LinkedIn benefiting from the economy?

Is LinkedIn benefting from the downturn in the economy, with more employers supposedly:

• Using connections on LinkedIn to fill positions?
• Job seekers using LinkedIn to look for work?
• Mean that increased traffic could lead to a high profile buyer?

If you are thinking about adding LinkedIn to your tutorials on how to use the Internet to find work, make sure that you also investigate how active local groups and alumni associations are, not just what the LinkedIn tools include.

Cross posted at Coagitating

But what kind of work?

ERE has a hopeful post, Not Hiring? Tell That to the 4.4 Million who Found Jobs, possibly in response to the news that 300, 000 jobs were lost in March. The post does point out that some people did get jobs, but then suggests that because WalMart is hiring clerks that this is compensation for the loss of a stable, middle class salary-paying job, probably with health insurance.

Now I do think it is important to talk about the World of Good News (go to the Hour for more) but the argument that one job is just as good as another, now take your castor oil, is just silly. This doesn't take into account that some of the hires were probably part-time trade downs from full-time employment--so even if you were classified as the exact same type of worker, 22 hours a week is not the same as 40 hours a week. You can't just trade a job for a job--they aren't alike. For crying out loud, at least read Nickel and Dimed if you have never had to take a minimum wage job.

Rant over.

Anyway, I do want to draw people's attention to some of the interviews on Metro Morning about laid off workers--mature workers who are having a hard time either finding equivalent work to what they have lost. Or they have remade themselves, by exploring some of the skills they haven't used in a while. I agree that we should no longer use the term McJobs--like you're showing your age if you use dude--because it is no longer cool and is demeaning to people who need to work to eat.

You don't need to interpret tea leaves stuck in a cup

To understand that people who work sitting down get paid

more than people who work standing up.

from Will Consider Situation by Ogden Nash

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.

Why Your Credit Score Matters

Here is the first chapter, courtesy of FT Press, for the book, Your Credit Score: Your Money and What's at Stake. I'm sure if you have or are working at a reference desk, you have gotten questions about credit scores: what they are and how to get them, and this sample chapter gives you a brief history and explains how to get your score.

You might also want to get your own credit score, since it can affect so many aspects of your life, such as buying a car, a house and even renting an apartment, since some (many?) apartment managers check credit scores before accepting a rental application. Apparently, there are some employers that check credit history before making a job offer, but I am not sure how many libraries do it (though, as the article explains, it may be a matter of course for a government job offer, or if you need security clearance).

• In the US, Fair Isaac has the website, MyFico.
• In Canada, CBC's Marketplace has done a special called Card Tricks, about credit cards, and getting your credit score is on page 11, which also explains the factors that affect your credit history.

You should actually check for errors on your credit reports. The reports from the two agencies can be different, as I discovered when I applied for a mortgage. If you have had more than one credit card, or changed your address recently, I really recommend checking it.

WRK4US discussions: Technical Writer

WRK4US has just kicked off a new discussion, one for careers in technical writing. If you are interested in that career path, you may want to subscribe to the list so you can follow the discussion.

If you don't know about WRK4US, it is a listserv that discusses careers outside of academia for graduate students (and the current academic workforce) about careers outside of academia. Discussions in the past have included careers in publishing, librarianship, and freelance writing, just to name a few. It is worthwhile to sign up if you are a graduate student in the humanities, if only to find out about new discussions. Traffic is light on the list, nowhere near YALSA-bk, but very worthwhile.

Newsweek: Reading into the future

This article is from a public librarian in Detroit talking about how much time she spends in her library answering questions about careers, information on unemployment, living acommodations, small businesses and just general "keeping my money" questions. She says:


Fortunately, we have all had comprehensive business training. Without it we wouldn't know where to start—especially now.

Based on her article, how would you rate yourself in these information literacy skills. Some of these areas also include suggestions on how to beef up this skill.

• Assisted patrons in obtaining an email address 
• Provided instruction on accessing email from a library Internet access terminal
• Have experience using a vertical search engine to look for job postings
• Have you showed a patron how to subscribe to job alerts for keyword searches in vertical search engines that offer this service (Indeed, SimplyHired, as examples)?
• Have you showed a patron how to use an RSS feed to create a job alert?
  
• Showed a patron how to use Google Local (or another mapping service) to find out how to get to an interview, or  how to get driving directions to their new employer?
• If the patron is looking for a new place to live and their main means of transportation is public transport or walking, have you used your local transit service to plot a route, or used Walk Score to find out about the community? A Walk Score can also be used to research potential local employers.
  
• Assisted patrons in navigating online application forms--for employment or EI--provided that the ability to deliver this service is also part of the library policy. You have to worry about accessing someone's personal information, as well as patrons who ask can you just fill this out for me, and your supervisor may not be too keen on librarians getting in the middle of this service. Using plain English, can you help patrons fill out this form? Do you have speakers in the community, or has your library provided an information session on these topics?
  
• Can you provide the above services in Spanish or additional Language Other than English?
• Did you help with the research, promotion and delivery of these services?
• Remember that these services and the information can vary from state to state, or province to province.
  
• Identified reputable community resources to assist with finding affordable housing
• Have access to information from local Landlord and Tenant office, including phone numbers and upcoming sessions
• Identified and provide a pathfinder for local and reputable sources on securing a loan for small business, as well as resources on how to write a business plan
• Do you know of an accountant or other reputable financial professional who is willing to provide these services free or low cost to patrons? Money advice, like medical and legal advice, may best be left to the experts in some cases.
• Identified major and reputable resources on personal finance, budgeting and credit within the library collection.
• Start with One Economy to get more information. Consumer.gov is also a great gateway resource for consumer financial information.
  
