SLA Career Connections

During the 2011 SLA Conference I attended a few workshops on Job Searching.

Two of them were led by Alan De Back of Alan De Back Learning & Communications

Session 1 - Job Searching

Questions to start with:

• How much time do I devote to job searching?
  
• How will I reward myself?
  
• Where will I work on my job search?
  
• What should I tell the people I live? How often will I report my effort and progress?
  
• Who will I be accountable to? (So I don’t get side-tracked. It is good to have a search buddy – someone I can meet with once a week and report on my efforts and progress and what my plans are for the coming week. Someone who can challenge me if I am goofing off or not staying focused.)
  

Update your resume:

Customize it to the jobs you are applying for. Don’t try to tailor a new resume for every job – that will get confusing – what resume did I send for this job?

Do a self-assessment: What are you good at? What skills do you want to promote?

Use common language. Think about who will be reading your resume? Will it be an expert or a human resources clerk? Use the same words that appear in the job vacancies that you see.

Include details about what you have done. Quantify what you have done. Mention the number of customers, the volume of calls, etc. What are you accomplishments?

List the characteristics of the job that you want.

Strategy:

Networking: Go to church and community meetings. If you are shy volunteer to be a host or greeter for the group and get to know people that way. Don’t be afraid to tell people you are looking for a job. People know people. The grocery clerk may have a husband who has a job opening in your field of interest.

Arrange informational meetings – Contact professionals in your area of interest and ask for a meeting to discuss what they view is going on in the industry. Ask them what the skills are that they use or need to do their jobs. Do your homework and have some good questions about their industry or company. These meetings are asking for jobs – they are to help you learn more about a career that you might want to go into.

Develop an elevator speech. 3 or 4 sentences that describe you – your background, your accomplishments in recent jobs, what your interests are. Keep it simple, in layman’s terms. Write it out and memorize it. Don’t wing this – this may be your only chance to tell someone who you are and what you are looking for.

Job interviews:

How should I prepare? The interview begins the moment I hit the send button to submit my application. The resume, application or cover email is my first impression.

Next – look at the company’s website – find out what they do and if you can who works there. Do you know anyone?

If you are using a professional site like Linked-In – get recommendations from customers and colleagues.

Have some questions ready to ask about the company. Examples: What sort of training and professional development does the company support? Tell me about the culture of the organization? What is it like to work here? What is a typical day like?

Three tips:

1. Know yourself. Have your elevator speech and be prepared to talk about yourself, your goals and your accomplishments. How your skills fit the needs of the organization.
   
   
2. Take care of logistics. Make a practice run to get to the interview at the same time of day so you are prepared for traffic etc. Make sure you have the address and know what entrance to use etc.
   
   
3. Do things right on the day of the interview. They want you to succeed. They are hoping that you will be the candidate that will be right for the job and solve their problem. Be that person. Dress appropriately. Be clean and awake. Arrive early – if you have to sit in the reception area you can learn a lot about a company just by observing.
   

Answer the questions that you are presented – if you can think about what the interviewer is trying to find out. Try and answer the unspoken question if you can.

Follow-up is critical. Send a thank you not – simple, hand-written or emailed. If you don’t get a business card, ask for one or ask the receptionist the best way to send a thank you note.


Session 2 - Networking in the 21st Century

Understand the benefits of Networking. It isn’t just for finding a job. It is a way to learn about other people who may be experts in their area. It is also a way to meet people and not feel so alone.

Develop networking strategies – a church group or community group. Take a class, play bingo – but talk to the other people who are there.

Build and practice your elevator speech – your one-minute commercial.

Exercise:

Write out the answers to these questions:

Who are you / what do you do?

How do you serve your customers?

How are you helping customers solve their problems?

What is one recent success?

From these answers fine-tune your one-minute commercial and memorize it.

Prepare for networking:

What am I trying to accomplish?

What questions might I ask and how should I best ask them?

If you are going to a big conference – how might you network? Meet with people from your alumni association. Get a meeting buddy before the meeting.

