This is How You Get Your Next Job by Andrea Kay

This is How You Get Your Next Job is about "fit" and how to manage the employer's impressions, or "negative impressions", of your suitability for employment. It is not targeted at any one industry or type of worker, such as professionals or entry-level workers, and though many job seekers will take something of value away from the book, any potential reader who has been told that they didn't get the job offer because of "fit" or for the person about to go for their first skilled-occupation interview.

Overall, the author has offers advice and exercises that will help with interview preparation, such as the list on What employers look for that includes desired qualities such as flexibility, stable behavior and intellectual curiosity, and the Would You Hire You test which includes several essay type questions that will include content you can use for answering interview questions. The encouragement for reflective thinking and self-examination, especially for a person that has had a few failed interview attempts and needs to examine their behavior in the interview, would be helpful for some readers. I would pair this one with Ron Fry's 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions, which I like for basic training in interviews.

The author does spend a lot of time focused on the "negative filtering" techniques that employers use to decide who is a suitable candidate. Negative filtering is a cognitive trick used to determine if something is mismatched or incorrect according to our perceptions. In a mild form, negative filtering could mean removing a candidate from the running because they fail to show up wearing a tie. In its most abhorrent manifestation, when a candidate is the wrong religion, race or gender for a job, negative filtering can remove those candidates from consideration, based on the filter of the interviewer. Most of the book focuses on the failure to demonstrate follow through or stable behavior and how those traits are demonstrable and when not achieved how an interviewer can filter candidates out based on the lack of those traits. On the whole, when considering the exercises, candidates can make sure that they demonstrate the traits that employers look for and apply it to their career management.

I did like this book, especially for a reader who is getting ready to enter the professional work force, though I felt demoralized by the litany of employer complaints that sometimes felt frivolous. For example, one interviewer states they would not hire a person who wore patterned hose. Maybe the person meant the airy crocheted kind or fishnets, but this seems to be pretty picky when compared to a person's ability to regularly show up on time and write cogent sentences--not to mention the fact that the patterned salesperson could sell snow to an Inuit. Some of the employer likes and dislikes seemed a little silly when the person's abilities were not considered, but the candidates were discarded for trifling fashion faux pas or some conservative bulwark against tattoos or piercings.

The advice on what to say and not say in an interview, your first presentation to an employer, was really well done, even if some of the picky faults were a bit exasperating at times. I would recommend readers who have the presentation down pat to review the chapter on Things you should never do once you get a job or in your career--ever as a worthwhile introduction to basic career management and etiquette when dealing with colleagues and supervisors. This is How You Get Your Next Job is useful, though it can get a little annoying at times, but it does remind you that interviewers are human too, with their own foibles that candidates need to acknowledge to find employment.

Don't confuse children's/teen literature with teen/children's librarianship

Whenever I have someone tell me that they really want to be a children's librarian because they love children's literature, it tells me that they don't know much about actually being a children's librarian. Most librarians start eye-rolling when someone tells them it sure must be great to read books all day, and the children's lit/children's librarian confusion is a subset of that argument.

If you looked at actual job postings for children's and teen librarians you will notice that loving children's literature is not the sole job duty. In fact, if you stated that this was your only qualification for the position, I can guarantee that they would not make you a job offer.

This posting from Monroe, Washington says:

• The successful candidate for this position will demonstrate knowledge of teen culture and technologies; 
• judgment when using reference databases and print resources; 
• flexibility in trying new approaches to customer service; 
• and enthusiasm when promoting library programs and initiatives.

I think this means you better like technology, know about marketing, have some customer service background and at least read a book about "teen culture".

This posting from Rawlings, Wyoming says:

The 40 hours/week position involves working with the programming team to develop programs for all 8 library locations. The position also involves collection development for the teen and children’s collections. The position reports to the Public Support Services Manager. The job includes a variety of evening and weekend hours.

I'm sure you will not only have to be able to pick a teenager out of a line-up, but you will also be working on collection development, which actually means you need to know how to develop a teen collection, as well as programming for teens, which can include media literacy, study skills, life skills, college/vocational preparation, helping youth at risk, as well as bullying, sexual identity issues, suicide and basic literacy. Of course, you could touch on these issues through fiction--and you will--but knowing the culture and the needs of the community going to take up more of your day than preparing Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers.

