Recently several students I was working with asked for resume tips – sort of a generic list of broad concepts they could use to shape their efforts. Since resumes aren’t my specific area of expertise, I turned to others I know who are resume experts for some good guidelines I could share.

The following represents a consensus of their expert advice:

1. Use a very clean page layout so electronic scanners can easily recognize key information sections. Also, a generous amount of white space on the page makes your text easier to read for both electronic scanners and hiring managers.
2. Unless it’s an academic CV, go for a resume length of no more than 2 pages. (If 2 pages, make sure your name is on both pages.)
3. Use a standard, rather than customized or “jazzy,” font so scanners can easily recognize your words.
4. Always tailor your resume to the specifics of the job for which you’re applying.
5. If a previous employer you’re listing isn’t well-known or it’s not obvious from their name what type of organization they are, note in parentheses what type of work they do.
6. Always lead with a Summary or Strengths statement; Objectives statements are no longer used.
7. No need to include the phrase “References Available Upon Request” – everyone takes this for granted, and not including this will give you more space for more valuable “sales” information.
8. Focus on key information rather than on all your information. Although you want to provide a complete chronology of your work history, where possible you’ll want to shape each job’s description so it relates to the job you seek, which means leaving out unimportant job details.
9. If possible, try to create a narrative thread, or story, with your resume, one that shows increasing responsibility and initiative as you’ve advanced in your career.
10. If you’re still not 100% confident that your resume is the dynamite sales piece you need it to be, consider hiring a resume-writing expert to do a quick polish for you. Your goal is to make sure that your “marketing collateral,” that is, your resume, provides just the competitive edge you need to land that job.

I’d add to the list the importance of creating a master resume that has all your key information in one place, from which you can then “mix and match,” tailoring what elements or components you include based on the specifics of the job for which you’re applying. It makes the process go much faster!

What else would you add?

Yeah, yeah, yeah – you keep hearing that you should have at least a few recommendations from significant others (like previous bosses, not your spouse) on your LinkedIn profile page, but really – is it that important?

Actually yes, and the reason it is that important is a concept called “social proof” – which is when someone respected by others affirms your worth or value to them. In the same way you’ll try a new restaurant because your friend the foodie swears it’s terrific, social proof lets us substitute the judgment of a trusted friend, colleague, or professional for our own first-hand knowledge. Based on their (knowledgeable) judgment, we’ll give it a go.

Forms of social proof
In the online world, there are a number of ways to provide social proof. For example:

Recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. Essentially, if your previous boss (perhaps a branch director or company VP) says you were a terrific contributor, then I, a potential boss looking at your LinkedIn profile and seeing that recommendation, will make the assumptive leap that you’d be a terrific contributor for my organization as well. Result: interview scheduled. Note that these are LinkedIn recommendations rather than endorsements (see LinkedIn Profile Recommendations – the New Letter of Recommendation for tips on how to ask for recommendations).

Commendations in your e-portfolio. Including letters or statements of commendation from those who’ve supervised or otherwise benefitted from your work in your e-portfolio can be nearly as effective as LinkedIn recommendations, with the exception that recruiters and hiring managers will have to know about you before they know to check out your online presence. (With LinkedIn, you can be found via keyword searches as well as by your name.) An e-portfolio letter of commendation, however, has the benefit of allowing the writer more freedom (and length) to describe work that you did, how you did it, your amazing ability to overcome obstacles, etc. So similar to a standard letter of recommendation.

Resume “testimonials.” These would be the exact opposite of the previous long-form approach, comprising a sentence or two about an outstanding strength or attribute from a previous supervisor or employer. These brief snippets would be incorporated into your resume in the margins or perhaps at the end of the document, depending on how your resume is formatted.

Shout-outs on social media. These aren’t as easily seen or found as the three more permanent options above, but they can still be helpful. Public congratulations, notes of appreciation, and recognition of extraordinary accomplishments on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn updates, and other social media platforms can all add to a critical mass of positive statements from the universe of bosses, colleagues, and collaborators who have experienced the quality of your work.

Soft self-promotion
Although most of us, especially in the LIS profession, balk at self-promotion, social proof enables us to get the word out in ways that don’t feel quite so self-serving.