Tips & Tricks:

• Start small
  
• Know your purpose
  
• Accept rejection – learn and move on
  
• Think about what you have to offer
  
• Plan for follow-up
  
• Concentrate on the long-term
  
• Follow-up – don’t lose track of your contacts. Create a tickler system so that every three months or so you are in touch with everyone.
  

Refrigerator Exercise – for developing a list of contacts.

Take several sheets of blank paper and put them on the door of the refrigerator using a magnet.

Every time you go to the refrigerator write down the names of 10 or so people you know. After about a week’s time you’ll have a pretty good list.

Take the list and prioritize it:

A – People I know who should be in my professional network

B – People who could be in my professional network

C – People who probably shouldn’t be in my professional network.

Then begin reaching out the A group and let them know what you are looking for – your one-minute commercial.

There are ways of networking online. Facebook is good – but it is more social than professional. www.linkedin.com is international in scope. Create a complete profile on linked-in – describe your work experience – make it look professional. Join groups of like-minded professionals.

You can put your linked-in profile address on your business card.


Session 3 - Resumes:

This session was presented by Beth Ann Wilson

There are no rules about resumes – only guidelines.

Ask who will be reading your resume.

Use keywords on your resume. Many big companies use computers to scan applications and look for keywords. These terms are often used in the job announcement.

A second page for your resume is okay – but make sure that you have something worthwhile on it.

Have a bridge statement – who we are – where we want to be going – our preferred skills and strengths. Tell what makes us unique. Make it concise. This is another place to make use of your elevator speech.

If possible, divide your work experience in buckets that correspond with your bridge statement. Show how you used skill A at various jobs or skill B etc.

If you have had many jobs and don’t want to list them all summarize your prior experience highlighting what may be pertinent to the current job you are applying for.

End on a strong note with your education or certifications. Try to have something with a recent date – if it is a certification class or a license.

You can list professional associations but only if you are active in leadership or working on committees. If you are only a member it doesn’t really tell much.

Cover letter – not everyone reads these – but it is good to have one.

• 1st Paragraph – tells your enthusiastic interest in the position and organization
  
  
• 2nd Paragraph – tells how you meet the qualifications for the job. You don’t need to mention skills that you lack.
  
  
• 3rd Paragraph – confirm your interest in the job and tell them how to contact you.
  

Again, use keywords that are used in the advertisement.

As a result of these very useful sessions I reviewed and revised my resume. Since I previously posted my resume on this blog I thought I'd post the revised version just to show how I incorporated the suggestions that were made.

---

DAVID E. MCBEE

Profile: Reliable information professional with strong background in reference and research in banking, business law and other topics. Solid experience in Internet and social networking tools

Employment:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Washington, DC
Senior Librarian     February 2010 – May 2011

Review and prepare contracts negotiation and processing for raw data purchases, Library resources and other databases. Work with vendor representatives, end-users, library staff, attorneys and agency procurement staff to shepherd contracts through the process and help negotiate terms and pricing.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Washington, DC
Senior Reference Librarian     September 2004 – January 2010

Perform news, business and legal research averaging 125 reference questions per month. Questions range from simple requests for articles or single documents to complex such as a literature search or legislative history. Search corporate, news and legal resources such as Factiva, Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw; ProQuest, JSTOR, S&P RatingsDirect, Fitch and Moody’s databases.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Washington, DC
Electronic Resources Librarian     October 2002 – September 2004
Reference Librarian     June 2001 - October 2002

Coordinated access to 60+ databases. Met with vendors and clients to determine access needs. Shepherd software for databases testing with agency IT. Maintained the library's database system. Provide training on database and web resources as needed.

Perform news, business and legal research. Search news and legal resources such as Factiva, Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw; academic resources such OCLC FirstSearch, ProQuest, Ebsco and EconLit and business resources such as S&P RatingsDirect, and Mergent Online. Serve as Library Webmaster, creating new web documents for library resources and services and access to online databases.

Additional Experiences:
DC’s Different Drummers (Non-profit music performance group), Washington, DC
President 2007 – 2009, Vice President 2008-2009. Currently serve as Membership Director.