And this posting from Waukee Public Library

A master’s degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited institution, with coursework or experience in children’s services is preferred. Knowledge of literature for children and young adult, storytelling skills and programming experience are essential. May require travel to various locations for outreach programs.

Now, you have to know about children's and teen lit, but you also have to have presentation and programming (teaching and class planning) experience in addition to a knowledge of the literature. A driver's license will probably also be a must, not to mention a willingness to travel. 

Instead of reading your way exclusively through the VOYA booklists, I would recommend that you spend some time with real children and teens and learn about some of the issues that children and teens are facing and what their information needs are. So you have to meet some real children and teens in their natural habitats and even talk to them. It is not enough to have a firm grasp about what adult authors have composed for the edification and entertainment of children and teens.

If the library's hiring decisions come down to a choice like this:

Candidate A	Candidate B
was a child once briefly a teenager knows what a Time Turner is Team Gale and an MLIS	One of the former: teacher social worker youth counsellor of some type such as camp, school, addictions, etc. juvenile detention center worker or is a current literacy specialist and holds an MLIS

I think the library's hiring committee is going to go with Candidate B, provided that the candidate expresses no disgust at spending more of their professional life in the company of children.

It is clear that loving children's lit is a must, but it is not a significant percentage of children or teen librarian's day. However, over-estimating just how much time is spent with books, as opposed to people is not solely a failing of wannabe youth librarians.

Value of Education from PayScale.com

PayScale.com offered their first Google Hangout on the Value of Education, aka is it worth it to go to college?

The discussion was wide ranging and had a good mix of speakers--a marketer, an economist and a school counsellor--though the moderator could have done a bit more to distribute time amongst all of the panelists.

A story from NPR about a high achieving student choosing the trades over college seems to echo some of the arguments made by the speakers, while also addressing the only the remedial student enters the trades argument. It's a shame that we are still dealing with that stereotype, but this weird belief that only the stupid, usually male, students become tradespeople just won't die in the minds of some parents--and kids.

One area they didn't touch on was when you needed a degree, or a graduate degree, to do the job that you want. For example, if your local authority only hires teachers with a graduate degree to teach in the K-12 schools, you can go to school for a year to be a Teaching Assistant--but that is not a Teacher. And without the four year degree you can never progress into higher level administration or even into instructional or curricular design. In some cases college is the only way to get into a profession, so suggesting that they just pursue the "lite" version of the career is also a waste of their time and money.

However, their point about taking the associate degree, getting some work experience and pursuing additional education with the assistance of their employer is one we try to impress on our students all the time.

There are also some cases where a trade and a degree can go hand in hand. For example, a person who pursues a degree in history but who also works as a carpenter--whether as a full-time worker and a part-time student, or vice versa--may be able to use their trade to leverage their degreed career. As a carpenter and a historian, they could work in a museum (or form their own company) to build and repair exhibits; they can work in historical interpretation as a carpenter; they can also use their skills and knowledge to preserve historic homes or buildings. I wish sometimes that people would consider how a trade and a college degree can enhance one another, rather than the liberal arts depriving our economy of a plumber. (In fact, a chemistry class would have helped the plumber who told me that I could boil lead out of my water--but I consider him to be unusual and not the norm.)

They are also trying to continue the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #valueofed, but they couldn't have anticipated the Twitter shutdown during their hangout.

Points to PayScale.com for using Google Hangouts. I'm looking forward to more of these.

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 I Meant to Say Was

So I got interviewed--yep, they were that desperate--for an article about the job market outlook for librarians. I gave them some of my usual blather about how new librarians should think about their transferrable skills, not waste their time in a saturated market and look in areas where there are fewer entry-level librarians--i.e. not in a town with a library school--and that new librarians should also consider looking for work in special libraries and not get so hung up on working in public and academic libraries. So,I thought I would take the time to say what I meant to say.

The Brass Ring

When I was in library school, the brass ring was the academic library. Everybody wanted to work there and the cool kids were strongly encouraged to apply. Public libraries were ok, especially if you were going to work in children's librarianship since that is where you can wreck...er, mold young minds, but I wanted to work with adults, and even before it was modestly cool, with newcomer populations, a special population the library. And the minute you say special, library schools don't really know what to do with you--unless you're going to be working in a music or a law library. There is not that much assistance for looking for work in special libraries and the library school kept pushing the academic or public library as the only options. This is not to say that they are not great options--I did my internship in a public library and I sometimes look back on that time with deep, longing sentimental sighs--but it would help to have professors speak positively about all types of libraries.

