Is it a resume or a CV that you need? Is your master CV ready?
• Do your references know that you are looking for work? If not, give them a call and ask if it is ok that you still use them as a reference. Ask about their holiday plans, in case they will be away when you might need to reach them. Ask for a written reference if they will be in Italy when you are interviewing.
  
• Go to a conference. There is usually a job centre there and you can meet with HR people directly, possibly completing the usual screening interview in advance.
• Do some information interviews. Are you going to be a children's librarian, work in a law office or for the government? If you have not had your internship or worked in any of these types of libraries, how do you know what you are going to do? Do two information interviews with librarians who have careers you never thought of. Attend an "alternative careers" panel.
• Read a career book. A business or library-oriented one or some of the columns from LisCareer, to stimulate your brain and learn new things about career planning. I want you to explore a topic you don't know much about, like BDI questions, networking or relocation.
  
• Set some of your own goals. Use services like 43things to set your own goals or keep a job journal; this will help you answer the question, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Do one kind thing for someone else who is looking for a job. Pass on a job posting, be his interviewer for a mock interview, give her a hug if she just found out she didn't get the job after she felt really confident leaving the interview, take one of your friends to coffee at a conference. This is actually networking, better known as "friendship".

Try to break your massive get a job goal into bite-sized chunks; no one can eat the whole pie in one gulp.

Interview virtuoso

I just finished reading Susan Katz's article on the disparity between mock interviews and how employers actually interview. Here's the story:

Most career service centres offer a mock interview service and the schedule of questions in mock interviews are usually based on research into the professional human resource literature or on actual employer surveys the career centre has conducted. Katz argues that though it is true that many large corporations are using BDI questions, many small organizations--where many grads, and many library school grads may actually get their first jobs--don't use BDI questions. In other words, you will probably work for a library that doesn't have an HR department and who may not use BDI questions. (Academic librarian wannabes, you can wait for the astounding enlightenment to be found in tomorrow's post; all academic libraries have HR departments and tons of BDI questions.)

Based on her action research, Katz has created a handout for her students that helps them, not with BDI questions (and she still includes some sample questions), but with how to tell employers what they should know about the candidate/student who is interviewing for a job.

If you were to do this for yourself, for this posting, your sheet would look like this:

• Library science degree
• Proof:
  
• One-two years industry experience
  
• Proof:
  
• Customer service
  
• Proof:
  
• Answered "customized" research queries
• Proof:
• Identified research needs
• Proof:
• Identified tools clients can use repeatedly and trained them in the use of the tool
• Proof:
• Shared knowledge with colleagues
  
• Proof:
  
• Explained complex concepts in plain language; these concepts may not represent your field of expertise
• Proof:
  
• Provided evidence to support initial research and suppositions
• Proof:
• Responds in a timely manner to requests
• Proof:
  
• Delegated tasks to the appropriate officer/researcher
• Proof:
  
• Worked independently and completed projects on time
• Proof:
• Worked as team member and completed portion of project on time
• Proof:
  

All I did was take the job description and describe what they wanted the person to do. You can also include any specific databases or programs (Lexis-Nexis, for example), if necessary and make your own skills sheet. They are also in past tense since when you write your statement, I would like you to give proof that you have done what you say, not, I'm sure I can do that (aye, aye, Captain Bligh).

If you are interested in Katz's original article, the NACE Journal is only open to NACE members; you may be able able to access it through ProQuest. The citation is below:

Katz, Susan, M. "The Job Interview: Is Career Services Giving Students a Realistic Picture of What to Expect?" NACE Journal. Oct 2007. Vol. 68, Iss. 1, pp. 38-44.

Applying a little persuasion

In the past, how have you persuaded people to try your ideas?

Persuading people--whether it is patrons, other colleagues, supervisors or other community members--is an important part of any librarian's job. Picking books for a book discussion group, convincing your boss to run a class for professors who want to use social networking or asking the library board to increase salaries: you better know how to persuade.

What example should you use? The best is another work-related example, preferably one that involved more than one person or transaction and which had a measurable outcome. You should focus on the evidence that you gathered to persuade the person to accept your case, if there was more than one person (a client) or a hierarchy involved (boss to manager to library board to public). Try to tell the story in chronological order with a positive and "they accepted it!" outcome.

The initial sale is also the big question: don't spend 15 minutes talking about outcomes and how you would have done things differently this time around. You should also avoid sounding glib or use an example that is too simple, the teenager believed me when I said that this was the best book on potato cannons! Avoid bullying examples, such as: I convinced the book club to read a translated, 1,300 page stream of consciousness novel and it just made them all better people! You should show how you persuaded for the greater good, not your own ego.

The ability to persuade, as selling, marketing or convincing, is one of the most useful soft skills a librarian can possess.

CV or Resume? What's the diff?

