PayScale has released National Pay Trends Index which shows that wages were improving in 2011. You can also add a comparison to the national trend by metro area, by company size or by industry.

National (US) Year-Over-Year Percentage Change in Pay

National (US)

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Compensation Data Provided by PayScale, Inc.

Crowdsourcing Answers to Questions (article from CDAA Career Momentum January February 2012)

This article appeared in the January/February 2012 Career Momentum. Career Momentum is only available to CDAA members, but I have reproduced my article.

Career development specialists don’t always know the answer to every question their client asks, mainly because the world of occupations and education options is diverse and global. Some of the career information we are asked for is either too new, such as what is the employment outlook for an apps developer in Lethbridge, or too arcane, such as what kind of brain teaser questions can I expect at my interview for Palantir? A decade ago, career professionals might have turned to a search engine to find the information, knowing that the information their clients wanted may not have any documents available or be enclosed as proprietary information. In the past few years, however, answers to some of these questions have become available through the “wisdom of the crowd” or through crowdsourcing.

Most people will recognize Wikipedia which is a crowdsourced encyclopedia, which relies on volunteer writers, editors, fact checkers, bibliographers and image providers. However, crowdsourcing encompasses a broad range of services, from answering questions to fundraising. This article will focus on getting answers to questions by relying on the crowd for answers. Most of these crowdsourced Q&A services originated with a search engine in South Korea called Naver. Because there was little content written in Korean on the Internet, Naver allowed people to ask and answer questions, which generated content that could be searched and indexed by the engine. Most of the services also use a point system, which also originated on Naver, which the questioner could use to vote on the quality and usefulness of the answers they received.

Based on the Naver model, Yahoo! started Yahoo! Answers, which is a viable source for English language questions—though some readers will recognize it as a resource their children use to cheat on their homework. Anyone can see the questions posted on Yahoo! Answers, but only registered Yahoo! users can post answers. When a user poses a question, the question is open for 3 days to gather answers, though this period can be extended, and users can post their responses. The person who posed the question can vote on the best answer, which gives the both the questioner and the answerer points, which could improve an answerer’s credibility on the system. Yahoo! Answers also has several multilingual and country specific search channels which would be of use for looking for international information or for clients who can search in languages other than English. Currently, the amount of career information is fairly slight, though it is possible that a general Google search may turn up Yahoo! Answers contributions in your search results.

Many CDAA members are also members of LinkedIn, which has its own Answers service. You can see the questions and answers on LinkedIn Answers without a LinkedIn user account, but to post questions and respond to questions, you need a LinkedIn account. When asking a question on LinkedIn, the service tries to get the user to curate the questions by assigning it a topic within the LinkedIn directory. Users can also delete questions that they don’t think are useful, such as when a spammer posts a link to a service within their question, and they can also vote on the best answers received for the question. For the person who answers the question, this best answer designation is attached to their LinkedIn profile, which should encourage people to answer questions well and courteously. Supposedly, LinkedIn Answers results are indexed by Google, which is very handy, since the LinkedIn search engine within Answers is not very sophisticated.

In our office, we have used LinkedIn to find out about new trends in interviewing, salary surveys of college students and what is the etiquette involved with posting a question to Answers that you intend to use in an article. Responses have usually been helpful; however, though people are still asking questions, the number of people who are bothering to answer appears to be on the wane. LinkedIn users may be asking their questions on the forum within closed or professional groups that can offer specific expertise, which isn’t found in the free-for-all Answers forum. LinkedIn is very appropriate to business and career advice. It is also possible to close and hide questions that you have asked on the service, so as to remove them from Google search results.

Since 2006, Amazon has offered Askville. Users will need to sign in with Amazon.com credentials to ask and answer questions on the site. The amount of career information is slight, and some of the answers have a hectoring or sarcastic tone (example, search for “what can I do with an associates [sic] degree in science?” to get an idea). The best answer scoring system is still in place in this service, so a user can select the best answer. This service is not recommended at this time for finding answers to career-related questions.

Established in 2009, Quora appears to be the baby of the bunch of crowdsourced Q&A services, but it is the easiest to use and seems to have the most active community, at least for technology and business questions. Users may only register for an account with their full name, though you can post and ask questions anonymously on Quora. You can also connect and follow people within the Quora community, or connect with your “friends” on Twitter and Facebook who also use Quora. People do ask for career advice on Quora, such as “What are good part time jobs for college students?” or to look for salary information, so it is a legitimate source for career information.

