{"id":13878,"date":"2014-03-24T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=13878"},"modified":"2014-03-24T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T18:35:49","slug":"the-importance-of-saying-yes-my-job-hunt-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=13878","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Saying Yes: My Job Hunt Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sheela Sur, former Head Editor, INALJ Washington, DC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

previously published on 3\/25\/13<\/em><\/p>\n

The Importance of Saying Yes: My Job Hunt Story<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"sheela2\"<\/a>After our first round of INALJ Head Editor articles were posted, I believe Kristen Jaques’s\u00a0 (INALJ Maine <\/a>Head Editor) \u201cWhat I Learned During My Two and a Half Years on the Job Market\u201d<\/a> had one of the highest \u2013 if not THE highest \u2013 page view counts. And for good reason! This article was truly inspiring and left me feeling that I wasn\u2019t alone in feeling absolutely crushed by my search for a library job.<\/p>\n

In response, I\u2019d like to write about my own personal job hunt story in hopes that you\u2019ll find some solace in my struggles (spoiler alert \u2013 I get a job in the end) and take away some helpful advice \u2013 especially the importance of saying yes to opportunities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I haven\u2019t been all that active or successful in finding a fantastic library job since finishing my MLIS in April 2012. \u00a0In 2011 I landed an amazing and competitive co-op position with great public library system, and this made me believe that when I got around to applying for real jobs I would be equally successful.<\/p>\n

Not so much.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started out strong, sending out at least two or three job applications a week for the first few months after graduating. \u00a0But after months and months and dozens of job applications without so much as an interview (including at an organization where I had worked part-time for several years) I felt horribly discouraged and downtrodden. \u00a0Summer was ending; my friends were going back to school; and I felt like I was about to be trapped living with my parents in a tiny town forever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a whim, in early August, I applied for a music teaching position mostly because it was in a town I was visiting that week to see some very good friends of mine who were currently living there. Lo and behold, at the end of the month I got a call offering me the job! The only hitch \u2013 the job was just a few hours a week and they wanted me to start in FOUR DAYS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I took a deep breath, did some thinking, and said YES. I took the ten-hour trip to my new city the next day, found an apartment, and started teaching that week.<\/p>\n

Now, it was early September and I figured that with the money I had saved and with what I was making with this new part-time gig I could survive on my own for three, maybe four months without another job. \u00a0I spent my first months in my new city applying for every library position that came up there and schlepping my resume around to retail and restaurant jobs (I worked for one day as a kitchen assistant in a very sketchy diner, but was quickly fired after they found out I already had travel plans on Thanksgiving weekend. I was not too upset about losing that position.)<\/p>\n

Finally, around mid-November, I was mentally preparing to move back home with my tail between my legs when my friend sent me a Facebook message that her organization was hiring telemarketers to work evenings until Christmas. \u00a0Honestly, I thought it sounded like a pretty terrible job but \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 I said YES.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I happened to be very good at it! The job entailed calling the local professional symphony orchestra\u2019s previous donors and ticket subscribers and soliciting donations for this fiscal year. \u00a0Apparently people love giving me money over the phone, and I raised more funds than any other member of the telemarketing team. \u00a0I made such an impression on my supervisor that she created a position for me within the organization<\/strong>, and I started my new job there in January.<\/p>\n

So there you have it, the story of how I became a music teacher and the donor relations assistant for a professional symphony orchestra<\/strong>. \u00a0When I apply for library jobs, I have a new wealth of experiences and qualifications to include. I\u2019ve also discovered the world of prospect research and development (<\/strong>i.e. donor management), which is highly applicable to MLIS-types and, I\u2019ve been told, is a growing job field for us. INALJ\u2019s Naomi House shared a link to the APRA job board<\/a> and it was amazing how many jobs are out there that I\u2019m qualified for that I never would have thought about before!<\/p>\n

I hope you might take away some key ideas from my story:<\/p>\n

Say yes to opportunities<\/strong> \u2013 even if the situation isn\u2019t ideal you never know where an opportunity can lead you and what library-applicable skills can come out of it.<\/p>\n

Use your connections in any profession<\/strong> \u2013 network and hear about opportunities.<\/p>\n

Even if you go into a job tentatively, work hard and make a good impression.<\/strong> \u00a0These positions could lead to other jobs, and it\u2019s always good to have a supervisor on your side who could be a strong reference during future job hunts.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re at all interested in work in donor relations and prospect research\/management, check out the APRA Job Board<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already, read INALJ Maine head editor Kristin Jacque\u2019s \u201cWhat I Learned During My Two and a Half Years on the Job Market.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And GOOD LUCK with your job search!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0 (INALJ Maine Head Editor) \u201cWhat I Learned During My Two and a Half Years on the Job Market\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,426,3864,3637,3866,3865,3862,3863],"class_list":["post-13878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-dc","tag-doner-relations","tag-inalj-washington-dc","tag-kristen-jaques","tag-prospect-research","tag-sheela-sur","tag-symphony-orchestra"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/sheela1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-3BQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}