In North America, there is a difference between your CV (curriculum vitae) and your resume: which jobs you use one to apply for and the content.

CV:

• Emphasis is on education, publishing and presentations.
  
• Preference is for post-secondary education and teaching, peer-reviewed publications and presentations at professional conferences.
  
• Used mainly in academia, though some publishing houses and research institutes may ask for a CV.

Resume:

• Emphasis is on work experience, but your education credentials are important since you may not be eligible for consideration without appropriate education.
• Used everywhere.

For librarians, a mash-up of a resume and CV may be acceptable: regardless of where we apply, it is possible that our presentations and publications may make a difference when employers are setting up their interview schedules, since writing, teaching and research skills are a huge part of any librarian's job, regardless of setting.

You've been volunteered

Volunteering is one of the best methods for skill-building, especially when you lack essential library skills...answering questions, teaching, perhaps some technical skills that you had to skim in school. But you can sometimes hit a point where your volunteer hours have taken you over and you need to *gasp* quit.

1. You can't get your homework done. Some readers may have made the decision to let their marks slide a little to get some experience...or some shut-eye. If your marks really start to suffer and you pass an as-low-as-you-go point, ask for some time off.
2. You're working extra shifts. Repeatedly. It happens once, an extra hour in their busy time, or picking up a shift for another volunteer, but then it becomes your regular gig and you can feel the cold, guilty chill when they ask you where you were on Tuesday when you are only scheduled on Thursday. A few extra hours, ok, and just mannerly of ya, but sit them down with a calendar if this begins to happen every week. Especially during Midterm Week (see point 1).
3. You're doing paid work for free. If you start answering phones or covering for the Chairman's administrator, outside of your regular, library-like chores, you're doing paid work for free. Occasionally: good sport! Every damn day: check the agreement you originally had with the organization and remind them that you have other duties they need done in the limited time you are there. Unfortunately, point three is pretty sticky, since you may have other duties as required written into your volunteer contract and they might call these duties other. I'm betting though you are pretty uncomfortable with some of these extra duties since you may not spend enough time at the organization to do them really well and this may, unfairly, affect your final evaluation. Get this cleared up as soon as you can, nicely.
4. Volunteering is interfering with your paid gig. This is a tough one if your paid job is slinging coffee and your volunteer work is in library land. You have to pay your bills, but if it means that much to you, can you work out a paid position in library land? (See point 3 if you suspect they can afford it)

As a serial volunteer, I have hit the over-scheduled point many times. I'm still not good at saying when; after all, I volunteered. But if you see those signs, you need to renegotiate your commitment or quit. Consider this another experience from volunteering: recognizing an overly demanding job that may not get you where you want in your career.

Be My Interviewer

A product of JobSiteUK, Be My Interviewer offers a series of questions posed by "celebrity" specialists from the UK. There are a variety of question themes, such as Killer or Ambition questions, to select from and you can mix and match from the script by selecting from a menu on the lower right side of the page. You can also pick the type of interviewer who you would like to face--I've had interviews in libraries with interviewers like Keith, Kirsty and Jacqueline, and one with a person like Ruth, who seems a lot like her last name--but it would be a good idea to try some different genders and pitches to get used to presentation and tone.

I think this is a useful interview experiment, especially if you can't find someone to help you with a mock interview. Caveat: I don't think some of the questions were well-thought out, or, to get the most from the experience you also have to view the rationale, the Answer. For example: Duncan Bannatyne poses a question about how soon you could accept the job and one of his options is, do you need to speak with your partner? I think this is a despicable ploy to find out about your marital status, and the interviewer asks with such brusque, Trumpian authority that I would feel pressured to answer. I accept the reasoning for the question, provided in the Answer feature, but still, partner or not, NYOB.

I found this on BORN, which I think is a useful site for online recruitment trends in the UK.

Play nicely in the Field of the Blog

Please post comments. I'm not scared and I think the Internet is about conversing and not dictating. I'm also just not that smart everyday and I also thinking talking to myself is a sign...sign of the cat maybe, but a sign nonetheless.

If you want to write a blog post, you have to send me the post; just email it to bookish37@gmail.com. Comments get lost or they can't be labeled properly so they can be found again. And why bother to write if you don't want to be found?

But play nicely in the Field of the Blog: I don't let you post anonymously. You have to have a handle, at least, even if you don't want to use your full name. And it may only take a little old-school Nancy Drew, with a dash of Veronica Mars, to figure out who you are. (And it is only going to get easier with a little Data Portability).

Librarian: Best Career

Librarian made one of 31 Best Careers from US News and World Report Magazine. The criteria for selection was interesting: not physically demanding, professional, couldn't be off-shored and technological skills are valuable. I did like how librarian was identified as a "career for a changing landscape" though the blurb on librarians is more of a summary with an emphasis on our ability to shout "happify" in a room with a straight face.