If this is not the case at your library school, or things have changed, realize that I am speaking from my own experience and perception.

Transferrable Skills

So no one knew what to do with me. Luckily, I was a bit older and not so prone to take career direction from people who had stayed with the same employer for most of their adult life. I also knew that I had to take charge of my own job search and not wait for someone to find a job for me. I realized that there are multilingual newcomer populations in both academic and public libraries and that I could tailor my project and my interviews to describe all of the skills that I had acquired in my volunteer work and apply that to the library world. It is what got me my internship, talking about my transferrable skills: I had teaching, classroom management and public speaking skills, in addition to customer service and a deep knowledge of about serving this specific population--in addition to my promiscuous reading habits, which is the only time that you can say promiscuous and have it mean good things for an employer. And a practiced with ways to describe how all of these skills would be useful, which is what you are supposed to do when prepping for an interview: learn to talk about yourself with depth and describe your unique abilities in relation to the employer's needs.

A Library Degree is the Minimum

While on the topic of transferrable skills, when I was at the ALA career fair, a light bulb went on for me in my first interview. My epiphany was this: the library degree is the minimum. When you are called into an interview, the employer checks this off and then talks about everything else you can possibly bring to the table, so you can't focus constantly and exclusively on your library school experience.

Library students hate this: when I mention this in any presentation I give about careers, I get this look of "don't dis my degree". I am not dissing the degree; I learnt a lot and paid a lot for my degree too, but I have stopped kissing it before I went to bed every night. It is the ticket to ride. Without it, there is no interview. But you are more than your degree and you need to learn how to explain how much more you are.

Everyone Can Move

Well, not everyone. People who have homes that they can't sell, aging parents or family members in care who need them, or children whose needs can only be met in that community, they can't move. Everybody else is fair game.

I know you are comfortable, you have your books on your shelves the way you like them and damn, but you think you can make something out of your current relationship, but you are going to be unhappy, have to sell your books and it's tough to nurture a relationship when you are broke and constantly whining about your job search.

If you aren't getting offers in your current labor market, you have to move to get the job you want. It is tough, but it has to be done. And once you do it, it gets a bit easier to move again, and even move back, once you have some experience or get courted back. It can happen, but you have to get unstuck to get the experience.

The other option is telework, but that may take you out of libraries entirely--which might not be a bad thing, provided that an employer will accept what you do as transferrable. You also can't give up on libraries, of all types, so you need to stay in touch with librarian friends and build up your network. Which you should be doing anyway.

Become a Specialist

Library school will make you a generalist: you leave with enough tools to fit in any library and what you make of what you have will determine who hires you. Maybe you should become a specialist.

Working in a special library will make you a specialist. You will learn a lot about engineers and scientists if you work in special library in an oil and gas company, for example. You will answer specific reference questions for them, deal with their information needs, find information delivery solutions for them, catalog, develop collections specific to their industry or sector. You will also have to pretend that this stuff is fascinating even if you left science or engineering to become a librarian because it didn't fascinate you as much anymore, or if science has always left you cold, and faking fascination is not a bad skill to cultivate. All of the skills you develop in that library are transferrable to the science library on an academic campus, or even in a public library that needs someone to find science fair projects. You just need to explain how to transfer your specialization to that potential new employer.

What about not working in libraries?

What happens to the people who can't get a job in a library? And this can happen--the trick is to get busy doing something, but not waiting for phone calls. If you have to take a year and write business plans for people, you can still use those skills in a business library in an academic, public or special library, you just have to talk about how it is related. Like how you questioned your client and interacted with them, how you researched the market, the process of writing the plan and how successful each plan was and what resources you would provide to a client that needed similar assistance. See, transferrable.

Sadly, there is one thing you can't do: you can't convince a library employer to interview you if you spend too much time out of library work. For you, this means lots of frustration unless you can network your way into an interview, either through contacts or by volunteering (which you should be doing BEFORE you leave library school). Worse than working out of libraries however, is being the wallflower of the labor market and not doing anything. Long periods of unemployment are probably hardest to deal with, so it is important to do something with dignity and that is transferrable.

It is also important for people responsible for library hiring to see how applicable that work outside of libraries is to people who are patrons of the library and for them to see that a person who is determined to work will also be determined to work hard for the library.

"Bad Career Advice" from BNET

Caution: Bad Career Advice Ahead from the Evil HR Lady on BNET is filled with great examples of when to ignore advice--especially when that advice flouts common sense or is unjust.

