Do’s and Don’ts of Job Applications: Take Aways from #inaljchat 1/16/15 By Jennifer Divine, INALJ CIO Hosted by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor Join @inaljchat MONDAYS 9pm ET for #inaljchat on Twitter Q1: Have you ever made a mistake or an error on a job application? If so, what was it? Everyone had made mistakes some…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Senior Editor Large Job Boards and Recruitment Agencies: Some Thoughts When searching for jobs I have always looked for jobs and applied for them. I know that some industries have headhunters and I have certainly used temp agencies in my pre-library life for temporary work mostly in the non-profit world . In…
By Lisa Iannucci, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Jersey Resolve to Communicate in the New Year As we all move on into a new year, we’ve all probably taken some time to reflect back on the year that just ended. For me, there were job and schedule changes that required some adjustment, and some daily tasks…
Ask a Special Librarian Tracy Z. Maleeff Library Resources Manager at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia @LibrarySherpa & LibrarySherpa.com Greetings, INALJers! This is the first installment of my new “Ask a Special Librarian” column for the INALJ.com site. I’ve gathered that there are many myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings about special librarianship through my interactions during…
By Angie Solis, Senior Editor Why I Love INALJ One year ago I began volunteering for an amazing organization – INALJ. My time at INALJ has been not only a fulfilling one, but an educational one. I never thought that I would volunteer for an organization that would allow me to help other professionals in…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor and Volunteer Coordinator previously published 3/31/14 The Key to Your New Job is You: Self-Care During the Job Hunt While your resume/CV, cover letter, and other professional presence are vital to landing your new job, don’t overlook another key component of the puzzle: you. All those documents I mentioned above…
by Fallon Bleich, Senior Assistant, INALJ Arkansas previously published 3/12/14 Why Frozen’s “Let it Go” is the Perfect Job Hunting Anthem I’m obsessed with all things Disney. I’ve been to Disney World five times and Disney Land once; I’ve seen every film at least twice; and I collect both the pins and the Vinylmations. I love me…
by Clare Sobotka, Senior Assistant previously published 1/22/14 4 Tips for the start of the job search— what I wish I had really understood before I began For anyone who has been job searching for awhile or reads the INALJ blog posts, much of this will be a rehash. But I would really like to…
by Rebekah Kati, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Carolina On Culture Fit and the Job Search Whenever I was rejected from a job, my friends and family would try to reassure me that it would not have been a good fit anyway. Often, this was true, but it made me muse on the idea of a “good fit”…
by Kate Kosturski, Senior Editor, INALJ Ontario and INALJ Quebec If You Want A Library Job, Look Outside the Library! Although our site has the word “library” in the title, we are so much more than jobs in a library. And often, we get feedback from friends and fans asking us to stick a little more to that word –…
by Angela Piccola, Assistant, INALJ Virtual Work Gaining New Perspectives During Hiring Woes When I found INALJ, the amount of resources and overall camaraderie almost overwhelmed me because it showed there is hope in this field. With the lists of alternative career keywords that fit within our skillset and the pages of updated jobs, it means so…
by Alexis Rohlfing, former Head Editor, INALJ New Hampshire previously published 7/29/13 Playing to the back row: too much, not enough and in between in the job hunt. Once you’ve been on the job market for long enough, it becomes difficult to not jump at every opportunity that looks like it may fit. The definitive…
by Diana La Femina, Senior Editor, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta Some Advice Across the Board: Job Hunting Advice for Everyone! I’ve been giving some advice to a job hunter in my life outside of librarianship, and I realized that a lot of the advice I’m giving him can…
by Naomi House, MLIS Health and the Job Hunt: On Blood Sugar & Carbs & Me One of the things I admire about many LIS professionals and librarians on social media is that they often discuss their own physical and mental health challenges. Their candor helps others. I have learned more from their stories and…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario previously published 6/25/13 Lauren has since found a job!!! An open letter to my fellow job hunters for when you get discouraged If you’re like me, sometimes you start internally freaking out because here you are in your mid-to-late-twenties-to-early-to-mid-thirties and you’ve got all of this education but here…
by Ellen Mehling previously published 10/14/13 “Know the Difference: Identifying Obstacles to Employment” There is a curious thing I see frequently among those I advise: job hunters focusing on a smaller, though possible, less likely obstacle to employment and ignoring a much larger, definite difficulty – some have an almost superstitious fixation on a certain…
by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor previously published 8/29/13 The Job Hunter’s Lament Being a job hunter is not easy. In any economy, in any environment, this is one of the hardest things that you can undergo, job searching is tough. When you think about it, your job influences the rest of your life and relationships…
by Lauren Bourdages, Senior Assistant, INALJ Ontario Library Master: 8 LIS Career Lessons we can Learn from Pokémon Pokémon has been a cultural phenomenon since 1996. I still remember when the first versions of the game came out in English. I got my very first game boy because of those games, a game boy pocket,…
by Claire Schmieder, Senior Editor previously published 5/23/13 3 Off-the-Beaten-Paths to Librarianship Librarians have so many amazing skills, all of which are transferrable into any number of careers. If you’re having trouble finding a traditional library job, maybe it’s time to start searching for less conventional, but equally as rewarding, positions. Here is a tree-tops…