• In Canada, take a look at the free information from the Canadian Bankers' Association (you might want to get some of this information for yourself). In addition, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has fact sheets and links to publications from bank account to payday loans. Your province may also have some additional information through their provincial government site, so do some research there as well.
  

How'd you score?

Yep, the government is still hiring

Or hiring more, depending on who you're reading. I've posted before about what NACE says about government hires and I even mentioned when the new US administration arrived that there would be help wanted signs put out. According to an article on Reuters, the delivery of the stimulus package will require the assistance of many more workers, especially professionals. Since the stimulus will affect all levels of government, spread your search amongst the federal, state, and municipal governments and their various agencies. This could take a while, so try to narrow your search to the feds, a preferred state (not deranged) and two desired cities. Expand if you have no luck with your first choices, but remember that government work searches take time: you apply, get tested, get interviewed--usually twice--get selected, and then get an offer.

There are opportunities in public service in Canada as well, and I even have a post about how to find them.

Career-savvy information professional

Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science is offering an online course for Career-savvy information professionals. This is a new course according to the website, and if you feel that you have a gap in your career management knowledge, you might want to consider taking this course from them. At least they will put career management into the context of the library profession.

I have taken one other course from them and really liked them. I can't recommend this specific course, but I was happy with their online course delivery.

Alliance Virtual Library Online Career Fair

Library Career Fair and Library Fair will be held in SL on May 8th and 9th 2009. There is a registration procedure, but this seems to be for exhibitors, not for attendees, though that registration may come later.

I haven't attended many online career fairs, but it is a way to get out to the fair and cut down on carbon. Add some comments about quality if you do go: I'm curious.


SL: Celerity Yeuxdoux

Patron resources for job searching

New Improved Internet Job Searching Now with Social Networking is a basic resource list of job searching tools for patrons. I like that the writer has included resources who Spanish speakers, but I would advise anyone to act with caution when suggesting the recession proof job list to patrons.

Here's what happens: you have a patron who has either been laid off or is in fear for their job and you suggest that they check out the list of recession proof jobs. Many of the jobs on that list require four years (or more) of specialized education--teacher, doctor, accountant, can't become one in time for the next pay check. That's fine if you are already a nurse and your community is starving for nurses--and you will still see people who want to switch jobs in in-demand careers because they want to escape from their employer or sector, but aren't sure which button is eject--but if you have a client who was just discharged from the army and had specialized training in HR and recruitment, telling them that they have to sign on for another for years of service is not a comfort.

You need to fill out this list with community specific resources, find vertical search engines that will let you search Craiglist local or map their job searches with Google Maps, so this list is just a starting point for services to your clients.

There is also some evidence that employers are starting to tweet local job postings, so you may want to find the posters in your community, and show patrons how to follow them. Resume Bear explains how.

Embedded technologists

I'm here at Canada Moodle Moot and one of the jobs that keeps coming up is an embedded technologist: someone who helps educators understand technology and how technology can be used in education. Now, many of the people here who are introducing themselves as embedded technologists are former teachers, or current instructional designers, but there is a place for librarians at the table.

There are embedded librarians who are bringing reference into the distance learning classroom, as part of their work as reference librarians. It appears that there could be additional job options available for a librarian who can also work as an instructional designer, showing how to use technology to enhance pedagogy.

What are they doing? Embedded technologists are showing teachers/professors and students how to use the features of the elearning application that their school is using (or help support a feral LMS). For example, they would help a teacher cut and paste embed text into the HTML block in Moodle  to get a Twitter stream into a Moodle course. They would also explain why the instructor might want to use Twitter to teach.

This is another option for technology oriented librarians who have background as educators (though you might not need a background as an educator if you have the technology chops) to become an embedded technologist.

I am not a fan of the idea that you can go back to school to wait out a bad economy, but I do have an additional degree in instructional design, so I have also provided a link so you can do more research on schools (US) that offer graduate degrees in instructional design.

There isn't money in anything, so do what you love

Because I work in a career centre on a university campus, I spend time talking with students, and wonder what they are thinking about the economy and well, just what is going to happen to them in general.

I'm not the only one (and I didn't think I was):

• I don't know any libraries that come on to campus to recruit new grads (they expect us to come to them, usually at ALA if they are gathered en masse) but you may be interested in last year's story about the slowing of corporate recruitment on campus.
• Minnesota Public Radio did a forum asking college students and their advisors about the job market and how confident they felt. The title of the post comes from one of the speakers at the forum in response to Ben Stein's advice (which isn't all bad, unless you can't stand bodily fluids. [And if you were counting on no vomit in libraries, one of the internship position questions I got asked at a public library was, what would you do if a child vomited in the library? Answer: clean it up].) 
• 247 Townhall, a project of One Economy (which also has some great resources on the Beehive), has some interviews with college students about their views on the economy, what their expectations are and how to fix it. They are also looking for more content.
  

What messages can people come away with from these forums and articles? Know what you can do with your degree and where the jobs are in your area. Look at the labor market and do some research (librarians are the only ones who have to cower when someone says, you better know how to research, cuz you better). There are still jobs out there, but you have to be realistic about pay, and you need to start looking now (December 2008 was the time you should have started, but if you haven't, crying won't put the milk back in the carton). And more school is not the solution.