FDIC Library, Washington, DC
Cataloger - May 1988 – February 1998

Education & Professional Development
MLS - Library & Info Services - University of Maryland, College Park, MD 2000
BA – Philosophy - Christendom College, Front Royal, VA 1983
BA – Liberal Arts - West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 1980
Certified Content Rights Management – LicenseLogic – Washington, DC 2010
Digital Copyright Certification – E. Lynn Harris 2011

Power of Perceptions – Dealing with Change

Hyram Smith – inventor of the Franklin Planner

What causes a permanent behavioral change?

Belief Windows

A belief window is the collection of beliefs through which we see everything.

Mr. Smith asked three things of those of us in attendance

1. Take notes.
   
2. Think about the talk for 36 hours.
   
3. Teach this to one other person within the next 48 hours.
   

I will admit that I did the first two but have been slow on the third. Perhaps this will count toward that. - DEM

The basic principles or beliefs that make a human being become more effective and productive have not changed in 6000 years. Aristotle got it right!

Belief Window

There are religious beliefs and many other little beliefs related to how we view ourselves and others.

The number of beliefs on our window is relative to our age. Generally, the older we are, the more beliefs on our window. Our brain validates the belief and there follows a course of action when presented with one of our beliefs.

Example: All big dogs are vicious. Our brain validates this as true. So when we encounter a big dog, our response mechanism kicks in and might panic and run from the big dog. Our belief dictates our reactions to big dogs.

Example: A man may believe that men are better than women. We may ask him, “How’s that working for you? Will that belief meet your long-term needs?” If the man is paying alimony to two wives then perhaps not.

Observation 1 – If the results of my behavior do not meet my needs, there is a harmful belief on my belief window and I experience pain.

Observation 2 – Finding better beliefs is fun and will remove my pain.

Belief has to change before the behavior can change.

Groups have belief windows, as do communities, corporations and nations.

Example: Company A has a belief that it must cut costs. And they need to hire a receptionist – so they hire the least expensive person they can find.

A client is talking to the CEO and says, Your receptionist doesn’t speak English.

Oh really?

Yes. I asked her about some materials that your company has and her response was, “We ain’t got none Jack."

Suddenly the CEO realized that the long term goals of the company were not going to be met if the face of the organization is the cheapest person they can hire. So they change the belief to from cutting costs to It is important that our company have the best reputation.

As a result they decided that one of the directors would be made the receptionist. She accepted only after the new policy/belief was explained to her. She was given a raise and put in charge of company correspondence as well as the receptionists.

When we look at our behaviors and ask why – Why do we do this or that? The answer comes back in the form of a belief.

The power of belief windows is that folks understand this quickly – they get it.

Will the results of my behavior meet my needs over time? If not, I need to change some beliefs on my belief window.

What on my belief window may be harmful and limiting my results?

If our behaviors are not meeting our needs and we are feeling pain – then we should question our behaviors and look at our beliefs and change the corresponding belief on our belief window.

Pain is inevitable – misery is optional. If we choose not to examine our behaviors and make changes to our belief window and persist in our pain then we will be in misery.

We are the only ones who can change a belief on our own belief window.

Like falling off a blog

In the midst of typing up my notes from the 2011 SLA Conference I went checking on my old blog site. A good friend set up the site in 2005 and I blogged on occasion, mostly around conference time.

Earlier this year I was trying to post on the site and I kept getting an error message. I contacted my friend the site manager and he worked on that. In the meantime I created this site since I already had a personal blog running on Blogspot.

I wanted to reference a blog post on my old site while posting my notes from the conference and saw a frightening comment on Google - Site may be compromised.

In very quick order I called my friend. I had been getting an error when I typed in the url and thinking that maybe I was missing something - I ran a search. The whole site had crashed including their back up. Not a good sign.

Fortunately because I had been talking to my friend about other problems he had downloaded all my postings. Yay! Hooray!!

So once I get the file I have to consider posting them here - but I don't want to post a bunch of old stuff. I will have to talk to the good people at Blogspot to see if I can somehow change a posting date.