If you’ve truly done exemplary work for someone or some organization, they’ll probably be happy to share that information if it helps you succeed in your career, and especially if you offer to reciprocate (always).

Yep, asking your network for job-hunting help can sometimes feel awkward.

But did you know that experts say less than one in three jobs results from an online application? That one statistic alone should quickly vault “reaching out to my community of colleagues” to the top of your job-hunting tactics list.

In order to give your outreach efforts (and your contacts) the best chance of actually being able to help you find a job, however, it’s important to do some prep work first.

Do these three things first
Before you send that first e-mail or make that first phone call request, you need to:

Clarify for yourself exactly what type of work or job you’re looking for.  Be specific when defining your new-job goals. Be able to describe either a type of work or a job title or a set of responsibilities within a specific type of organization. Also be clear on what you aren’t interested in.

You want to be able to describe this to any colleague you reach out to for potential contacts or ideas about job openings. Nothing is more frustrating for someone who wants to be able to help, but has no idea where to start.

Identify the type of help you’re asking for.  Similar to being clear about what type of work you’re looking for, you want to be specific about what kind of help you need. This may sometimes even be a different “ask” for each person you connect with as you job hunt.

For example, you may ask for an informational interview with a former colleague to learn more about her employer. You may ask a fellow classmate to introduce you to his friend, the department manager at a company of interest. You may ask one of your connections on LinkedIn to virtually introduce you to a contact of interest in his or her network. Or you may ask a subset “community” within your network if they have any contacts within a certain segment of their industry you’re targeting.

The point is not to just ask for help, but to focus your request in ways that let people easily respond. In other words, you’re asking them to act on your behalf, rather than making them do the work of thinking about what might be useful.

Line out what you’ve already tried.  When you ask for help, you want to make every effort to avoid wasting people’s time. So in a sentence (two at most), be able to describe what efforts you’ve already made toward finding and/or landing your desired job. What research have you done, and what have your discovered? Who have you already reached out to, and with what results?

Again, the goal is to help your contact target his or her efforts as strategically and effectively as possible. If someone wants to help you, you want to make that as easy – and successful – for them as you can.

Then follow up with these two actions
Treat introductions like gold. When you ask someone to reach out on your behalf, you’re asking them to put their professional reputations on the line for you. For better or worse, your behavior will reflect directly on them as your “champion.”

That places a tremendous responsibility on you to treat the individual you’re being introduced to with the utmost professionalism and courtesy. That means that you follow up immediately on every introduction, expressing your appreciation for the person’s willingness to share their time and insights with you. You concisely explain why you’re reaching out, including what you’ve done so far (remember, just a sentence or two). You then ask what would be the easiest way for you to discuss your question or request you’d like to pose – perhaps phone, e-mail, over coffee, etc. depending on the circumstances.

Circle back to both of your contacts with a thank-you note – and results. Of course you’ll thank both your original contact and the person you’re introduced to for their efforts on your behalf. But it’s also smart to follow up a bit later to let them know you’ve followed through on their introduction (or advice), and the results of your actions. For example, you can let your primary contact know that you’ve reached out to the person they introduced you to, and when you’ve got a call scheduled. Or you can let your new contact know that you took her advice, and the positive outcome resulting from her great suggestions.

Your goal is to let people know that you took their time and efforts seriously, you acted on their advice or introduction, and that you’re on standby to return the favor in any way you can in the coming months or years.

Invest yourself in your network before you need it
Almost all of us will be job hunting at some point in our careers, and in fact, it might be at many points. If we’re fortunate, many colleagues will reach out to us over the years to help them with informational interviews, connections, and job-hunting ideas. That’s one of the extraordinary values of a network you’ve nurtured – you can help others at least as often as you need to ask for help.

But the key word here is nurture.

There’s a huge difference between using people for your own benefit versus sharing needs and benefits with others over the course of a career lifetime. That difference is based on actually caring about the well-being of those in your community of colleagues and connections. So start investing yourself now in helping others as you can. The day will come when you’ll be job hunting, and when it does, you’ll have a caring community in your corner just waiting to help out.

The recently published Library Journal annual “Placements and Salaries” report, written by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Suzie Allard, once again provides fascinating insights into how new graduates are faring in the LIS job market.  (Shout-out to Library Journal for continuing to annually undertake and publicly share this information with the profession.)

