{"id":70774,"date":"2014-05-07T07:30:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T12:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70774"},"modified":"2014-05-07T10:03:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T15:03:00","slug":"tips-to-be-professionally-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70774","title":{"rendered":"Tips to be professionally successful"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Connecticut<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Tips to be professionally successful<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Jennifer<\/a>Being successful in our profession is what we all strive for. Whether in a library setting or any\u00a0professional setting, keeping ourselves focused on being successful at what we do is important in our\u00a0professional development. I would like to share some tips I use daily in my position and that I hope will\u00a0help you in your career.<\/p>\n

Trying new things in our careers seems like an easy thing to do.<\/strong> But sometimes we can feel entitled\u00a0to finding a great job quickly and painlessly because of our education or professional background. I\u00a0have found that employers need to see you are willing and ready to work on new projects and try tasks\u00a0that are out of your comfort zone. For example, I was really nervous when I was asked to reconcile\u00a0purchasing transactions, but within a couple months I became more comfortable with the process and\u00a0felt somewhat confident at what I was doing. You need to be open to change and ready to learn new\u00a0processes that may be intimidating. In my experience, When I try a new task or work on a different\u00a0project, I find that it\u2019s not as scary or overwhelming as I think it\u2019s going to be. When I give my all I find\u00a0that it really makes a difference in how I\u2019m seen as an employee and colleague. Think out of the librarian\u00a0box and have faith in yourself.<\/p>\n

Volunteering is a great way to gain experience and gain connections.<\/strong> I\u2019ve volunteered for several\u00a0different organizations during and after library school. Try mixing your volunteer experience up by\u00a0volunteering somewhere other than a library. Gain new experiences through different organizations.\u00a0Demonstrate how these different experiences can be applied to librarianship. I found the experiences\u00a0not only rewarding but professionally enriching. If you have a few extra hours in your week, I highly\u00a0recommend volunteering and opening the doors to new library experiences.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always believed in the importance of being a team player in your job.<\/strong> This is especially helpful if you\u00a0have many strong personalities in your working group. It is important to share your thoughts and ideas\u00a0with your group, but it\u2019s also a great character trait when you are able to accept a colleague\u2019s idea if it\u00a0is more beneficial to the overall goal and to work through that idea in a supporting role. You will have\u00a0many opportunities to shine and being in a supportive role makes you invaluable to your team. The main\u00a0goal is to have your department or organization work more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Lastly, try to stay organized.<\/strong> I always struggle with this one, but it is important to stay on top of your\u00a0goals and your to-do list. I have recently been using Microsoft Outlook to help me with my tasks. Before\u00a0using Outlook I would write my tasks down on sticky notes. I found the sticky note method didn\u2019t work\u00a0for me. I would lose the notes or simply forget the tasks. Setting up reminders with Outlook has really\u00a0helped me prioritize. You can set up reminders for meeting and due dates. Keeping up with project goals\u00a0shows that you\u2019re responsible and reliable. It also helps to demonstrate how you can keep up with many\u00a0tasks at one time and that you are a productive part of your team.<\/p>\n

In sharing these thoughts and ideas, my hope is to get others to think of how they strive to be\u00a0professionally successful and what actions are taken to do so. What are some actions that have worked\u00a0for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Crutchfield, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Connecticut Tips to be professionally successful Being successful in our profession is what we all strive for. Whether in a library setting or any\u00a0professional setting, keeping ourselves focused on being successful at what we do is important in our\u00a0professional development. I would like to share some tips I use daily…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":58702,"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":[69,3592,3604,3899,6208,4675,111,6209],"class_list":["post-70774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-connecticut","tag-jennifer-crutchfield","tag-professional-success","tag-success","tag-tips","tag-tips-to-be-successful"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Jennifer-Crutchfield-photo-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-ipw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70774","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}