Google Answers and a service called Aardvark, which was acquired by Google, have been shut down at this time. It is possible that Google will try again with social search and Q&A services through its Google + network.

At this point, LinkedIn Answers and Quora are probably the best services to turn to when asking a career-related question that is relatively new to the industry or is a semi-secret practice at a company, such as their case or brain teaser interview questions, which is information that may not be available through any print resource.

CEO Income Compared to Average Worker from the Company, an Infographic from PayScale.com

Use a Google Map to Find a Job

In the past, our centre has suggested using WalkScore if you need to find a job within walking distance of your home, but Career Services at Penn State Abingdon has created a very useful video about how to find a job using the Search nearby feature in Google Maps.


And don't think that people who want a job within walking distance are lazy; they have legitimate reasons to need a job close by. It is possible that they have family members (children or elderly relatives) who may need them in an emergency; They may not be able to afford a car/afford gas. We should not also not demand that people put their money into vehicles or gas when they are saving for a term abroad, or when they are using their savings so they can live without a salary when they take an unpaid internship that is supposed to help them move their career forward.

Work in your overlap

Finding the intersection of three things that you like to do and can practice enough to do well, and building up those abilities to a career is good advice.

Tactics for Library Job Hunting in a Tough Market from ALA Webinars

Despite a few technical difficulties, and ten minutes of sponsor introductions, the presentation was ok. It was pretty obvious she was reading from a script and though her reading had a nice rhythm, it lacked spontaneity, and I felt she did better with questions. In addition, most of this advice was pretty general: treat your job search as a full-time job, network, take a computer course and make a professional impression. This is the basic package. 

Labor Market Assessment

The presenter identified the following "hot" areas for jobs:

• More technical: As a library student, I would have greeted this comment with, why didn't I go to school for computer science? And this also neglects the very real trend for outsourcing programming to where the programmers are much cheaper (China, India, Eastern Europe). However, you can at least see if this area is for you by checking out some free resources, like Codeacademy, and by looking for coding events in your area, such indie game development or open government events, where you can work with coders on their projects. Don't be a watcher, be actively helpful: your coding skills may be lacking, but you might be able to supply music, write a Kickstarter proposal, voice a zombie, or be a tester.
• Archivists are hot (!)  which leads us to another area that is not always touched on in library schools, though you might go to a school that offers a specialization in archives, or at least one course. If you want to try this area out, see if you can get a summer job on your campus (larger campuses have at least one specialized museum that may include an archive) or if your state/provincial archive has paid internships in the summer, or can afford to give a recent grad an internship after graduation.
• Working with children: I have to disagree with this one, since there are many reports of teacher-librarians-- and many of these jobs were only open to certified teachers orginally--and public librarians, who offer many of the services for children outside of school, losing their jobs. However, if this is your area look for cities that have maintained a healthy regional economy, or try to find a job in a private or online school.

Personally, I would have suggested specialized libraries, especially health libraries, where more health professionals are looking for curatorial services or even assistance with evidence-based medicine. In addition, some researchers have funds to hire a librarian as a researcher and information organizer. Students that picked up a few science courses, or even an undergraduate degree in science or one of the health sciences, may want to go back and talk with their former colleagues and alumni to see if there are opportunities available.

Was she kidding?

She also really got my knickers in a twist when she called volunteer work and internships "resume padding" and suggested taking jobs that lasted less than a year off of the resume. And this was in the advice for new grads! Summer jobs do not last a year and most college students get their first, and very valid, experience in an internship. Every potential employer has treated my volunteer work with respect and it probably got me quite a few interviews when I lacked long term library experience. I also know for a fact that my volunteer work got me my first job in a library. However, my volunteer experience was long term and I was able to talk about it as highly transferrable to libraries. You can't spin handing out drinks at a race refreshment station into applicable volunteer work, so I would call that resume padding, but not all volunteer work is short term and non-professional, especially if you were a teacher or grant writer. She appeared to change her mind about this during the Q & A period, so maybe this was just a misstep in the original speech.

And the two page cover letter advice! She was so right to say that this is really unkind to an employer. The purpose of the resume and cover letter is to get an interview, where you will have time to talk about your experience fully. Thinking that if you can say everything you can do will get you an interview is actually a big mistake. Cover letters demonstrate your ability to communicate succinctly and on point, so brevity is a virtue. If you don't get an invitation to at least a screening interview with a one page cover letter, you definitely won't get one with a two page cover letter.