I had some pretty good posts. Including the ones I was asked to remove by a former boss. I should have saved them and reposted after I left that job. C'est la vie.

Government Information Professionals: Now and in the Future

Blane Dessy, Executive Director, FLICC/FEDLINK


NewFeds

Blane started by talking about the NewFeds group – Librarians who have worked for the federal government for less than five years.

The group has a lot of energy and they are trying new things and having fun!!

Invisible role of libraries

• Government Libraries lack visibility in agencies.
  
• Government Libraries lack visibility in interagency groups and task forces.
  
• Government Libraries lack visibility in many professional associations.
  
• Government Libraries lack visibility in the literature.
  

We should write more – articles, blogs etc. Following the talk Marie Kaddell mentioned that many government libraries do 95% of the work - the research, plan and implement a great program, but then fail on the remaining 5%. They don't write it up and share it with other librarians. It takes time, but we need to share our accomplishments.


We can make our libraries more visible in our agency, our association and in professional literature.

It is the nature of academics to publish – but government librarians are so busy they don’t make marketing/promotion part of what they do.

How do we come in from the margins to the center of the page?

Find one thing that will help to promote the library.

If it were easy – anyone could do it.

If we want people to think we are leaders – we need to lead.

FLICC/FEDLINK works with 2200 federal libraries worldwide!

Federal Information Enterprise

• Info professionals are placed throughout the federal government.
  
• Considerable amount of $$ is spent on info acquisition & creation ($15 billion est.)
  
• Many different missions and objectives
  

How do we bring that broad and diverse group into a single community? We need to find a way.

Two new developments for government libraries:

1. Identification and digitization of internally created content (strategic knowledge asset of the agency)
   

   Putting Department of Justice collections on the website
   
   Find the collections, identify them and make them available to everyone in the agency and outside if possible.
   
   Mining our own materials – we need to become the masters of this information.

   
   
   
2. Digital Preservation - NDIIPP – National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program
   
   

   How do we preserve digital data?
   
   Think about your agency’s digital legacy.
   
   Paper can last 5 centuries – how long will a flashdrive last?

   
   

Strategic content management – How do we engage our stakeholders?

How do we measure performance?

Conduct agency audits to discover what data are being purchased – other departments are spending money on books, periodicals and data purchase – how can we find out what is being purchased and what leverage our agency purchasing power?

Some agencies have already done this. See my Best Practices article from 2010.

Part of the future is customization of data for agencies. This will cost – is it worth it?

Mobile devices – these are widespread in the federal sector – are we marketing our resources to them?

William Butler Yeats –

In dreams begin responsibility.

Don’t wait to strike until the iron is hot, but make it hot in the striking.

Knowledge in Judgment: Making Good Decisions

Larry Prusak gave a talk on Knowledge in Judgment at the 2011 SLA Conference.

This session is based on a book that Dr. Prusak is writing with Tom Davenport, Working Knowledge -

Tweets about the talk.

Does an organization have/exercise good judgment?

Are they open to other forms of knowledge?

Cognitive Diversity:

Mentioned The Difference by Scott E. Page.

People with different mental toolkits – a different worldview – they have a different way of thinking.

Example: Dr. Prusak worked on a marketing team in Norway with an Indian musicologist who was an expert in the structure of the music of J.S. Bach. He was able to see the big picture and how the whole structure worked together.

It is good to have people of diverse backgrounds tackle a problem. A different set of people from a homogenous background and training are not likely to solve a problem that a similar set of people couldn’t solve.

Ground truth:

What is it like for troops on the ground? The Army trains generals and commanders in a classroom – but until a leader put mini-cams on the soldiers when they landed in Grenada back in the 1980’s – they didn’t know (remember?) what it was like on the front line.

The exercise showed they needed to teach/train for what was really happening on the ground – not x’s and o’s showing battle formations.

All knowledge is local. (viz. Pascal)

What you know is dependent upon where you are standing.

Looking to the future is one of the planks of good judgment. Norway spends its windfall of oil revenues on infrastructure and investments for the future. Abu Dhabi spends much of its oil revenues – building a ski slope in the desert!