By Harold Rougeux, INALJ Alaska Assistant What I’ve gained from working as a temp librarian After what seemed like an endless string of applications and interviews, I finally had a solid job offer on the table. It had come kind of unexpectedly. I had just finished doing a short online presentation as part of the…
by Naomi House, MLIS, INALJ Founder and Editor Strategizing for the Job Hunt In October 2013 I was not only furloughed but also lost my job in the great and tremendously wasteful federal government shutdown. I wrote an article Furloughed & Job Hunting: why strategizing 1st is the key to success, with advice about what…
by Sheryl L. Christensen, Head Editor, INALJ California The Brilliance of Being Earnest – Job Search Edition The job search. I know, right? It is intimidating enough to make the strongest of us weep. A year out of my MLIS, about a “zillion” searches into the process, and I am at a point where I am speculating a…
by Brad McNally, former Head Editor, INALJ Ohio You Are More Than Your Job This post may seem a bit out of place on a job-seeking website, but it is just as important as any interview advice that may come up in my mind. Beyond that, this understanding can help you become a better candidate…
by Kate Kosturski, Head Editor, INALJ Rhode Island and Volunteer Coordinator Music as Motivator – Rock Out To Rock On With Your Bad Self “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel.…
by Sarah Roark Schott, Head Editor, INALJ Arizona Leaving Archives for Corporate Work, and Loving It There have been a few posts here at INALJ about leaving the Library profession. Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor of the Hawaii page wrote about it in July last year, and Naomi House, Head of INALJ, wrote a short piece…
by Mandi Goodsett Using LinkedIn to Jumpstart Your Job Search Until my job search really got going, I had a LinkedIn profile but it was pretty barren and pathetic. Does that sound familiar to you? If so, you might want to consider taking another look at your profile and instead of letting this resource sit…
by Ashley Crace, former Head Editor, INALJ West Virginia previously published 7/5/13 10 Tips for the First Day You have searched, applied, and interviewed for a very long time (it definitely feels that way). Finally, you land a job! And, your first day is suddenly just around the corner. The job search can really become…
by Naomi House, MLIS Approaching the job hunt by skill set
by Naomi House, MLIS A Job App a Day and Other Job Hunting Strategies One of my pet peeves about job hunting advice articles is that many of them seem to equate their advice with guaranteed success, when actually there is no one bit of advice out there that works for every person in every…
by Lisa Huntsha, Head Editor, INALJ Sweden previously published on 6/19/13 How Volunteering may actually be Hurting your Job Hunt If you’re job hunting, undoubtedly countless people have suggested that you spend some time volunteering. This can, of course, be beneficial for a several reasons: You can get your foot in the door at a…
by Naomi House, MLIS The “In” Crowd: Librarian Jobs Beyond the Library As a long time member of SLA and someone who got their start in a specialized library I have been aware my entire library career that ‘librarian’ was just one title LIS grads can have. One thing I want to emphasize is that…
by Naomi House, MLIS Letting Go of “Librarian” I love discussing INALJ’s scope and strategy for finding jobs with anyone and everyone I meet. Often those who are familiar with our INALJ Jobs pages are curious as to why we post more than just the traditional librarian jobs. Either they are unfamiliar with some of…
by Naomi House, MLIS 7 (Must-Have) Tools for Your Job Hunting Kit Most of us already use tools in our job hunt but what we may not be doing is using them together. Tools are different from characteristics and attitudes because they are things that you use- not aspects of who you are. Especially where…
by Amelia Zavala Vander Heide, Head Editor, INALJ NYC Job Hunting 300 Miles Away In my last semester of library school I seemed to hear over and over again that I should be applying for jobs. The application process can be so arduous and time-consuming that it is best to start early, but I had a problem. I…
by Grey Maixner, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Keep On Keeping On: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Hunt As we all know, it’s never fun to be without a job. Even when we do have one, if it’s not the one we want, or the one we imagined all those years…
by Brad McNally, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio Behavioral Interviews (And how you can use them to your advantage) As most other job seekers, I’ve been to many interviews in the past. Some have been extremely interesting, but a few stick out in my memory. There are many types of interview questions to prepare for, and…
Stephanie Noell, Head Editor, INALJ Texas For Those Who Cannot Relocate As a job hunter, you may have people, blogs, and news articles telling you that you need to relocate to get a job (especially the one you want), but relocation may not be an option for you. You might have family obligations such as taking care…
by Naomi House, MLIS Every night during dinner my husband and I watch Seinfeld. There is an episode (the one where Elaine dances) in which she makes a toast. “Here’s to those who wish us well, and those who don’t can go to hell” Job hunting can be a very stressful time, especially for the…
by Julie Watson, former Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania previously published 6/11/13 Soft Skills = Success: 5 Ways to Manage Your Emotions During the Job Hunt This is the fourth in a series of articles on soft skills. Job hunting is a stressful time – the effort you put into applications, the uncertainty of not-knowing when/if…
by Naomi House, MLIS Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler, Everyday! (ie: #mih) It is cold and rainy in New Orleans this Mardi Gras 2014 but that has not dampened participation or spirits all that much. Revelers walked by our house near Bayou St John warmly dressed, masks on and umbrellas held high prepared for the…