The (Pregnant) Elephant in the Room by Jen Park My husband and I had tried for a long time to have a baby. When I finally became pregnant I was in my last term of library school. I was thrilled and very, very nervous about applying for positions. Although I was working part-time in a…
by Claire Schmieder, Volunteer Manager Previously published 11/11/14 The Job Hunter’s Guide to Positivity Just about one year ago, I started working at my current job. Hooray! This upcoming anniversary has gotten me reflecting on the time BEFORE I started working, when I was a verging-on-desperate job hunter. After I earned my MLIS, I spent nearly…
Resilience During (and Beyond) the Job Hunt by Julia Feerrar I once applied for a job that, in many ways, felt like it had been made just for me. I progressed through a phone interview and then an on-campus interview, feeling confident and excited. While of course I knew that there must be quite a…
Open thank you note to past search participants by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor It takes many people in the library to successfully hire a new librarian. While the head of the search committee (and sometimes the whole committee) gets a thank you note, many people involved in the interview day do not get much recognition.…
by Leigh Milligan, Senior Editor previously published 8/11/14 Jobs! Got to Catch Them All!! I love Pokémon games! I have been playing Pokémon since the red and blue editions were on Game Boy. I am now playing the newest one Pokémon X for 3DS and I can’t put it down. I love that there are so many…
So, you have an interview? by Amy Steinbauer, Senior Assistant, INALJ California I am having a bit of an interview streak. In the past month, I have been on 8 job interviews, and they have all been extremely different. Hopefully, one will pan out into a real job! The following examples mostly pertain to a public…
Resume Missteps & Solutions by Amy Steinbauer, Senior Assistant, INALJ California The job search is a messy, complicated game of employment. It can seem like all of the hiring factors are out of your control. You get excited at job ads and prospects, send your resume and cover letter in, and wait, and wait, and wait.…
Tips for Boosting Your Presence in the LIS Community by Angie Solis, Senior Editor Being a part of the INALJ team means that I’m surrounded by many amazing people who rock my world every day with their knowledge and ability to be superstars in the LIS community. Seriously, it’s like I know celebrities. I find…
I can do that! Volunteering in Library Land by Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor One of the tried and true pieces of library job hunting advice is to get experience in a library – any experience. If you can’t find a job, volunteer. The problem with just going to volunteer in a library is the types…
by Kate Kosturski previously published 1/31/14 Don’t Get Chopped in Your Job Search My partner and I are big fans of the Food Network show Chopped. If you’re not familiar with the program, it is a cooking competition featuring four chefs who have to prepare three meals (appetizer, entree, and dessert) with mystery ingredients –…
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 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 Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor, INALJ California, DC, and Illinois Bragging on the Job Hunt I am pretty awesome. No, strike that. I am awesome. Those two statements may not seem different to you but on the job hunt losing the qualifier may make a world of difference. In the most recent leg of my job hunt I’ve…
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 Mary-Michelle Moore, Senior Editor, INALJ California, DC, and Illinois What to do while you’re waiting – Library Assistant edition Congratulations! You’ve done it – you sent off a beautifully researched, proof-read, edited and complete application packet to your latest dream job listing. Now what? Well if you’re like me and many of my colleagues, you still have…
by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor, INALJ Missouri, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana How to Tread the Waters of Uncertain Job Prospects to Stay Afloat and Keep Your Head Above Water. No matter the amount of articles written about job hunting, or the amount you have personally read. The job hunt affects all of us differently,…
by Clayton Hayes, Senior Assistant, INALJ North Dakota Keeping your library skills cultivated outside of the library The job search can be a long and drawn-out process, and for many it begins as soon as they settle into a new position. A large part of the job search process is identifying and maintaining important professional skills. For…
by Amy Steinbauer, Senior Assistant, INALJ California “You want to work, but where?” Dear Desperate Job Searchers, I know you want a job, badly. You’ve applied for what feels like millions and millions of jobs. You’ve chatted awkwardly with alumni from your program, trying not to ask for leads, and smiling when they describe how much they love…
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 Amelia Zavala Vander Heide ,Senior Editor, INALJ Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virtual Work Bumps, Bruises, and Blunders: Dealing with Embarrassing Moments at Work and on the Job Hunt We have all been there. You say or do the wrong thing in the wrong moment. You accidentally slip, fall, or let that swear word sneak out. That…
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 Nena Schvaneveldt, former Head Editor, INALJ Utah previously published 4/2/13 5 Attitudes to Change on the Job Hunt Last month, I wrote about how changing my attitude and viewing my circumstances as choices really made me feel a lot less helpless. The line between a good attitude and a bad attitude can be really…
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 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…