Career Con 2011 Notes

This year the SLA-SG co-sponsored the Career Con with other student groups at SLIS.  It was held this past weekend, in an effort to give students career advice.  It lasted three days with several talks each day.  I attended two of the talks.  So here are some of my notes from those talks.  Much more was said, but these were the points that stood out to me.

Effective Job Search:

-employers have different reasons for their hiring decisions and their decision not to hire you may be based more on internal reasons rather than you not being qualified

-many employers are looking for someone who is flexible and can learn new technology

-Some ideas on where to find jobs: Institution websites, group specific sites (state, regional, etc.), listservs, Association of Research Libraries, ALA Joblist, Chronicle of Higher Education, Academic Employment net to name a few.

-openings are seasonal based on the schedules of the institution (e.g. many universities operate by semester so job openings are posted in the summer that start in January and in the spring for those that start in August/September)

-"coordinator" is a code word for entry level positions, since they are looking for someone to do a lot of busy work

-be careful about applying for multiple positions at the same institution, they may still have your previous application materials and it would look weird if you were passionate about two totally different jobs

-Show initiative, don't just e-mail someone at the institution and wait, go look for the posted job openings, apply by the deadline

Resume, Cover Letters, and Resume Review

-one of our professors mentioned that she got a job at a corporate library through a temp agency, so don't rule out that possibility 

-Look outside your assumed area of interests, information related jobs can be found outside academia and public libraries, and they may not always have librarian in the title

-Look at job ads to determine what skills and education you need for your desired job

-you don't necessarily need an objective on your resume, it doesn't say much unless you are specifically asked for one

-read about trends in libraries to get an idea how to answer the question, "where would you like to be in 5 years?"