Decision architecture can be the culprit. There needs to be accountability in decision making!

NASA changed its decision architecture following a review after the Challenger Shuttle blew up. Now they solicit input from all levels. An engineer runs a meeting with folks from all levels and departments and asks if there are any concerns about the current project. The engineer walks the room to read body language and ask people. If there is a concern they can address it and solve it. There may be a delay – but lives are at stake.

Democracy is an excellent way to ensure good judgment.

Wisdom of crowds:

At county fairs there are contests to guess the weight of a bull. Not everyone guesses correctly – but the bulk of guesses by the experts (cattle owners and handlers) is always clumped around the correct weight.

Democritization of knowledge is marked by the global search and appropriation of new ideas.

If you think that only you know something you will fail.

We can force an organization to make good decisions. But what can we do?

• Change the structure in the area that you can.
  
• Don’t wait for management to change.
  
• Make improvements and others will notice. They will see the changes in your area.
  
• That will cause them to make changes in their areas.
  

MBA curriculum is a technical subject. It doesn’t encompass the social and political. It needs to do that in order to teach people that their business decisions have consequences beyond just the company’s bottom line.

Ideas have consequences! (Representative Gabrielle Giffords (AZ) would likely agree with this comment.)

Generally companies that are mission-driven do a better job at decision making – because they are thinking of their mission – not their profit.

Getting Out in Front of the Curve

From the SLA 2011 Conference

Stephen Abram Looks to the Future: Getting Out in Front of the Curve

Slides from this session

1890’s – economic depression gave rise to the Industrial Revolution – scientists were our saviors.

1930’s – economic depression gave rise to the Financial Market driven economy – CEO’s, MBA’s and CPA’s were our saviors

2000’s – economic recession should give rise to the Information driven economy when Librarians should be the leaders.

If we, as libraries and librarians (information professionals), are not where the people are – we are marching toward irrelevancy. If our patrons (and would-be patrons) are on Facebook and Twitter and 2nd Life and wherever next – we need to be there too so they will know who we are and we can communicate and work with them where they are.

We only get so many once-in-a-lifetime chances to do great things.

Find the real needs or our users and align ourselves with them. (Sounds a lot like Mary Ellen Bates’ notion of building a fan base!)

Internet and technology are still in their infancy stage. The next shift is coming!

Close to all printed works are available online. Most all audio and video is already searchable.

What is getting in our way for using the resources and technologies that we have and will come?

• You don’t know what to do – learn
  
• You don’t know how to do it – get a smart phone and a manual and read it!
  
• You don’t have the authority or resources to do it – play – kids don’t ask permission to play.
  
• You’re afraid you’ll get in trouble – it is always easier to apologize than to ask permission.
  
• Once you figure out what’s getting in the way it is far easier to find the answer (or decide to work on a different problem).
  
• Stuck is a state of mind, and it is curable
  

These are just excuses!

What we as librarians do is to make sense of the morass of information.

20 years ago we put all the US case law and regulations online – that didn’t eliminate the need for attorneys.

Calculators and spreadsheets didn’t get rid of the accountants and budget staff

Similarly – making data and information available online will not mean the end of librarians and other information professionals.

What do these have in common?

Columbus, Cook, Magellan and Libraries

They search for the corners of the earth, the edge of the oceans and discover dragons

Questions for today’s librarians:

• Are our priorities right?
  
• Are learning, research, discovery changing materially and what is actually changing?
  
• Books – not so much any more – not going away – but not what is driving us!
  
• What is the role for librarians in the real future? i.e. not just what is an extension of the past
  

What has changed?

End users

• Physical access and basic reading have already evolved to intellectual access with new competencies
  
• Libraries – are they at the heart of the campus? Not anymore.
  
• Students are focused at the lesson and event (essay, test, exam) level
  
• Researchers are connected beyond the host institution
  

End users want meals – tasty and nutritious.

In the past, libraries have offered them grocery stores. How do we create the meal from the resources that we have? How do we give them not just books and data – but the learning experience?