The good news: to quote Dr. Allard, graduates are looking at “a healthy job market characterized by rising salary levels and work that calls for both traditional and nontraditional skills and roles.”

Key take-aways:

Salaries are increasing.  Among the nearly 700 responding graduates willing to share salary information, the average full-time salary was $48,371, an increase of 2.9% over the 2014 average salary (which also saw a 2.9% increase). It’s important to keep in mind, however, that the lowest and highest salaries ($19,000 and $165,000) reflect a number of variables (see below), including the fact that many LIS graduates were already working for their employer or were in a second career, with the potential seniority that conveys. Translation: the “average full-time salary” of $48,371 should in no way be construed as an average starting salary.

Key take-away: Salaries have started heading in a positive direction, but it’s reasonable to expect that for most LIS jobs, especially in traditional LIS fields, a roughly 3% annual increase will be the benchmark for the foreseeable future.

Where you’re located continues to impact pay.  MLIS/iSchool students already know that trying to land a job where your school is located (if it’s a great spot) is tougher because of the increased competition from all your fellow grads who also want to stay there. This competitive environment also tends to depress salaries. But geography in general is also a major factor in pay ranges. Broken down by region, here’s where the best to worst areas are for average LIS salaries, according to the report:

Pacific:                $59,145

Northeast:          $51,052

Midwest:             $50,313

South Central:   $46,125

Southeast:          $44,899

Mountain:           $42,667

Canadian/Intl:   $38,513

Key take-away: Needless to say, the cost of living in specific areas for each of these regions strongly influences whether these are subsistence or able-to-afford-a-mortgage wages. So you’ll want to check cost-of-living indexes as well as salaries before committing to a job offer.

Gender differences exist, but not with consistent results.  One of the fascinating aspects of the report is how gender effect play out. For example, the average salary for women was $47,759, a 5.3% increase from the previous year, while men’s average salary of $51,602 was a 3.2% decline. Men continue to see higher salaries in almost every category, but women’s average salaries are a bit higher than men’s in the Mountain and Southeast regions.

When considered by type of library, men’s average salaries consistently outrank women’s, by 8.45% although men make up only 11.8% of the placements. Similarly, in academic libraries men out-earn their female colleagues in the Placements report by 8.4%. School libraries reflect a similar pattern: although 93% of school librarians are women, their male peers’ average salaries are 2.7% higher. And special libraries show the greatest gender salary disparity, with men compensated at a 29.9% higher rate than women.

Key take-away: Women need to learn from the success of their male colleagues and focus on improving their starting-salary negotiating skills. Will it always make a difference? No. Will it often make a difference? Yes.

In the right role, tech skills boost salaries.  Two of the three highest average salaries (a full 20% higher than the overall average salaries) are tech related: information technology ($58,438) and data curation and management ($58,438). After teacher librarian ($58,148), the next two highest-paying jobs were also technology-focused: data analytics ($56,793) and user experience (UX)/usability analysis ($55,167).

Key take-away: With the exception of school librarian, all of these jobs can be found in both traditional and non-traditional LIS careers. Large public and academic libraries are now using these tech-based tools to support a wide range of decision-making. Consequently, students needn’t worry that strong tech skills will mandate special library or corporate-type careers for them if their hearts are set on public or academic libraries. Instead, it will be important to focus on larger, better-funded public and academic libraries.

Grads were using multiple approaches to finding, landing jobs. When asked about their job-hunting process, grads not staying with their current employer indicated that they began the search process about 5.5 before they graduated, and despite that diligence it took about 4.7 months to land a job. Notes the report, “A recurring theme for success was gaining practical experience to augment coursework and to help develop professional networks.”

Other tactics included completing practicums and internships, developing professional networks (both on the ground and through online platforms such as LinkedIn), creating e-portfolios that could demonstrate key elements of competence, and attending colloquiums.

Key take-aways for students: Do not graduate without having gotten at least a minimal amount of practical LIS experience that you can put on your resume. Also, take advantage of every opportunity to build your professional network while in grad school – this is when people are the most willing to talk to you, to offer advice and connections, and to help you in any way they can.

