In a tight market like this, having a good cover letter and resume can mean the difference between getting a phone interview and ending up in the round file. I have served on four search committees in my five years at Norwich and chaired two of them. I learned so much from being on the other side of the job search experience that I wish I’d known when I was looking for a job. I made so many rookie mistakes when I was looking for my first professional position; mistakes that I’ve seen made time and time again when looking through other people’s cover letters and resumes. I’m writing out these tips in the hopes that others can avoid those mistakes when they’re applying for jobs. Keep in mind that these tips are just from my point of view and others may disagree with them, but they were definitely things that made me and my fellow committee members more or less likely to give the applicant further consideration.

Also, for those looking for information on professional online networking and using social media for career advancement, I’ve written three columns on the topic for American Libraries Magazine: “Your Virtual Brand”, “Finding Your Voice”, and “Dipping into the Stream.”

DO’s

• This first one can’t be stresesed enough — tailor your cover letter to the job you’re applying for. Most importantly, address the specific requirements in the job ad. You may be particularly proud of how you designed your library’s intranet, but if the job you’re applying for has nothing to do with any of the skills you exhibited during that project, it’s not worth detailing in the cover letter. In all of the committees I was on, we’d go through each cover letter and resume with a list of required and preferred qualifications and would see which ones the applicant addressed. If they didn’t show evidence of one of the required qualifications, they’d be out of the running. Period.
• Tailor your resume to some extent to the job you’re applying for. Highlight things that you’ve done or skills that you have that are on the list of required’s and preferred’s for that job.
• Tell me why you want to work here and why you want this job. When I see a cover letter from someone who clearly wants the job they’re applying for (as opposed to wanting a job), I am much more likely to want to interview them. When we were hiring for a distance learning librarian, I gave the most weight to people whose letters made it seem like they really wanted to be a distance learning librarian.
• Learn about the organization. This is important early on, but is especially important when you get to the interview. I remember having a candidate who asked me what my job was at the library and then talked about how we should do IM reference with a Meebo widget when we had one right on the front page of our website. I figure if they are too lazy to research the library and the search committee members, they are going to apply themselves similarly to their day-to-day work.
• Include experience outside of libraries that might be relevant (school, other jobs, etc.). I always made an effort to describe how the skills I’d developed as a psychotherapist were relevant to reference and instruction work. If you’re applying for a library job where you’re working with the public, retail experience is a great asset.
• Include any extra-curricular professional activities you’ve engaged in, such as speaking gigs, committee memberships, articles written, etc. Personally, I am jazzed when I see a new grad or soon-to-be-grad who has published, presented or otherwise contributed to the profession beyond their library schoolwork. It tells me that they have a passion for going above and beyond and that they’ll probably do that in this job as well. I want to hire someone who sees this as more than just a job; passion is a real asset in an employee.
• Express enthusiasm and confidence. Write your cover letter as if you know you’re the right person for the job (though don’t be full of yourself either!).
• Read the application requirements carefully. We once required that applicants send us a link to at least one example of a website they created. Many people didn’t send us anything, which meant we wouldn’t consider them no matter how great they sounded otherwise, since web design skills were a required qualification. It’s never a bad idea to take screenshots of web design work you’ve done, just in case it gets replaced in the future.
• Unless the reason is particularly sensitive, do explain gaps in your resume. Whatever the search committee will imagine is probably worse than your actual reason.
• If you have job hopped a lot, explain why, and for the same reason as above.
• If you currently work in a different library type (or have only taken coursework towards working in a different area) address why you are now applying for this job. We got a lot of applications for a distance learning librarian position from folks who were catalogers, were members of the Society of American Archivists, etc. Had they said “I’m really interested in getting more experience in online instruction” or something similar we would have given them greater consideration. Otherwise, it just looks like they don’t really want to work in that area and will bolt the minute something comes available that they do want.
• If there’s a reason why you want the job beyond the position itself (like you want to relocate to the area, you have ties to the area, etc.) do state that. It can let people know that you’re seriously interested in relocating. Just make sure it doesn’t sound like it’s your only reason for applying.
• Read over your cover letter and imagine what impression the search committee would get of you if that’s all they read. It should tell them without looking at your resume how you are qualified for the job.