What they don't teach you in library school by Elisabeth Doucett

There are just some topics that they don't have time to teach in library school, or that were special projects or areas a library student could explore while in library school. Elisabeth Doucett looks at some of the issues a library student will have to face, from selecting a library job to dealing with a library budget and statistics.

What they don't teach you in library school is written in a plain language conversational style with short chapters--each one could be read in about 10 minutes. Topics include career management, communication skills--such as dealing with problem patrons and corporate culture--and onto topics that will help the reader learn some of the issues faced by library management, such as facilities management and budgeting.

I can easily see some of these topics becoming interview questions to see how much you know about these issues, so reading through this book prior to an interview, especially if you have not held a professional level position before, would be a good idea. The book would give you a good idea of the work environment and how to deal practically with issues, not just reporting on these issues. Each chapter also includes a bibliography/further reading, to help you learn more about the issues, so if you were looking to deepen your knowledge in a particular area, the author has suggested where to go next.

It's always the quiet ones

Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses summarizes some of the research by Wharton professor Adam Grant which asks, which type of person is the most effective leader, an introvert or an extravert?

According to the article, it depends on the group the person is leading: introverts do better with a proactive team that needs someone to listen and act on their ideas, whereas as extraverts do better with a less proactive team, firing them up and motivating them.

What I also found interesting was the bias against introverted people as leaders:

Given these conclusions, why does the popular view persist that extraverts are better leaders across the board? The authors point to several possible reasons: One is that extraverts are often perceived as more effective because of a "halo effect." "This may occur because extraverted leaders match the prototypes of charismatic leaders that dominate both [Western and Eastern cultures] and are especially prevalent in business," they write. One online survey of 1,500 senior leaders earning at least six-figure salaries found that 65% actually saw introversion as a negative quality in terms of leadership.

It is also possible that an introverted person could believe that they would not make a great leader because they believe the bias and may not actively seek out opportunities for advancement. If you are an introvert with this belief, reading this article and some of the associated research may help to conquer your self-defeating beliefs.

Fallacies about promotions

HBR Magazine has an article about career development fallacies. The author looked at the CVs of approximately 1000 executives to determine how executives get ahead. She found there were four fallacies about career advancement:

• Job hoppers can hop their way into a promotion; instead stability with a company and internal promotion seem to lead up the ladder;
• Move up the ladder; instead lateral moves can offer more exposure to senior management and then into a promotion;
• A big company will lead to big moves. We have this problem in the career center: students are convinced they need to work for the Big 4 or the Big Ten or the Ivies, instead of thinking about how they will stand out better amongst a smaller pool;
• Switching industries will hold back your career; instead think how you can bring a fresh perspective. The example about salary is a little fishy, since it means some industries are bargain shopping for managers in other industries.

I have one quibble with this article: I do not know one career counsellor who advises flagrant job hopping, or even tentative bunny hopping, as a way to get ahead in a career. Most counsellors are talking risk takers away from frequent jumps based on brief infatuations with other companies or perceived slights that the job seeker takes as a sign to jump ship, instead of a sign to learn to work problems out.

However, the advice is good for career planners: stay steady, make your choices based on what you want to do and know that sometimes small can become big.

Two Perspectives on Work

CBC's Spark has two perspectives on work, from Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow, amongst others, and Matthew B. Crawford, the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft.

Going freelance

Gina Trapani explains how to go freelance. I don't know how many people still hold on to the misconception that you quit and "hang out your shingle" but her advice on how to build gradually, getting your name out there and when to give your work away is helpful and probably true to most freelance experience (it is to mine).

An excessive need to be me

HBSP has an interesting blog post from Marshall Goldsmith about the excessive need to be yourself. After reading it, I would also argue that there are some people who don't know themselves, but are just behaving a certain way because they thought it was the right way.

But it is true that the excessive need to be you (with little self awareness) can be undermining. You see it when people do interview prep. They balk at the question, Tell me about the last time you had a conflict at work and how you dealt with it, and in response they assume namaste and blink their saint's eyes at you, and say I don't have conflicts with people. Well, you're about to have a conflict with me because I think you're full of baloney. Tell me about how you're going to deal with that. (And for god sakes, read a peace studies or peace education book, since they acknowledge that conflict has a role in creating peace. You're just being evasive, there's a difference.)

