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.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
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.
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.
Step-by-Step Resumes , Book review
The author, Evelyn Salvador, is a professional resume writer with over 15 years experience in the field. Her background is in advertising and preparing business copy.
When it comes to resume writing, I'm a fan of worksheets. If you have a patron who is struggling with writing a resume, a book of samples is not going to cut it: always recommend a book that has samples and work sheets. Samples are for people who have completed their resume, but are struggling with some formatting issues, or who have never seen a resume before.
This book, as well as the accompanying CD-ROM, is chock-full of them. For a person who is struggling with what to say in a resume and how to put their accomplishments into writing, a worksheet is one of the best methods. By using the templates on the disk, the reader could work through the exercises and then cut and paste their work into their resume. The templates can be reused when revising your resume to look for a new position. Librarians would easily be able to use the worksheets for administration, customer service, marketing, creative work, service (especially for reference librarians) and sales, with minimal rejigging for library jargon. If you are struggling with writing a Highlights of Qualification section, or a Career Objective or a Summary, this book has some of the best basic advice on writing these sections, starting with some basic cloze exercises, that I have ever found.
Drawbacks: there is a strong emphasis on business and administrative positions and not so much on educational positions, so the wording sometimes sounds too much like a sales pitch. The sample resumes are also over-produced with serious design flaws (like putting a person's name in white font in a black box, a big no-no for a resume that will be scanned and searched) making them look more like menus than resumes.
However, the advice is pretty good on the whole, and work sheets (yes, I love them) are essential in helping you create an easily retrievable record for what you have done in school, while as an intern, in a practicum and in the work place, which means some of the work you do for creating your resume can also be used when articulating your accomplishments in an interview. Recommended for personal use, not for workshops because it states clearly on each page that the material is not for duplication.
When it comes to resume writing, I'm a fan of worksheets. If you have a patron who is struggling with writing a resume, a book of samples is not going to cut it: always recommend a book that has samples and work sheets. Samples are for people who have completed their resume, but are struggling with some formatting issues, or who have never seen a resume before.
This book, as well as the accompanying CD-ROM, is chock-full of them. For a person who is struggling with what to say in a resume and how to put their accomplishments into writing, a worksheet is one of the best methods. By using the templates on the disk, the reader could work through the exercises and then cut and paste their work into their resume. The templates can be reused when revising your resume to look for a new position. Librarians would easily be able to use the worksheets for administration, customer service, marketing, creative work, service (especially for reference librarians) and sales, with minimal rejigging for library jargon. If you are struggling with writing a Highlights of Qualification section, or a Career Objective or a Summary, this book has some of the best basic advice on writing these sections, starting with some basic cloze exercises, that I have ever found.
Drawbacks: there is a strong emphasis on business and administrative positions and not so much on educational positions, so the wording sometimes sounds too much like a sales pitch. The sample resumes are also over-produced with serious design flaws (like putting a person's name in white font in a black box, a big no-no for a resume that will be scanned and searched) making them look more like menus than resumes.
However, the advice is pretty good on the whole, and work sheets (yes, I love them) are essential in helping you create an easily retrievable record for what you have done in school, while as an intern, in a practicum and in the work place, which means some of the work you do for creating your resume can also be used when articulating your accomplishments in an interview. Recommended for personal use, not for workshops because it states clearly on each page that the material is not for duplication.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Online Community Manager
This post from WebWorkerDaily talks about online community managers (yep, it's real) and this could be a great job for techie librarians who want to use their skills to work with people online. A quick scan of the posts also reveal that the applicant should have a background in marketing, or an effective networker with experience building an online community via social media.
Same Day Resume, book review
Same Day Resume is part of the Help in a Hurry series from JIST, which includes Next-day Salary Negotiation and Next-Day Job Interview, which are meant to train people with limited time in necessary job search skills. The author, Michael Farr, is also the author of books in the JIST series Top Jobs for... and Best Jobs for..., as well as the forthcoming 15 Minute Cover Letter book.
This book is for people who have never written a resume before, or who have not written a resume in a long time. It covers the basic formats for resumes--chronological, functional (called skills-based in this book)--and provides work sheets to create your own resume, as well as a wide variety of samples produced by professional resume writers for job seekers in several industries and varying levels of experience. I would recommend this book to someone who is struggling with writing their resume--not sure what format, why use certain techniques and styles--or if you were just looking for a resume bootcamp book. To get the most out of it, you need to fill out the work sheets and use them to create a resume. Fill them out in pencil because you will use this book and work sheets more than once. The book also has a great table of contents and a good index, which means you could easily recommend it to a patron for a quick peek.
