by Leigh Milligan, Head Editor, INALJ Pennsylvania Confidence Goes a Long Way Once upon a time back in 2011, I graduated library school. I was getting called into interviews left and right. I had been volunteering at a public library and had many great skills and qualifications to share. But it never got back the interview stage. 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…
Stephanie Sendaula, INALJ Associate Editor Making the Most out of OneNote I’ve found that one of the most innovative and interesting aspects of being a reference librarian is teaching computer literacy classes. Often times, I learn just as much from patrons as they do from me. I currently teach classes on three Microsoft Office applications:…
5 million total page views reached in March! What a great month! The big news is we reached over 5 million page views at INALJ.com on 3/30! In addition it was the best month at INALJ.com for all stats! Our busiest day EVER was 20,026 views on 3/24, and our busiest week EVER at 104,475…
by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor, INALJ New Hampshire Spring Clean your Resume Spring has finally sprung! With it, we all have our spring rituals—going back outside every day without being bundled, spring vacation, cookouts, and spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is probably the least favorite, at least for those who have to do most of it, but it is…
by Suzanne Schultz Pick, Head Editor, INALJ UK Academic Library Job Applications – What to Expect in the UK Many library jobs are posted through universities or colleges in the UK. Many of these jobs require applications rather than a CV/resume submission. So how can we make sure that our applications stand out? Let’s look at what the…
by Clayton Hayes, Head Editor, INALJ North Dakota Combating satisficing through relevance: Facebook, Reddit, and beyond The increased availability of information online has presented information seekers with an often overwhelming array of sources to choose from. This (along with other factors) has led to a growing concern in the academic world with satisficing. Satisficing, put briefly, is the…
by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor, INALJ New Hampshire previously published 5/21/13 Elevating your Elevator Speech We’ve all been told, at one time or another, that we need to perfect our elevator speech. The very name makes you think of something out of Mad Men– a chance encounter that leads to a pitch that leads to…
by Sheela Sur, former Head Editor, INALJ Washington, DC previously published on 3/25/13 The Importance of Saying Yes: My Job Hunt Story After our first round of INALJ Head Editor articles were posted, I believe Kristen Jaques’s (INALJ Maine Head Editor) “What I Learned During My Two and a Half Years on the Job Market”…
by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor, INALJ Alaska Accepting (And Maybe Even Seeking Out) Honest Feedback In my last blog post, “Job Hunter, Know Thyself,” I wrote about the MBTI personality inventory and how understanding your own personality a little better could be valuable in helping to identify opportunities that may represent a more natural fit than others. Well,…
February: 4.5 million views and best month ever! What a great month! The big news is we had our best month ever despite February being the shortest month of the year, and we reached over 4.5 million page views at INALJ.com. February’s busiest day and our busiest EVER was 16,939 views on 2/24 (the day I…
by Katherine Kimball Adelberg, Head Editor, INALJ Michigan Interviewing for the Job You Already Have Three years ago, I graduated with my MLS and applied for a job on a whim. I was thrilled to be called for an interview and had nothing to lose since I already had a good job. Confident and relaxed, I aced the…
by Ruth Kitchin Tillman, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland How to Prepare for an Interview Like an RPG In my free time (so, y’know, not since August), I enjoy playing and running role-playing games. When I started job hunting in the fall, my friend Mary Richardson, a fellow gamer-archivist, gave me the advice to think about the boring parts of…
by Veda Darby Soberman, Head Editor, INALJ Hawaii Unemployment Opportunities Throughout graduate school I also worked full-time (in a non-library setting). I spent many a sleepless night tackling research papers, only to get a few hours of sleep before heading off to a full workday. Time to do anything besides work or schoolwork came in precious little nuggets. I…
Charissa Brammer, Head Editor, INALJ Maine How to get a volunteer position Resume-building is something that has been on my mind a lot lately, as I have been applying for scholarships and grants and trying to build my LinkedIn profile to attract potential employers in a year when I graduate from library school and enter the world…
by Diana La Femina, Head Editor, INALJ South Carolina Using Social Media to Get Yourself Out There I have a project I’m setting for myself during the next two months: I want to finally get my online portfolio together. I’ve been planning it out for a while but just haven’t had the time to get the…
by Brad McNally, Head Editor, INALJ Ohio 5 Ways to Simplify You Job Search Job searches can be an extremely taxing experience. You will invest a large amount of time in combine through job listings. You will invest your effort into crafting each cover letter and resume for each position. You will likely make a large emotional investment…
by Lauren Bourdages, Head Editor, INALJ Ontario Reflecting on my first Library Conference experience – #OLASC14 Tips for: networking, resumes, and cover letters My original conference plans that I talked about in my last post turned out to be overly ambitious on my part. After writing that post I ended up going in a completely different…
by Gabrielle Spiers, Head Editor, INALJ Montana Thoughts on Libraries and Archives On Tuesday January 21st there was a post on the Archives and Archivists listserv which is the discussion list for the Society of American Archivists entitled “Do We Eat Our Young?” about the non-sustainable business models of archives and the effect that that…
by Elinor Crosby, Head Editor, INALJ Nova Scotia The Cloud and Your Job Search When I was underemployed and doing a lot of job searching, resume re-tooling, and cover letter writing, I decided to pay for an upgrade to my Dropbox account. I’d already gotten a lot of free space by getting my friends to sign…
by Claire Schmieder, Head Editor, INALJ New Jersey MLIS + Non-Library Job = A Much Bigger Picture About two months ago, I started a new job as Program Associate at the Alice Paul Institute. We’re a small non-profit organization, based out of suffragette Alice Paul’s childhood home, Paulsdale, in Mount Laurel, NJ. The site is…
by Rebekah Kati, Head Editor, INALJ North Carolina Tips for Writing Amazing Cover Letters Cover letters are an essential part of the job application. In the cover letter, you have the opportunity to explain your interest in the position and how your qualifications relate to the job. Do you have non-library experience that could be…
by Grey Maixner, Head Editor, INALJ Vermont Keep the Log Rolling As we all know, applying for jobs is a daunting task. Cover letters need written, resumes revised, and every 6 months or so you need to contact your references to ensure that they are still willing to vouch for you. Compounding these problems is…
by Samantha Read, Head Editor, INALJ New Brunswick Part-time MLIS Studies: The Benefits of Taking it One Course at a Time Figuring it Out I didn’t figure out what to do for a career until after I had already finished a Master’s program. Now, this may seem contrary to practical common sense. Not for…
by Jennifer Devine, Head Editor, INALJ West Virginia The Myth of the One Page Resume When I first started my job search while still in my graduate program, I read a lot of resources on how to create a great resume. Most sources will tell you that as a student just coming into the workforce…