Nicole Fonsh …In Six

My interview with success story Nicole


Naomi: How did you find your current job?
Nicole: I networked like crazy! I had a feeling I wanted to get into development research so I reached out to other librarians I knew who were doing the same type of work. However, I also tried to be creative about it and reached out to anyone basically who worked in the development world. My resume ended up in the hands of a 3rd degree connection and he brought it to a professional board meeting where my now-boss snatched it from him when she saw it! I still had to apply to the job through the regular channels (official web site) but it definitely helped to speed along the process I feel like.

Naomi: Favorite library you have been to?
Nicole: This is a tough one as I’ve seen some really great libraries around the world. However, it is the libraries that I grew up with that will always be my favorites- both the Leverett Library and The Jones Library in Western Massachusetts. The librarians there, along with my dad, really taught me the love of books and reading.

Naomi: Favorite book(s)?
Nicole: Another tough one! I’m going to go with a series that I just devoured when I was younger, the Shoes Series by Noel Streatfeild. It’s probably time to give Ballet Shoes another read. I also will forever love Anne of Green Gables. One day I will finally make it to PEI….

Naomi: Favorite thing about libraries/ library technology?
Nicole: I believe libraries foster community. Their ability to offer people of all age groups and backgrounds access to information that they may not normally have is truly unique in our culture.

Naomi: Any websites or feeds or blogs we should be following?
Nicole: Well I’m partial to Hack Library School but I also think it’s important to not only follow library-related blogs. It’s good to be diverse in your education I think in order to break free of the bubble at times. I’m a fan of the Harvard Business Review. I also follow a lot of food blogs. Who doesn’t like pictures of food?

Naomi: Best piece of job hunting advice?
Nicole: Be open to change! Be willing to get outside of your comfort zone and talk to people about what they do for work! You never know where it might lead…

Before entering the Library Science program at Simmons, Nicole worked for 6+ years at Goldman Sachs in both Boston and London. She completed her MSLS at Simmons College in the Spring of 2011. After working for over a year as a Research Analyst at an investment firm in Boston, Nicole has recently begun working as a Research Analyst in the Alumni Affairs & Development office at a local university. She is also the Special Libraries Association (SLA) First Five Years Advisory Council representative from the SLA New England Chapter. When she’s not busy researching or collaborating with other librarians over Twitter, you can find Nicole exploring the Boston area for new restaurants and food trucks or training for her next marathon.

Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay. 

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