On the minus side: no librarian resumes, so a librarian would need to supplement this book with another that has some professional librarian samples. Another negative: too many functional resumes which many employers consider to be deceptive or too text heavy. That aside, just a really great book if you are struggling to put together a resume, or as a supplement to a resume writing course.
This book is for people who have never written a resume before, or who have not written a resume in a long time. It covers the basic formats for resumes--chronological, functional (called skills-based in this book)--and provides work sheets to create your own resume, as well as a wide variety of samples produced by professional resume writers for job seekers in several industries and varying levels of experience. I would recommend this book to someone who is struggling with writing their resume--not sure what format, why use certain techniques and styles--or if you were just looking for a resume bootcamp book. To get the most out of it, you need to fill out the work sheets and use them to create a resume. Fill them out in pencil because you will use this book and work sheets more than once. The book also has a great table of contents and a good index, which means you could easily recommend it to a patron for a quick peek.
On the minus side: no librarian resumes, so a librarian would need to supplement this book with another that has some professional librarian samples. Another negative: too many functional resumes which many employers consider to be deceptive or too text heavy. That aside, just a really great book if you are struggling to put together a resume, or as a supplement to a resume writing course.
Monday, January 26, 2009
How to Say it on Your Resume, book review
How to Say it on Your Resume is part of the How to Say It series which tackles common business writing or business communication issues.
On the plus side, this book has plenty of samples for college-educated job seekers, especially more mature job seekers, people with plenty of job experience and miles between them and their post-secondary education. Each sample is introduced by a case, such as Sally Seeker is a comeback mom with a four year gap, an MBA, who is currently underemployed, and a before and after version of the resume.
On the minus side, the reader would need to recognize what their career issue is--they're a job hopper or have a gap that they need to account for--to realize which case suits them. There is also a layout problem with the before and afters: it would help to have them on facing pages so the reader can see the changes. And the font! I needed my magnifying sheet to read the typeface (I'm old, but not that old) to take a look at the changes. Each of the samples is virtually identical and there is no commentary about why some of the changes were made, though the afters do look better. There is no table of contents that identifies what type of position or industry the resume sample is for, meaning that this is a generic Jane Jobseeker book. The three sample cover letters, heavy on autobiography and light on how to write to fit an organization, just made me groan.
If you knew exactly what your career issue was--a gap, job hopping, not sure how to transfer between industries--and you were a college-educated professional, I would take a look at some of the samples. The lack of a table of contents--though there is a good index--and limited advice on why changes were made mean that this book is not my first choice to give to a patron who says they haven't written a resume in a while. This book might be helpful to a professional resume writer.
On the plus side, this book has plenty of samples for college-educated job seekers, especially more mature job seekers, people with plenty of job experience and miles between them and their post-secondary education. Each sample is introduced by a case, such as Sally Seeker is a comeback mom with a four year gap, an MBA, who is currently underemployed, and a before and after version of the resume.
On the minus side, the reader would need to recognize what their career issue is--they're a job hopper or have a gap that they need to account for--to realize which case suits them. There is also a layout problem with the before and afters: it would help to have them on facing pages so the reader can see the changes. And the font! I needed my magnifying sheet to read the typeface (I'm old, but not that old) to take a look at the changes. Each of the samples is virtually identical and there is no commentary about why some of the changes were made, though the afters do look better. There is no table of contents that identifies what type of position or industry the resume sample is for, meaning that this is a generic Jane Jobseeker book. The three sample cover letters, heavy on autobiography and light on how to write to fit an organization, just made me groan.
If you knew exactly what your career issue was--a gap, job hopping, not sure how to transfer between industries--and you were a college-educated professional, I would take a look at some of the samples. The lack of a table of contents--though there is a good index--and limited advice on why changes were made mean that this book is not my first choice to give to a patron who says they haven't written a resume in a while. This book might be helpful to a professional resume writer.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
American Libraries Digital Supplement
American Libraries released a digital supplement that talks about the library profession. The article the Bun Heads are Dead, originally put me off because I am tired about reading about how librarians buck the stereotypes (it makes me guilty to wear glasses feel guilty to wear glasses), but I overcame my prejudices and read the article which has some good suggestions for non-traditional library careers. There is a good PD supplement and an article on "service learning", also known as experiential learning, which is a good way to evaluate a program before applying to graduate school. Practicums and internships, on-the-job learning, are a good way to get your foot in the door or to learn what type of librarianship will suit you.
