{"id":19668,"date":"2015-02-10T10:50:11","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T16:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=19668"},"modified":"2015-02-10T10:46:31","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T16:46:31","slug":"dont-get-chopped-in-your-job-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=19668","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Get Chopped in Your Job Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kate Kosturski
\npreviously published 1\/31\/14<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Get Chopped in Your Job Search<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"kosturski-inalj\"<\/a>My partner and I are big fans of the Food Network show Chopped<\/a>. \u00a0If you\u2019re 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 – anything from the mundane (carrots) to the exotic (durian) to the \u201ccan you really<\/b> cook with this?\u201d (cheese curls, lime jello). \u00a0\u00a0The judges rate the dishes on three categories – presentation, taste, and creativity. \u00a0\u00a0And if a chef\u2019s dish doesn\u2019t meet their expectations, the chef is out of the competition.<\/p>\n

As we were watching the latest All Stars competition<\/a> last night, I realized that the judges\u2019 categories for evaluation translate well to a job search. \u00a0It\u2019s a quick, simple mnemonic to remember what you should always be doing each day in your professional life.<\/p>\n

Presentation<\/b><\/p>\n

This states the obvious. \u00a0How do you present yourself, in person and online?<\/strong> \u00a0Do you have a place where potential employers can view your work? \u00a0\u00a0The easiest way to do this is a portfolio site, and tools like WordPress, Weebly, and Flavors.me make this simple to do. \u00a0You may have set up a portfolio as part of your library school graduation requirements. \u00a0Is that profile still accessible, and in a format that is easy for an employer to understand? Building a portfolio is also a wonderful way to stretch your tech skills and learn something new – I used a revamp of my portfolio site to teach myself Drupal. (You can view the results at www.katekosturski.info<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I would be remiss if I did not mention the importance of social media as part of your virtual presentation. \u00a0Having a professional presence on Linkedin is almost a requirement in 2013, and should complement your portfolio site. \u00a0Also, think about how you are presenting yourself on Facebook, Twitter and other, more informal social media. \u00a0You want to be careful that any photos you post or comments you make do not portray you in a negative light, because employers can and do search these sites in their intelligence gathering on candidates.<\/p>\n

The analog networking is also important.<\/strong> \u00a0Make sure when you attend conferences or other gatherings (and if you\u2019re not already, now is a good time to start), you have two tools at the ready: \u00a0an elevator pitch, and a full complement of business cards. \u00a0\u00a0An elevator pitch<\/a> is a short, simple statement that defines who you are and what you do – the idea being that if you are in an elevator with a key decision maker and they start a conversation, you can tell them all about you in a short period of time. \u00a0\u00a0Keep your elevator pitch simple and jargon free. \u00a0And end that elevator pitch with an up to date business card with your contact information (including the aforementioned portfolio)! \u00a0Companies like Moo<\/a> and Vistaprint<\/a> make printing your own cards easy and affordable, and with the right tools, you can also print cards at home.<\/p>\n

Taste<\/b><\/p>\n

I struggled with applying this to the job search initially. \u00a0When I thought deeper about taste, I realized that not only is it the building block of a good meal, it can be the simplest to achieve, the simplest to mess up<\/strong> – and the one matter the most. \u00a0What is a simple thing that is easy to overlook in the job search that will matter the most? \u00a0Proofreading<\/i>. \u00a0Make sure links on your portfolio site work. \u00a0Check and re-check spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. Make sure cover letters are addressed to the proper person and with proper gender pronouns – when my partner was looking for a job, he made sure to Google the names of who he was sending letters to, so he didn\u2019t address a Ms. as a Mr. (which almost happened!)<\/p>\n

Creativity<\/b><\/p>\n

You can think about creativity in two ways<\/strong> – the jobs you apply for, and how you sell yourself to those jobs. \u00a0A quick glance of the main INALJ page shows a wide variety of keywords we use to find jobs – all jobs that use librarian skills. \u00a0Not every library job has to be in the textbook definition of a library.<\/p>\n

Be creative in applying for jobs. \u00a0Think about how non-library experience can tie into job duties as listed in the posting. \u00a0I was a volunteer for the Museum of Modern Art for seven years, and when I was looking for library jobs, I realized that those seven years finding paintings and telling people where the bathroom is was the perfect reference service training. \u00a0In reference job cover letters, I made sure to elaborate on those duties and how they tie in to reference service.<\/p>\n

Conversely, think carefully about how your library skills fit any position, and make those necessary connections in your resume (make sure to have a section titled \u201cField Experience\u201d or \u201cCareer-Related Experience\u201d) and your cover letter. Don\u2019t waste valuable cover letter space on experience that doesn\u2019t relate to the exact position, no matter on how awesome and award-winning it was. (Save it for the interview!)<\/p>\n

With these three ideas in mind, conducting your job search should be seamless. \u00a0And finally, here\u2019s a tip for your cooking, especially if you find yourself on Chopped one day (they do have an amateur cooks competition): \u00a0Never use truffle oil. \u00a0The judges hate it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

republished from 4\/25\/13<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kate Kosturski previously published 1\/31\/14 Don\u2019t Get Chopped in Your Job Search My partner and I are big fans of the Food Network show Chopped. \u00a0If you\u2019re 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 –…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80600,"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":[69,3592,4140,4141,3665,3860,16,4139,4793],"class_list":["post-19668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-chopped","tag-food-network","tag-inalj-new-york-state","tag-job-hunt","tag-job-hunting","tag-kate-kosturski","tag-recent-keeper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/kate-kosturski.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-57e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19668","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=19668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}