Additional insights

I asked Dr. Suzie Allard, the report’s author (also Professor of Information Sciences and Associate Dean of Research, University of Tennessee-Knoxville College of Communication & Information), if there were any surprises for her in this year’s survey results. She offered what I consider to be critical insights for the profession, our grad schools, and most especially our grad students:

In the two years that I have participated in the analysis, I find two things striking. First,  helping graduates prepare for their job search is important and, while many schools offer guidance in this area, this preparation needs continuous attention from the start of the academic program so that grads are armed with job seeking skills (in addition to their professional skills) as well as realistic expectations about search processes and outcomes.

The second item is aligned with this. Speaking in broad generalities across all the institutions, it is impressive how the expertise gained from the degree is applicable in both traditional and less traditional environments and how this flexibility provides grads with many options and opportunities. In my opinion, the results suggest that when grads have been prepared for the job search, it allows them to think about their expertise in terms beyond just job titles and this focus on specific information expertise and skills opens up new avenues for seeking employment. Among the grads in less traditional environments, the comments I have read suggest satisfaction in being able to use their information skills to add value at their workplace even if it wasn’t where they imagined they might end up.

I thought that Dr. Allard’s comments were not only insightful, but also an encouraging vote of confidence in how many new opportunities LIS skills continue to create.

How to pull the narrative threads from your chaotic eclectic career

Recently I worked with an MLIS student whose resume prior to grad school was primarily retail, clerical, and a number of nanny jobs. She was stymied about how to weave her job experience – which ostensibly had nothing to do with LIS work – into a strong enough narrative to convince employers to take a chance on her.

Many of us have been there, done that.

In my early years, I did clerical work for a truck financing company, managed the circulation department for a city magazine, worked on a volunteer project creating a resource guide for women needing public services assistance, and did copy editing and copywriting for a publisher of LIS professional books. All of this felt like disparate, unconnected “one-offs,” and I had no clue how to create some sort of coherent description that might make sense to potential employers.

This is the issue author Pamela Slim addresses in Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together (Portfolio Penguin, 2013). Her goal is to help you identify the common threads in each of the jobs you’ve had in order to better understand the themes you tend to return to when possible, almost regardless of you working environment.

4 ways narrative threads help shape your career

Pulling out these threads enables you to do a number of things that will help your career.

First, it helps you make sense for yourself of what relevant knowledge you may have gained from each one of those positions that strengthen the core skills you want to present to the world. Examine each one of those jobs – what did you learn that you can now apply to work that’s better aligned with your LIS career goals? Almost no experience is wasted if you learned something from it, and almost no job doesn’t offer some sort of learning experience.

Your challenge will be to shape and describe that learning in a way that supports a consistent narrative thread. (More on that in a second….)

Second, it helps you identify a “path” or passion of which you may have been unaware because it was buried in a bunch of seemingly unrelated jobs. It took me about 5 different jobs to finally realize that my “body of work,” to use author Slim’s term, was consistently developing around research and information, and that I had a drive to connect people to those resources that would help them improve their lives. Once I had that aha! moment, my career path became clearer and consequently, much more purposeful.

Third, part of what you’ll want to do in your resume and even more strongly in an interview is to paint a cohesive narrative that demonstrates increasing progress toward your optimal work contribution and value-add. (Yep, your goal is to present yourself as someone who has made thoughtful, purposeful choices about your career along the way, regardless of the reality….) If you have thought about your narrative thread, you’ll be in a much better position to confidently articulate it to others.

Fourth, understanding the narrative thread that starts to emerge throughout the body of work you’ve been developing will help you know what additional threads will complement and strengthen the career tapestry you’ve been creating through your conscious and (often) unconscious choices. Will that new job take you in the direction you now know you want to go? Will volunteering for that cool new project be a distraction that doesn’t get you closer to your passions or will it, in fact, open just the doors you’ve been looking for?

People come into LIS careers through myriad paths, many of which include stints in jobs seemingly totally unrelated to LIS work (for example, retail, waitressing, customer service, etc.). Yet every job can contribute to your story, if you look for the relevant threads and present them in a way that contributes to and supports your body-of-work narrative.

Further Reading

Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together / Pamela Slim, Portfolio Penguin, 2013. 240p. ISBN 978-1591846192.

How to Embrace the Most Embarrassing Parts of Your Resume / Neil Pasricha, Fast Company, October 13, 2016; accessed October 31, 2016

One of the best ways to distinguish yourself among other job applicants is to ask thoughtful, targeted questions during your interview, both in response to questions asked of you during the interview and at the end of the interview, when most applicants are asked if they have any questions to ask of the interviewer or interviewing panel.

Assume you may go through at least a couple of interviews, and use each one to ask questions that will give you additional insight not only into the job itself, but also into your potential boss’s management style and the company’s or department’s culture.

First interview questions – getting the lay of the land

If it’s your first interview, you’ll probably want to ask basic questions about the organization, doing so in such a way that indicates you’ve already gained a good understanding of the employer and its industry (including libraries). For example, “My research indicates that [company] is known for outstanding customer support. Are there ways in which this job supports that effort?” Other questions might include:

• Is this a recently-created position or one that’s been part of the organization for awhile? (A recently-created position, that is, one that the candidate is going to be creating if hired, can either be a terrific opportunity to shape a new role and tailor it to your strengths to a degree, or a disaster waiting to happen. If it’s a recently-created position find out as much as you can about why the position was created, whose idea it was, and what problems it’s intended to solve. Your goal is to avoid signing on for a “set up to fail” position that lacks the internal political support to succeed.)
• How would you describe a typical day/week in this position? Is the work flow fairly steady, or are there times of the year when things ramp up considerably? (This may impact whether or not a job is going to work with your life circumstances.)
• Does this position collaborate with other departments, and if so which departments? What are their mutual goals? (Smart organizations have strategic goals that involve cross-departmental collaboration. This question will help surface that information.)
• How long did the previous person in this job have the position? How long, in general, have people been in the position? (A high rate of turnover for a specific job indicates serious personnel problems, whether with a boss, subordinates, or the organizational culture in general.)
• How long did the previous person work with the existing team? (This will give you a better understanding of the team dynamics you’ll be inheriting if you’re applying for a management job.)
• How would you describe the organization culture at [organization]? If the interviewer’s answer to this question is too vague, you can be more specific in your question, for example, what type of individual fits in best here? What type of individual wouldn’t be a good fit? What strengths are most in demand, in this department as well as within the company overall? (This will help you determine just how well your own strengths align with the organization’s priorities.)

Depending on the size of the employer and its hiring procedures, it’s possible (if not probable) that your initial interview will be with an HR person, rather than the person who’ll eventually be your boss.

In that case, that HR person is likely to be able to answer this first round of general questions, whereas you’ll may find that your more specific questions about management style, communication preferences, and success measurements are best answered by the person who you’d be reporting to should you get the job. We’ll take a look at those “second interview” questions next!

Second interview questions to seal the deal (or avoid a train wreck)

Once you’ve made it to a second interview, both you and the potential employer have signaled a serious interest in each other. Now’s the time to come armed with a set of questions that demonstrate your seriousness, interest in the company as well as the job, and commitment to begin delivering value from day one.

The following questions, intended for your potential boss, will demonstrate both enthusiasm for the position and a realistic sense of its potential challenges.

• What characteristics or actions do you personally feel are critical for success in this position? Every job posting lists many required skills, but what you want to get to with this question is what your potential boss values as his/her highest priority for the job. For example, if the answer is “collaboration skills,” that signals a much different working environment (and set of expectations) than if the answer were “delivers reports progress to me every day.” Neither is necessarily good or bad, but one response may be a better fit for you than another.
•  What do you feel are the key challenges in this position? Although the actual challenges you face may turn out to be quite different than the ones a potential boss mentions, knowing his or her perspective gives you a heads-up about what they’ll be concerned about, as well as greater insight into whether these are the kinds of challenges you want or feel competent to take on.
• What could I accomplish in my first year that would most help the department/company? You want to indicate that you are committed to successfully performing your role at the departmental level, but also want to be cognizant of the larger benefit of your work to the organization. In addition, this question makes it clear that you’re interested in – and responsive to – your potential boss’s leadership and priorities.
• How do you most prefer to work with your staff? Bosses have (as you know) widely differing management styles, which you’ll need to understand and conform to. For example, do they like daily verbal/written status updates or prefer to just stop by your cubicle now and then for a chat? Do they prefer you exercise your professional judgment when handling tasks they’ve delegated to you, or do they want to be consulted before decisions are made? How and when do they provide feedback? Some bosses only provide feedback in an annual performance review, others prefer to “coach in the moment,” and provide feedback on an ongoing basis. Understanding a boss’s management style will help you understand if you can happily work with that person.
• What do you most like about working here? If your potential boss can’t come up with any reasons the company is a great place to work, you may want to reconsider the job opportunity. A toxic, unhappy, or bitter boss is almost a guarantee of a miserable workplace. On the other hand, a boss with a positive outlook about the company and his/her work can help create a positive, collaborative, and effective team.
• Are there any skills you feel I’d need to strengthen to be as successful as possible in this position? This question gives your interviewer the opportunity to mention any reservations he/she might have about your ability to do the job, and also provides you an opportunity to address those reservations. This may mean pointing out additional aspects of your professional background that address a key “gap,” or acknowledging the gap and stating that you’re excited to master that skill (and willing to put in time on your own to do so). Or, it may surface information that leads you to conclude that you simply wouldn’t be happy in the position.

In a first interview, you’re generally asking and answering questions that relate to the alignment of your professional skills with the job requirements, as well as your comfort with the organization as a potential employer. As you progress through a second interview, however, your goal is more about determining whether the person to whom you’ll be reporting is someone you can work with effectively and successfully.

Asking thoughtful questions will help position you as an engaged, smart candidate; listening thoughtfully to the answers can help you determine whether to hop on board or avoid a potential career train wreck.

Do an online search on tips on dressing for an interview and you’ll get lots of help – about 11.5 million hits, in fact. Everyone has very definitive “do’s and don’ts,” but the reality is that each work environment – and job within that environment – is at least slightly different from every other one.

Not only that, you’re equally unique. You may, in fact, have an amazing sense of personal style that enables you to pull off wardrobe choices that brilliantly speak to your strengths (rather than revealing your utter lack of fashion savvy, which is the case for many of us…).

Given the wide range of variables that may play into your choice of attire, one of the best ways to approach pulling together an interview outfit is to think about:

1. the type of organization you’re interviewing with;
2. the role you’re hoping to play within that organization; and
3. what outfit makes you feel both comfortable and confident.

Without wearing something that makes you feel like you’re dressing up in someone else’s clothes, your goal is to mirror the unofficial dress code of your potential employer so that an interviewer will be able to easily “see” you as part of the team. (This is especially true for any role where you’ll be publicly representing the organization (for example, on the reference desk or working with clients).

Sussing out the unofficial dress code

How do you know what the unofficial dress code is? If it’s a local organization, go hang out and see what employees are wearing. If you have a chance to do an informational interview with the organization or one similar to it, check out what people are wearing.

Another alternative is to ask people in your professional network whose judgment you respect what they would recommend for that specific type of organization (for example, the unofficial dress code in an academic library is quite different from that in a corporate law library). This is also a great question to post to a relevant LinkedIn group for recommendations from both hiring managers and successful job applicants.

The can’t-go-wrong basics

If you feel your LIS skills may outweigh your fashion smarts, there are some basic choices that will always be safe.

First, think three pieces. This might be:

• A suit with a conservative top (shirt, blouse, etc.) Depending on how formal the organization is, a tie or modest jewelry may be in order. A suit may include either slacks or a skirt.
• Slacks, top, and a sweater, blazer, or sports coat.
• A simple, unfussy dress with a jacket and simple jewelry or a low-key scarf.

For women, the decision regarding whether to wear heels or flats should be based on 1) personal comfort and/or coordination and 2) the unofficial dress code. However, if the organization expects women to wear heels and this doesn’t work for you, then by all means wear flats to the interview so you make clear that this will be part of your regular work wardrobe.

Second, in general for your main pieces go with solid neutral colors that flatter you – for example, black, gray, navy, brown, plum, or taupe, with additional color as your fashion sense suggests.

When in doubt (and again, in general), dressing more conservatively is always a good choice if you’re not sure what the expectation will be when you first meet your interviewer(s).

Third, make sure that whatever you’re wearing is clean, ironed, in possession of all its buttons, and has an intact hem (no safety pins allowed).

Your goal is to give the impression of a professional who is “pulled together” not only in your physical presentation but also, by reflection, in your thinking and actions.

Four, avoid tee-shirts, low-cut tops, cargo pants, flip-flops, too-short skirts, platform heels, or anything likely to cause an interviewer to mentally say “Wow, what was he/she thinking????”

A great quote here is “never give someone a reason to doubt your judgment,” and this pretty much sums up how you want to think about your interview outfit.

When to ignore the basics advice

There are some people who have such an extraordinary, delightful sense of personal style that their gift is as much a part of their personality and professional persona as their degree and skill set. If you are one of those amazing individuals, whatever you decide to wear will be just perfect, as always.

If you’re applying for a job where your level of personal imagination and creativity will drive your success, you clothing choices can be much more creative than would e appropriate for a typical job interview.

Lastly, if you’re applying for a job where you have a sense that your personality may not quite be a fit for the organization, it might be better to “dress for your personality” when you do your interview so both parties are clear about who you are and will continue to be on the job, and will have a choice from the get-go as to whether or not that works for both of you.

For most people, just talking about their strengths in an interview can be pretty challenging.

But talking about your weaknesses in a way that doesn’t sink your hiring prospects can feel even more challenging. Most of us can come up with plenty of weaknesses, but which one is okay to mention in an interview situation that won’t immediately doom you to the “rejects” pile?

One way to approach your response is to consider what an interviewer is trying to learn from the weaknesses question. Essentially, the goal is to not to make you feel unbelievable awkward, but rather to understand how well you know yourself (your self-awareness skills). Then, they’ll want to know how you would plan to address that weakness, or what steps you’ve taken to start working on it.

So what should you say (or not)?

First, avoid the obvious clichés

Things like “I’m a perfectionist,” “I tend to work too hard,” and “I have very high performance standards and find it difficult when others don’t have those same standards” immediately peg you as someone who is either 1) an insufferable jerk or 2) an applicant trying to say whatever he/she thinks the interviewer wants to hear.

Instead, it’s important that you be honest in your answer and that the weakness you identify be of the “real world” type. So how do you combine revealing a real weakness within a framework that allows you to still convince your interviewer that your weakness isn’t a deal-killer?

Second, identify the weakness and your solution

Everyone (including your interviewer) has professional weaknesses; those who are self-aware are able to recognize those weaknesses and then develop ways to work on them.

So, for example, you might say that one of your weaknesses is an occasional tendency to become overwhelmed when working on a task with numerous complex activities. Then you could provide an example of how this weakness played out in the past and the negative results you recognized.

The next part of the conversation would entail you explaining how, when you realized this issue, you undertook several actions to improve your performance under similar circumstances. This might have been taking project management training, learning advanced organizing skills, or working with a mentor who helped you improve your approach to managing complex projects.

Third, attitude is everything

It’s okay to indicate that you’re still working on your improvement goals and may have a ways to go. But be clear that you view improving the weakness you’ve mentioned as your personal responsibility, rather than simply a personal quirk that you don’t see any need to address. As mega-entrepreneur Richard Branson has said, “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and try again.” Make sure your interviewers know that you may not be perfect, but you’re committed to continually learning, improving, and growing as a professional.

Or, why you should consider that job in Smalltown, USA

Recently I had an opportunity to work with a young woman who had just graduated from an MLIS program. She was unsure of how to proceed with her job search given the precarious job market for librarians (and everybody else).

This young woman had never worked in a library before, and, like many of us when we complete our degrees, wanted to get a job in the same town where her university was located. But the reality is that with little or no library experience and facing the stiff competition that comes in an area flooded with fellow MLIS graduates, this young woman’s job prospects would be dim at best.

In fact, probably her best opportunities lie in a direction often avoided if not dismissed by recent grads: working for a library in Smalltown, USA.

The Starter MLIS Job
A starter job is the one you take when you’ve got little or no experience, so need to build up this aspect of your professional value. It may offer few of the elements you’re might want to go after in subsequent jobs throughout your career (high salary, cutting-edge projects, flexible hours, etc.), but it provides something else of high value: the opportunity to establish for yourself and others who you are as a professional.

A starter job can be of fairly short duration, which can be one of its attractions – if you find you really don’t like the place you’ve landed, you can comfort yourself that most of us can put up with anything for two years. (On the other hand, you may be surprised to find that the job and town you thought would bore you to death turned out to be a delightful community with a wonderful library, and you’d like to build a career there.)

Regardless, when you take a starter job, consider it a terrific opportunity to identify and practice those professional behaviors and attitudes that will help you succeed in the coming years.

Put together an agenda for what you want to accomplish/learn/practice over a given period of time – say two years. Then, if you love your job, you’ll have positioned yourself to continue to grow in value to your employer – and if you don’t love your job, you’ll have prepared yourself to move on to a better position.

The Starter Job Agenda
Here are some ideas for what you might want to consider as action items:

• Try out as many roles as you can, and then note what you enjoy and what you do not. What do you enjoy enough that it might be an area you’d like to explore further?
• Establish your professional persona, for yourself – establish and practice positive habits, expectations of yourself, and “best practices” for how you handle your career. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to watch and learn from others, good and bad.
• Focus on the lessons you learn about yourself and how you respond to circumstance around you – if you don’t like what you’re discovering about yourself, determine better responses and practice them.
• Learn everything you can about management by observing the managers around you, and how their actions are or are not successful and effective. (Trust me here – you may start out your career wanting to avoid any management responsibilities, but they tend to sneak up on you when you’re least anticipating them.)
• Start building your professional brand by writing, presenting, researching, and collaborating on topics that interest you, and for which you’d like to become known.
• Start building your community of colleagues. Establish positive, supportive relationships with the people you work with, but also consider joining regional and national professional groups in your area of interest. When you volunteer, no one cares how much experience you have – they’re just thrilled to have you on board!
• Become known as a great person to work with – focus on building rather than burning bridges.
• Start bulking up your portfolio of professional capabilities and accomplishments – on the job if possible, outside the job if not.
• Learn to work with all types of personalities, a skill that will be critical to you over a decades-long career. Anyone who’s played team sports knows that you don’t have to like a team-mate to win a game with her; it’s the same thing with work. If you’ve got a problem co-worker, disengage emotionally, stop taking it personally, and embrace it as an opportunity to practice a very important job skill.
• Learn how to work with a boss. In general, this means (besides just generally doing a good job) 1) learning how to provide the information he or she needs in the preferred manner, and the preferred frequency; 2) making sure your boss is always up to date on any situations that may come up with his or her boss; and 3) whenever possible, making your boss look good. (Corollary here: try never to make your boss look bad….)
• Learn self-management. Be honest with yourself regarding your professional strengths and weaknesses, and practice how to manage your weaknesses and play to your strengths. If in doubt about these, ask a trusted colleague, mentor, or boss.
• Develop an attitude of respect for the knowledge of everyone you work with. No matter how smart you were in grad school, you’ve still got a lot to learn. People will always be much more willing to respect the new knowledge you may bring with you if you first bend over backward to make it clear that you respect their hard-won knowledge.
• Learn how to collaborate within and across teams. Being seen as a strong and positive contributor willing to share information, experience, and credit will cause people to trust you and seek out your participation.

Bottom line: understand that paying dues is an honorable and wise activity. Your job is to learn, to establish your professional persona, to contribute to the best of your ability, and to become known as a strong, valuable contributor who employers will hate to lose.

Then when you’re ready to move on from that starter job, you will have built a solid career base from which to launch, and will have a folder-full of people eager to write letters of recommendation for you, the now-experienced information professional.

One of the downsides of giving LIS students and professionals career advice is that you’ve pretty much got to follow your own advice if you want to have any credibility at all (translation from my students: “do as I say, not as I do” isn’t going to fly!).

So with that in mind, I’m following one of my key career mantras, which is to never stop learning new stuff. I decided to teach myself how to create e-books so I could share more of the webinar information I provide for students at LIS grad schools.

This is my first attempt, and trying to be fearless, not perfect, I’m just going to put it online and share it with anyone for whom the information might be useful. As I do so, however, I’ll point out that I have the design sense of a turnip! (Yep, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and design smarts ended up in the latter category for me….)

Dority – I didnt even know that job existed