There are lots of stereotypes that we buy into because we think they make us better professionals--and they can vary from profession to profession. The manager in the post didn't want to give recognition because it just wasn't part of his personal makeup--or what he believed hard driving managers did, according to his stereotype.

So what are your personal stereotypes, the one's you hold about your identity?

Seeks success stories

The ALA Emerging Leaders Group G is looking for success stories from librarians who have used ALA Human Resource services to find work:

If you found the perfect job thorough the ALA Placement Center, located the perfect candidate at a conference or successfully revamped your resume with the resume review service in the Placement Center, the group wants to hear about it. No story is too small, no story too large. (Original call with details on how to submit)

You can submit via email or on YouTube.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Don't wait for a rescue

There are lots of posts (like this one) and articles (like this one) about is it a recession or a depression, how long will it last, etc. The only uniform answer is, we don't know. No matter how much knowledge a person has, or expertise in the area, that is the one certainty: we have none.

But there is one constant theme in all of this analysis that is beginning to make me nuts: The Obama Effect (Let Me Google That For You). Obama supposedly has had an effect on the campaign, on the confrontation in Gaza, and now, he will have an effect on the economy, (etc.)--possibly for the better. And his and the plans of his advisors will have an effect on the individual, so the Obama Effect is not all hot air.

But, in case you're confused, Obama's dad was from Kenya, not Krypton. The only person who will save you is you. If you're in school and you're worried about the future, this is what you need to do:

1. Check your bank balances and start saving, especially if you have no savings. Try this rule: with the exception of cost of living needs, if a desired item costs more than you make in an hour, don't buy it, eat it, visit it, view it, or hang it on your wall.
   
2. Don't buy anything else on credit since you will just have to pay it off later, with interest. Put your credit card in the freezer until you need it to buy bus or plane tickets to interviews or conferences. See suggestions #13 and #15 on ways to save money on traveling.
   
3. Look for ways to bring down your personal costs.
4. If you have a student loan, some lenders make sure you go through a consultation about repayment. Find out about getting one booked and learn about the repayment process, especially if your lender has a program for loan remission.
   
5. Ruthlessly squeeze every cent out of your tax return. See if there is a student service that will help you file for free or cheap.
   
6. Is your resume ready to go? If not, complete it and have it proofread by the end of this month.
7. What are the job resources available to you in your state or province? Does your library school have a job search library? Have you made job searching part of your daily schedule?
8. Ask your current employer about the prospects for extending your job into the summer or the likelihood of a position after you graduate. Do not believe gossip--cut backs or increases--go directly to the person who has hiring authority. Find out about their hiring plans and find out how you can become a candidate.
   
9. Subscribe to the appropriate listservs that have job postings in the field you are interested in.
10. Have you spoken with your references, or your internship/co-op coordinator or supervisor? Did you remind them that you are on the market and would be grateful for any advice (read  job leads) that they could send you?
    
11. If you are thinking about relocating, start using vertical search engines and niche job boards in that province or state and start applying for work.
    
12. Next month have a mock interview with a real professional interviewer and polish your skills. Get honest feedback, not from a person who loves you or forgot to give you a Valentine.
    
13. Does your web cam work? Do you know how to get it to work if it works but you have never used it? You can keep down interviewing and traveling costs by checking to see if your web cam is ready for action. [Sheesh, not that kind of action.]
    
14. Attend a session on negotiation so you can learn how to deal with HR, interviewers, bankers and landlords, so you can negotiate in regards to rent, repayment and salaries. You will need these skills if you have to work in purchasing or licensing in any library that has contracts with external companies (like, all of them) so now is the time to learn and practice, practice, practice.
15. Take advantage of as many free or low cost services that you can use right now, as a student. First of all, take advantage of the student rate to go to library conferences that have a career fair so you can hit at least ten potential employers, and get through some screening interviews.
    

Most of you with experience in taking care of yourselves will have already taken these steps; for others, these are new, or you're not used to doing so much at one time. Think about that: do it now, and check them off one at a time, or wait 'til you graduate and add, buy Maalox, to the list.

Idealist.org

If you're looking for work in a non-profit--any kind of work--you should be visiting Idealist.org. Idealist.org is a clearinghouse of information on non-profit work, local and global, with career advice (including two downloadable career guides) and information on volunteering, both in-person and virtual. They have also made really good use of YouTube for advertising their job posting board to employers, creating a commercial for their career guides and advertising their career fairs.