Skills shortage a self inflicted wound?

For the past few weeks, you can't open a Canadian newspaper or business blog without at least one writer going bananas over the "skills shortage" paper released by the CIBC World Markets. However, Skills shortage a self inflicted wound from the Toronto Star asks some question about the role of employers in training workers to meet their labor needs, as well as a call to be less picky when selecting employees. Less picky does not mean giving up on essential character traits--reliability, conscientiousness, attention to detail--while tolerating and filling in some skills gaps--have HTML 5 but no PHP: we can deal with that--to find qualified employees.

Oddly enough, this month's HBR has an article called Who Can Fix the Middle-Skills Gap?* that calls on employers to step up to address this issue.

I also highly recommend Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It by Peter Cappelli which the author of the article also mentions.

*need subscription to see full article

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.

Go DevMental

Microsoft has launched a Canada-wide academic tour, Go DevMental, to give students access to a wide variety of Microsoft programming tools. Student attendees will also get Dreamspark tokens which gives them access to Microsoft development tools, from Visual C to Windows server. This is a good opportunity for people who build apps or who want to network with other programmers.

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?

Your request is granted

According to this post on Careers that Don't Suck, grantwriting is sexy again. This means a few things:

• If you're a good writer, you can look for grantwriting opportunities;
• There are probably volunteer opportunities if you are not sure if you are a good writer, or a good grant writer;
  
• Libraries are still looking for librarians who can write grant applications and requests, if not more so in the current economic climate. 

If you have no experience in this area, and are still in school, look for opportunities that will let you get some grantwriting experience. You will probably always need it in public service/non-profit.

There are also some links at the bottom to job boards and free classes on how to write grant applications.

Are you a good listener?

Are you a good listener? Some of us think that we are, but never analyze our behaviors or ask people if they think that we are paying attention. But listening is an important skill for librarians. Of course, the obvious is the reference interview, making sure that you have the best information for the client's problem--but we need our listening skills when our managers or colleagues give us directions, when we attend committee meetings--especially when we are learning about a new topics, such as student awards--and we need our listening skills in the interview.

Listening is an active process: you need to know how to select information that people say to you and repeat it, so they know that you get it. Therefore, it is not enough to just listen, but to listen and repeat or listen and respond.

For managers--or anyone who hopes to be a manager--Leila's House of Corrections has a video on how to listen.



You can also practice listening:

• When you take phone messages, are you an uh-huh-er, just grunting your responses and saying, yeah, I'll make sure she gets that? Start reading back the message you have recorded and ask if this is the correct message. Ask if they have anything to add, and make sure that you have a courteous sign-off that mirrors theirs, not just a thunk down of the phone.
  
• Instead of reading a recipe and creating a meal, listen to a recipe on a podcast and make while listening. Obviously, you will need to listen more than once, especially when assembling the ingredients, but because this is an active exercise of input, the recipe, and output, dinner that tastes good, you are practicing active listening. 
• Many librarians love books and reread or write down favorite lines. But do you love audiobooks as much, and, if so, can you repeat back the lovely line that you just heard? Here's a test: use the bookmarking feature (or archaic rewind), say the line out loud and check to see if you are right.
• Raise your standards. Are you really hearing what people say, or are you content with the gist of it? Recently, I have noticed that I don't always hear all of the lines that are spoken on TV--age probably, but probably a result of years of headphone abuse--and I used to content myself with the gist of it. But if you watch Pushing Daisies or a frenetic episode of the West Wing, you're lost. Don't be satisfied with the gist of it anymore.

Listening is more than just pouring words in your ear, it includes some output and a cogent response. Test your listening skills to see if you really are as proficient as you believe.

You may already be a listening "expert": what tips or exercises do you have for people to improve their listening skills?

Courses that may help you find a library job

There are some courses that you may have taken, as part of your undergrad or just for personal interest, that you may not have thought to mention when you were applying or interviewing for a library job.

• Have you taken a budgeting or personal finance class? I'm not thinking about applying your skills to the library budget, but there may be an increase in programming in libraries toward helping people deal with tightening household budgets. You would have at least the basic vocabulary and, possibly, contacts, to assist with collection development or programming in those areas. Take a look at this article from the Consumerist and see how many ways library programming and services can help people during an economic downturn. (Yes, we do it all the time, but people notice it more during tough times.)
  
• Did you volunteer to help people fill out their taxes? Again, similar to the finance class, you may know of resources and books that could help patrons. Make sure that you are not giving advice, but that you know where to find the best advice.
  