Basically, this was an introductory presentation and I give them credit for a good Q & A period, but it could have been made a bit smoother with some practice on the platform for all of the speakers.

What is Google+?

Google+ has had a lot of press and this post is just a summary of some of the more interesting articles I have seen so far about the service.

The US Navy has released a guide to Google+ with plenty of links and resources, which includes this video that explains why you may want to accept an invite (and be assimilated, but that was probably an accidental irony).

Canadian Business also had a very good article about the competing models of Facebook and Google+, which may also help users decide if they want to accept the invite to Google+ and just what is in it for them (and Google).

And although I object to the use of "rockin"--which is on my blacklist next to "bitchin" and "synergize"--to describe a profile (or anything else), I liked many of the practical ideas in this CareerWorx slideshare about using Google+ for recruitment. This means I'm probably going to have to make a screencast about how to use Hangouts for interviews.

CareerWorx Google Plus Recruiting Strategy

View more presentations from Maysoun Mohamed

Right now, you can bleat all you want about Google+ but until your friends are on it, you probably aren't going to use it. And the longer it takes for them to get there, the quicker your attention will wane.

How America turned poverty into a crime by Barbara Ehreneich

How America turned poverty into a crime is an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch and, most recently, Bright-sided, takes a look at poverty in America in the wake of the meltdown and the changes that have occurred in the past ten years since the publication of Nickel and Dimed.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp

During her homeless year, Brianna Karp chronicled her homeless experience on the blog The Girl's Guide to Homelessness. She was young, educated and according to her own account, had worked for over a decade, even as a teenager, at a variety of jobs that left her with plenty of marketable skills. When she was suddenly laid off from a job that she loved, she was forced to move back in with her parents, though coming back into the household with her abusive mother would not make this a long stay. However, Brianna was resourceful: she was able to use the unexpected inheritance of a trailer and move onto a local Walmart parking lot, find a place to shower and soon a job--though she did remain homeless, she was able to enter a community of homeless activists.

And she also met the man she thought she would marry. A significant portion of the book is devoted to her romance with a man from Scotland who would ultimately abandon her, and in the cruelest of ironies for a homeless activist, abandon her to the elements in the middle of winter. (Yeah, asshole is not quite the word...)

Brianna is remarkably resilient, turning a string of misfortunes into a job, a blog, a book deal and finally finding a stable job, at least at the time of the epilogue, and a place in the homeless activist community.

Caveat emptor: If you have any association with the Jehovah's Witnesses, you may not be happy with Brianna's depiction of the church or their position on several issues, or how she categorizes the group as a "cult"; however, she is basing her description on her experience with the church. I would also like to give a fair warning for the brief depictions of child sexual and physical abuse. These warnings should not scare readers off from the book, especially since I think it is an important book for librarians who have no or limited experience with homelessness, to read, since many homeless people use libraries for places to job search, research and rest, and Brianna's book does put a youthful, educated, female face on homelessness after the recent recession.

4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

This came through a tweet from @wendyrlibrarian: 4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

Malled by Caitlin Kelly

In 2007, Kelly, at that time a freelance journalist, decided to take a part time job in retail so that she would always have some dependable funds in her account for living expenses. When she heard about a new North Face store opening up in a suburban mall, she decided to apply there and despite her lack of experience in retail, but plenty of life and travel experience, as well as fluency in two other languages than English, the management at the new store decided to hire her. According to Kelly, she was a consistent top-seller at her store, and the store that she was employed at was one of the top performing stores for that company.

Kelly's account as a retail salesperson and her examination of the industry focuses on two areas: how poorly retail salespeople are paid and how poorly they are treated by the customers that they are there to help, despite how essential they are to the company and the lipservice that companies pay to the quality of their customer service. She talks about the makeup of the staff at her store: usually minorities (though, minority to who and where? I always wonder), but well educated and ambitious, some with college degrees, others are former military, some are single parents, but they all seemed to be trapped on the retail roller coaster, moving on or up only if they can escape retail. Retail sales is not a career, Kelly argues, you can barely make a living at it, the physical demands are enormous, there is no concern for perfecting a professional salesforce, and the staff just doesn't seem to care--but they would do anything to get out of their retail jobs.