Librarians play a vital role in building the critical connections between information, knowledge and learning.

Provide a platform to help the end user co-create the learning experience.

The new platform – the knowledge portal – the Information Commons
What will the end-user be like at the end of the experience?

Our end users are changing – Millennial and Post-millennial people are generally smarter, they read more than Boomers, because of gaming and the Internet their eye movement is difference. Their brains wetware is different!

But – Twitter and Facebook are dominated now by middle age folks.
eBook reader usuage is largely middle-aged
Mobile data usage is growing beyond youth and is expanding in the workplace!

Text-based learning is good – but some people use logic-based learning and most respond best to visual/experience-based learning.

Target the end-user – REACH OUT!

We need to be a Beauty Salon – market what we do for the end-user – what the experience will be. You go into a Beauty Salon and come out looking/feeling beautiful! You go into a library and come out – smarter!

Google/Bing/Yahoo etc. are great at Who – What – When – Where – but the answers to the Why and How can be manipulated to give different results.

The learning experience is:

Data – Information – Knowledge – Behavior (not wisdom)

What do WE need to know?

• How do library databases and virtual services compare with other web experiences?
  
• Who are our core virtual users? Are there gaps?
  
• Does learning happen? How about discovery?
  
• What are user expectations for true satisfaction?
  
• How does library search compare to consumer search like Google and retail or government?
  
• How do people find and connect with library virtual services?
  
• Are end users being successful in their POV?
  
• Are they happy? Will they come back? Tell a friend?
  

What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?

We need to provide clarification – not just information – there’s too much information!

Great start to SLA - 2011

Arrived safely in Philly last evening. Dinner with a friend then networking with Business & Finance (and others) Librarians. Seeing other friends and making new ones.

Monday was a great start with Steve Abrams talking about getting in front of the curve. Seems as though I missed a really good opening address on Sunday - be prepared to re-invent your job!

Steve talked about the many changes that we will face as librarians and information professionals. I will post my notes from the talks when I get back to DC.

Larry Prusak gave an excellent talk on making good decisions. Seems the notion dates back to Aristotle!

More to come!

Business cards - Oh my gosh!

So when one is unemployed and actually trying to find a job - one has some free time. Yes, there are many chores that are calling for attention - but there are also the job-search and networking chores.

I was dusting off things on my LinkedIn Profile and happened upon a group called Librarians Seeking Jobs. So I joined and I have seen helpful comments in many of the discussions.

One was from a librarian who mentioned her need to get business cards (okay - networking cards) for the ALA Conference. Well - I'm going to the SLA Conference next week and realized that I needed cards.

But I've waited too long to order them online unless I want to pay $87 for overnight shipping. So I went the old-fashioned route and found a local printer - took the Metro over there and placed the order. Some discussion to keep the cost down - but I'm getting a good, eye-catching card - I think.

Be the first person to get one from me at SLA!

The Incredible Shrinking Librarian

Back in February I joined Weight Watchers. Over the years working at mostly sedentary jobs and not inclined to much exercise I had continued to gain weight. I did a few diets and for about 2 years participated in a trial for a weight loss drug. I learned a lot, lost some weight and gained it back.

As I have gotten older and seen some further health and life issues I have realized that dropping some of this extra weight will be a big help to me all around.

Having tried other types of diets I decided on Weight Watchers. I have a few friends who successfully lost weight following the program and more than anything there are no special foods or pills or supplements. I can eat whatever I want - I just need to watch how much I'm eating.

And there is exercise - I'm still working on that - but I am walking more. Most exercises I find incredibly boring so that is still a challenge. I am going to the SLA Conference in Philly and I'm staying at a hotel that is a 25 minute walk from the convention center. That will help.

And my progress since joining in February? I'm down 39.4 lbs! I still have a ways to go - but as my grandmother would say, Nothing beats failure like a success!

I couldn't have done this without the support from the meeting group and my friends and family. Most importantly I thank George for cooking such delicious meals and responding to my questions of How much rice is that? How many ounces of chicken is this?