• Done any photography or videography? Many libraries are increasing their use of YouTube (or other educational video sites) and Flickr to create innovative book talks or instructional materials for their staff and patrons. 
• Know your way around an application form? People need to get student loans, they need to take tests to get accepted into certain professions and occupations, they need to write application letters, personal statements and conduct informational interviews--kinda sounds like an application to library school. More than that, what books did you use, who did you talk to, and use your experience to help others.
• You can search the Internet. Like a fiend. Can you find job postings? Use a vertical search engine? Find out about small business loans? Find free e-books and resources on a particular topic? It's still magic to a lot of people.
  

Think of some of the "survival" skills that you have that would assist others, and I am sure you can come up with some innovative ways to help a new library employer.

This gun for hire

Yesterday, I spoke on a panel for alternative librarian careers. Since I consider myself very much a librarian, my career is not really an "alternative". But I'm not really concerned about that in this post.

I'm concerned about a comment that I overheard about how unsteady it is to be a freelancer and that the person really felt they needed a pay check. I like my pay check too, but I really like my work environment more. I don't think you could pay me enough to stay in work that sucks, but I have an advantage that most freelancers also have: we know what we can do that makes money.

Have you ever sat down and really thought about the things that you can do that people will pay for? These can be library-related like specialized collection development, or on the peripheries of library work (or stuff not always part of every librarian's job) such as editing, proof-reading, teaching, or skills that you have, not necessarily library-related that you can make money at, like installing a wireless network or translating from English to another language. Who would pay you for them and how would you market them?

Can you make money with them in libraries? For example, could you offer a paid workshop on how to give directions or greet people in Mandarin? I know a few librarians that might sign up for that as an online class, just for their own career development. How many people within libraries know what you know and if they don't know it, would they pay to learn it or use it to accomplish a task?

If you know what you can sell and what the market is like for your skills, I think you can make a reasonable living. And let's not kid ourselves: some entry-level library jobs are not a reasonable living and you may need to make some freelance cash to survive, or supplement your income. Sit down and figure out what you can do for money. The next step: how much money would you need to make at it to survive?

For a primer on freelancing, yesterday's WSJ put a loose plan together that you can use to stimulate your thoughts. And seriously think about it: even if you don't make it as freelancer, you still need to know what you can do and how to offer that to an employer.

Gray but not going anywhere

According to the 8 Rs, The Future of Human Resources in Canadian Libraries, one-quarter of the professional and paraprofessional staff in Canadian libraries is over the age of 55 [summary]. Indeed, there have been a few presentations, including an ALA Town Hall, that state that the "graying of the profession" may lead to a shortage of librarians. But if librarians are getting older, may they also be staying at work longer?

From a CBC Money story today, based on an RBC poll, 82% of Canadians may not retire when they hit 65, even if they could afford to retire. That means, if you love your job and you haven't wrecked your knees from brick laying, you are probably going to hold on to it. And an older librarian keeping their job could translate into a longer wait for the first promotion of a younger professional. Not to mention the possibility that some boomerang retirees may decide to return to the workforce in part-time positions that might normally provide the entry for a rookie librarian. So for young librarians, staff cuts to libraries are not the only the problem; competition from a professional who has many valuable skills accumulated over a career of several years may mean another obstacle to their first professional position.

Well, there could be worse news. For young librarians, this means it isn't enough to just learn XML, you need to learn some Excel. Here are some skills that you can acquire, and you may have already acquired but discounted as not Web 2.0 enough:

• Budgeting: More than your bank balance, though many have tried that response. Have you secured funds for a program, fulfilled the mandate of the program and came out even or with some money left over? If you spent it all and came out with a negative, what would you do differently after having this experience? You should ask if you could spend some money to fill a deficit in a collection or planning and delivering a program. Keep your own records and spreadsheets and get permission from the person who supervised your work to use it in show and tell at the interview.
• Plan and deliver. What gap is there in the training or the information skills at your library, workplace or volunteer job? Is there a class for seniors to use the computers; a session on getting more from your handheld; or a talk on getting letters of reference? Can you volunteer to give them and keep the documents--including the evaluations--that you get from this experience.
  
• Supervising staff: Supervising staff involves a whole range of skills, from creating schedules to directing and delegating work loads, to recruiting, hiring, firing, evaluating and commending staff. Any one of these skills can make you stand apart from your peers who may have spent a lot of time taking orders, but not giving any.

Look critically at your past work experience, as well as previous or current volunteer experience, and determine if you have done any of these management-related tasks in your BLS (Before Library School) Life. Highlighting these skills in your resume, discussing them in the interview or documenting them in your portfolio can make you seem more like a manager, someone ready to step into the shoes of the master.