Kelly describes how the corporate focus on the bottom line means that frontline sales staff will remain poorly paid--supposedly shareholders don't want to pay salespeople more, but shareholders are always the villains--and not given adequate tools to perform their jobs. Indeed, the fact that many corporations are apparently clueless about sales, ergonomics, customers and products, is a recurrent theme in the book. The corporate mindset appears as inexplicable and implacable as Kafka's Castle.

A different generation?

I think it may be a generational difference, but I am surprised that she was shocked by how retail salespeople are treated, mainly because almost every person I know has had some experience working in retail as a teenager or young adult. This was Kelly's first experience on the other side of the till (or cash wrap, as she prefers) and at times she appears a little naive at how craptastic a job in retail can be.

She is right about one thing: it is not going to get better for retail workers unless customers stop shopping at stores with crummy service, and who become know for treating their sales associates poorly, as well as for crummy products. And though I liked the book and the immersive journalism, Kelly could have gotten that response from any teenager on their first job--and I would have liked to hear more about how teenagers and young adults can be exploited by this industry, in addition to the few glimpses of mature workers who, after the economic downturn, found themselves working in retail.

I might have enjoyed Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed more, but I still think that Malled is an important part of the immersive journalism literature on workplaces.

Intern Nation by Ross Perlin

In Intern Nation, Ross Perlin tracks the development of the internship and its implications for labor, especially when unpaid interns replace paid workers, usually engaged in administrative tasks. Perlin begins his discussion by describing the internships offered by Disney--and finds them sadly lacking, if not exploitative, though a typical example of how fall the internship has fallen. He describes the development of the internship, possibly from early guild apprenticeships into their current modern form. Perlin examines the internship labor market in the United States, what makes a quality internship, and some of the characteristics of a demeaning and time-wasting work experience, and the potential rise, and resistance, to the spread of American style internships in the rest of the world.

Perlin also argues that without an internship it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue the career that a person has gone to college for, such as in journalism, fashion and design, and if you can't work for free for a long period. Parents and loans are increasingly subsidizing students to take on unpaid internships and the cost can be high, considering that some internships can last for a year, could be undertaken in series and offered in places, such as Washington DC, where the cost of living is quite high. And, as others have asked, just who can afford these internships and pay for their children while engaged in these experiences? If it comes down to cost, what about the quality of the interns, if they are not selected based on merit? What does it mean for workplace diversity? And finally, is a college student shut out of their chosen career because they cannot afford to work for free for a long period of time? Perlin's answers are that if internships continues on the path they are on, qualified candidates will be shut out and homogeneity will be a significant issue in the culture and media industries which are currently permeated by free and serial internships.

Perlin sees the internship as part of the increase on the reliance of contingent labor by employers, which others might argue is part of the freedom seeking "free agent nation", and identifies a European term, precarity, to show that internships, and other contingent labor, devalue work and extinguish hope in career security, or the freedom to enter and pursue a career based on the education the person has attained. Internships affect a significant proportion of the population that are pursuing a college education and who believe that a college education will allow them to further their career plans--though many of the signs are showing, as Perlin argues, that without an internship, or three, the value of a college education is diminished, unless the student is in a legally protected profession, from pursuing a white collar career.

There are some minor editing and proofreading issues in the book, but they do not diminish the importance of the argument. Personally, I feel this is an important landmark book on the study of internships.


Authors@Google


From the Advisory: Training and Employment Guidance Letter NO. 12-09

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Further Reading

Employment Law Rights of Student Interns (Abstract).
Intern Nation Author Ross Perlin: Interns Need A Bill Of Rights. The Gothamist
Trickle down unemployment and corporate sleight of hand by James Marshall Reilly, about how  low pay or no pay internships are replacing entry-level employment.
Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not. NYT April 2, 2010

Other Coverage:

Book challenges rise of the Intern Nation. Careers on MSNBC.com (from Associated Press). April 20, 2011.
Canada Turning Into Intern Nation. National Post. June 11, 2011.
Intern Nation. Inside Higher Ed. April 15, 2011.
"Intern Nation": Are we exploiting a generation of workers?. Salon.com. May 29, 2011.
Intern Nation: Overdue And Under-Delivered. Business Insider. May 4, 2011. (Not a favorable review of the book, but left me wondering if the review's author had read more than the first chapter.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Guardian. May 7, 2011. (Includes a story about an auction of  prestigious internships at a political event in the UK.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Observer. May 15, 2011.
Intern Nation - Review. The Telegraph (UK). June 5, 2011.

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy