Towards the summit

Source: Flickr user Loren Sztajer  

Oh, winter break, how sweet you are.

I'm sitting in my parent's house, in my Mom's home office. She really has created a beautiful space, and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it for some writing. Especially when there is a full pot of coffee down the hall and my hometown is buried in a few inches of freshly fallen snow.

I thought I'd write up another year in review post. I wrote one at the close of 2009, when I first started the blog and had just finished my first semester in library school. And I really enjoyed writing it. Yes, "best of" lists and "year in reviews" are cliche and overdone, but reflection is an important part of the human experience. So here it goes...

2012 was a big year. Biggest accomplishment: finishing my Masters. Not going to lie, it feels really good to have gotten the degree before I hit thirty. Not only am I thankful for the opportunities it is going to provide, I am thankful for all the amazing people I met along the way.

Next big accomplishment: landing a full time job. For the past two months, I've been the Resource Sharing Library Technician in the Public Access Services department of Portland State University's Library. Not only do I feel incredibly lucky to have a job in a market where the typical new-graduate experience is to piece together part time, on-call, and temporary jobs but the job that I landed is amazing. I oversee the inter-consortum borrowing and lending of library materials, working with an amazing team who process a few hundred books a day. It's so wonderful to be back in access services, especially at such a large university with such a dynamic circulation desk. While I have loved my experience with digital library production, I am thinking my home is going to be in the public services arena of librarianship. And I'm really looking forward to making PSU my new home.

Other accomplishments of the year: working on my first conference committee, meeting and handing over my cover letter to Rachel Maddow, and volunteering with EveryLibrary helping to raise money for the very first National PAC in support of local libraries.

Like I said, 2012 was a big year. And I hope that 2013 will be even bigger.

The only specific projects I have coming down the pike are a few possible writing projects and helping out when I can on the Infocamp Portland 2013 planning committee. There is nothing concrete to base my optimism on other than the fact I am optimistic. My path into professional librarianship is unfolding in the same way a trail up a mountain does. It takes lots of little steps to get to the top. But the steps add up, and pretty soon you can see how far you've come. At the close of 2012 I am reaching a vantage point: I  see how far I've come, and the path to the top is become much clearer.

I know that optimism for the sake of optimism is probably just a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I am okay with that. I'm doing my best to take the positive energy I do have in my life and running with it... up the path and towards the summit.

Job seeking advice from an actual job seeker

The time has come. There is no more putting it off. The end is in sight. The job search is in full effect.

Now that I am no longer a library student, the time is quickly running out at my current work study position. And of course, at the same time the grant which funds my other (semi-professional) job has almost dried up. It's now time to land that first, full-on professional job. Or at least a job that will carry me over until I land that professional job.

Thankfully, as library students/recent graduates we all have an ace in our pockets: We're not just librarians, we are information managers. From the get-go, it has been apparent that the MLS/MLIS is a versatile degree. We can go into traditional librarian roles, apply for cutting edge positions within libraries (managing digital content, for example) or take our degrees into any learning organization that needs assistance organizing, accessing or disseminating information.

Also, as information managers, we are able to effectively manage our own job search. Here is the strategy that is helping me stay sane throughout this process:

I. Manage Content

There are jobs out there, it is just a matter of finding them. Just like a subject specialist, we can put 21st century innovations to work, doing the dirty work for us. Remember: work smarter, not harder. So far RSS feeds, listservs and email alerts have been doing all of the harvesting for me.

A few RSS feeds that I subscribe too:

http://www.libgig.com/

http://www.lisjobs.com/jobs/

http://joblist.ala.org/

I also subscribe to listservs for  library associations for parts of the countries I want to live in, my school's various listserv as well as the I Need a Library Job daily email.

I have also created a number of email alerts through google, creating different combinations of cities/states that I want to live in, various librarian titles, potential dream jobs and sites where they might be posted. If you don't want your inbox overloaded with the alerts, you can have them sent to you in daily batch formats, which is convenient. While they might create extra influx of email - it is so nice to have them show up in just one spot!

II. Get Organized 

Spreadsheets have become my new best friend. I currently have two: one for jobs I am applying too and one for my own information.

Every time I find a job that I am interested in, I add it to my spreadsheet. I have fields for job title/institution, location, link to web posting, date job closes, date I sent in materials, and finally a field for networking. It goes without saying that networking is the most important part of job searching, so if there is anyone I can network with with each job, I be sure to make note of it.

The second spreadsheet came out of my frustration with online application. Some folks say to circumscribe these forms by mailing your resume/cover letter directly to whomever you would be reporting to, but I strongly believe in following directions to a T - especially when applying for jobs. You want to show that you are detail oriented and complete any tasks you are assigned. My fellow classmate Chris has a really good suggestion: create a spreadsheet with all of the universal information that is requested in these forms. Than you can just copy/paste the info, and not get super frustrated when the online form decides to delete everything you just typed in!

If you have taken a metadata or records management class, I am sure you are well aware of the importance of excellent naming conventions. Since you are tailoring each cover letter and resume to each job that you are applying to, file naming is super important in staying organized. When you are applying to similar jobs or when you do land that interview, you want to be able to quickly look up information. You can see in the screenshot below, I am trying to stick to some sort of system. I might have to update it a bit....

This is just what is on my flashdrive. I have about three times as many resumes on my home computer.

There is a lot of competition out there. But we are also all in this together. What job searching strategies have worked for you? If you are currently searching what are you doing to stay sane?