Take a quick scan of this one, no matter where you are in your career, since it has good general career management advice.
Take a quick scan of this one, no matter where you are in your career, since it has good general career management advice.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Why you shouldn't blog about patrons
According to this blog post from BNET, some employees of Tesco in the UK have found themselves in hot water for talking about customers on a Facebook page. A librarian also got dismissed for writing a book about patron client interaction in a library, even though she wrote under a pseudonym.
The truth is, every person who is responsible for hiring in a library googles their candidates to see what they are up to online. Usually, they are looking to see publications and what you have done for the profession, or as a student. They are looking for your digital footprint, the good stuff, but sometimes they find dirt, publicly available. And blogging about patrons, no matter how witty, is dirt.
It's in the ALA code of ethics that librarians "protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted". It doesn't matter if their query is ridiculous or if the person is smelly or nasty; we need to protect their privacy--unless a crime has been committed, and there are appropriate policies to deal with that issue.
And if you are blogging about it, even if you believe you are anonymous, people will find out about it. Librarians especially. You might think you are anonymous and do a few google searches to make sure your digital footprint is a proper fit, but I want you to go and search yourself in Pipl. Use some of the usernames you have signed on to online services for, like browser mail, blogs and social networking and see what comes up attached to your aliases. You might think you are anonymous, protected by a handle, but if librarians are good at anything it is following rabbits down digital holes. See where some of yours lead and don't make any online dead ends by violating professional ethics.
The truth is, every person who is responsible for hiring in a library googles their candidates to see what they are up to online. Usually, they are looking to see publications and what you have done for the profession, or as a student. They are looking for your digital footprint, the good stuff, but sometimes they find dirt, publicly available. And blogging about patrons, no matter how witty, is dirt.
It's in the ALA code of ethics that librarians "protect each library user's right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted". It doesn't matter if their query is ridiculous or if the person is smelly or nasty; we need to protect their privacy--unless a crime has been committed, and there are appropriate policies to deal with that issue.And if you are blogging about it, even if you believe you are anonymous, people will find out about it. Librarians especially. You might think you are anonymous and do a few google searches to make sure your digital footprint is a proper fit, but I want you to go and search yourself in Pipl. Use some of the usernames you have signed on to online services for, like browser mail, blogs and social networking and see what comes up attached to your aliases. You might think you are anonymous, protected by a handle, but if librarians are good at anything it is following rabbits down digital holes. See where some of yours lead and don't make any online dead ends by violating professional ethics.
How to pick a resume book
- There are generic resume writing books, which have samples for everything, and resume books that are specific to industry, sector or based on common career issues (a comeback mom or a career transitioner, for example).
- Good resume books have a good table of contents that describe the samples and what types of positions the resumes are to be matched with. Resumes should be targeted, so a generic job-seeker resume won't help most experienced job seekers. In the case of librarians, a good index can overcome the lack of a table of contents, but can frustrate clients who don't think about checking the index. No table of contents with listing by type of resume, or an index equals skip that book.
- There are at least three different types of resume, and a wide range of types of career within a sector, or even an occupation, such as librarianship, so you want a wide-range of types of resume that shows different fonts, styles and layouts.
- How sophisticated is the writer? If you are a poor writer who has run out of friends willing to write or rewrite your resume, you need a book with exact samples that match the position you are applying for. (But don't copy them exactly--that's cheating and dishonest, and the recruiter has probably seen that resume at least once before.) If you are more sophisticated writer, you need book that has samples, but which also explains the "rhetoric" of resume writing. Especially if you have to get over some prejudices against the resume writing style.
- Before and after resume samples can help, but these are more helpful to sophisticated writers who understand what the problem is in their writing, but who want some suggestions on how to improve their resume.
- If you're going to buy the book for your own collection, a chapter on cover letters, advice on emailing, formatting and laying out a resume, as well as advice on how to write in the resume style, such as how to write a solid highlights of qualification, should I include a job objective, when do I move my education below my work experience on my resume, should be included in the book that you purchase. I would also recommend, for librarians, that the book you buy has some CV samples, or advice on how to make a hybrid resume/CV.
You can apply this advice in your work life, since I am sure you will get the question, I need to write a resume, do you have any resume books? many times in your career.
Resume books reviewed:
Farr, M. (2007). Same day resume. Indianapolis, IN.: JIST Publishing.
Karsh, B., & Pike, C. (2009). How to say it on your resume. New York: Prentice Hall.
Salvador, E. (2006). Step-by-step resumes. Indianapolis, IN.: JIST Publishing.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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