DON’Ts

• Apply for a job you know you wouldn’t want (whether because of location, duties, hours, etc.) You’re not only wasting your time, but you’re wasting the time of the people who are reading your resume and interviewing you). And definitely make sure you are really interested in a job before you go for an in-person interview (especially if it requires travel funding). You don’t want to make enemies early in your career by wasting the search committee’s time (and the library’s money… especially during these lean years). There’s nothing wrong with realizing after interviewing that a place isn’t a good fit, but if you’re interviewing in a big city you’d never want to live in or for a job you’d never want, you’re wasting people’s time.
• Send a generic cover letter. Passing off a generic cover letter makes you look like you don’t want the job that much. And usually, it’s pretty darn obvious that a cover letter is the same one you’ve used to apply for 10 other jobs.
• Just list everything you’ve done in your cover letter. Specifically address what the search committee cares about — the required and preferred qualifications.
• If you’re applying for a job that requires technical skills, be honest about your level of skill. A small stretching of the truth is ok, but if it’s a big stretch, it’s likely that you’ll be found out. I remember one candidate talking about their amazing web programming skills, and one look at the websites they’d designed told me that they were grossly overstating their skills.
• Talk about your personal hobbies. I can’t tell you how many resumes I’ve seen that talk about people’s interests in gardening and genealogy, their involvement in the Boy Scouts, or their passion for yoga. All very nice, but unless these somehow relate to the job requirements, they don’t belong in a professional resume.
• Have a generic “objective” on your resume I personally never put an objective on my resume, but if you’re going to, make it meaningful or leave it off. I love ones that say things like to obtain a position where I can apply my knowledge, experience and education in the field of librarianship. How is this useful???
• Write well, but don’t use lots of big words to impress. Usually it’s pretty obvious and many applicants actually use those words incorrectly. I have seen this happen way too many times and it makes the candidate look dumber than if they’d just used terms they’re really familiar with.
• Apply for a job that requires an MLIS if you don’t have one or aren’t close to getting one. A few months away is usually ok, but if you’re just starting an MLIS program, don’t bother.
• Maybe it’s just me, but I hate when people write things like “My background and accomplishments seem to be a good match for your needs”. I’m not just looking for someone who has the qualifications I need; I’m looking for someone who really wants the job.
• Just list the positions you’ve had in your resume – also describe your duties and (in the cover letter) the skills that you gained in those jobs that will benefit you in the position(s) you now want.
• Unless the job requires specific subject expertise, I don’t want to see a list of the databases you’ve used. If you have general reference experience in an academic library, I’ll assume that you are competent at searching most databases and can learn the ones you’re not familiar with.
• List your GPA unless something in the job description asks you to address academic achievement.
• Make your cover letter over 1 1/3 pages and under 1/2 page. Personally, I prefer a cover letter that is exactly one page long.
• Just tell us generic things like you’re “detail oriented” or “innovative” — illustrate it in some way with things you’ve done.

Any tips you’d offer to folks looking for a position in libraries? Any egregious mistakes you’ve seen (or have made) along the way that you’d like to share?

My compliments to Sean Fitzpatrick at ALA for his hard work on the site. You’ve done a fantastic job!

At nearly the same time, I noticed on the LISJobs Forums that Rachel Singer Gordon was looking for “Career disruption resources.” She specifically cited this Career Disruption Assistance Program from SLA (which looks like it’s just for DC Chapter members). The program offers mentoring and reduced dues for people who’ve been laid off. It made me wonder how many organizations in our profession are doing the same thing.

I don’t want to pick on ALA (especially since I don’t think they’re the only organization ignoring this), but I do pay dues to them and all I’ve heard from them with regards to the fiscal crisis is about their own finances and the finances of libraries. The ALA-APA has always seemed to me to be undersupported and underpromoted, to the point where I don’t even feel like I understand their role vis à vis ALA. The simple fact is, if a dues-paying member is out of a job, the chances are good that they will not continue to be members for long if they don’t feel supported by their professional organization. Were I unemployed, I’d be pretty offended to be asked to pay the same amount that fully-employed library support staff do. At least students only have to pay a student rate, but for how long will they be willing to do that much if they can’t find a job after six months, a year, two years? I hope that we’ll see the ALA addressing this crisis in terms of not only libraries, but librarians and library workers, and what we can do as individuals to protect our jobs, cope with layoffs and find new jobs in this tough economy.

Does someone really need to understand the back-end of a system to capitalize on it? I don’t believe that’s true. Most people don’t know how to build a car; they don’t understand all of its internal mechanisms. Yet we still drive cars. We just know where to go when we need help. I have no clue how to debug things in Drupal. I’ve never made any attempt to understand the internal mechanisms of it. Does that mean I shouldn’t have used it the three times I have for classes? No way! I can install it and I can use it for the purposes I’ve had for it. I can’t do a lot of the fancy things a lot of people do with Drupal, but it worked fine for what I needed it to do. All my limited knowledge means is that when I have a problem, I need to look up the answer or rely on the community of Drupal users and developers for help. I did just that and thanks to the community, I was able to fix any problems I’ve had.

Yeah, I’d like to know how to fix every little thing in Drupal and create my own modules, but I’d also like to know how to fix my car. Priorities. In my position, it’s much more important that I know a lot about instruction and a decent amount about instructional technologies. Programming is not a necessary skill-set (not that I wouldn’t like to have mad coding skillz). If I’m going to engage in professional development, it will be to learn more about information literacy instruction and assessment, not to take a class on PHP or JavaScript. I’ve even done stuff with PHP and JavaScript, but it just involved messing around with stuff that already existed. I’d break it, figure out what I did and how it impacted things, and then fix it. Eventually I’d usually get it to do what I needed it to do. Yes, I’d love to have a better understanding, but it’s not a priority with my job and there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to learn everything I’d like.

Should library schools require technology classes? Without a doubt! I don’t think anyone should come out of library school without basic web design skills, a basic understanding of library technologies and Internet technologies, the ability to assess technologies, the ability to be fearless with trying out new technologies, and probably a whole host of other things I’m not thinking of right now with pregnancy brain. But does everyone need to come out knowing how to code? No! While technology is a part of every job, not every librarian needs to know how the back-end of the catalog works or needs to know how to debug a Drupal module. Instruction is a critical part of most of our jobs as librarians too (be it formal instruction, reference assistance, or staff training), but not everyone is required to take classes on instruction. And probably most people don’t need to know as much about instruction as I (and other people in similar positions) do.

People can do so many different things with a degree in Library and Information Science. I think it’s important for everyone to have a certain baseline of technology skills, but beyond that, it’s really dependent on what sort of job you want. The technology skill-sets you need to be a head of instruction vs. a systems librarian vs. a web developer vs. a reference librarian vs. an archivist are very different. I think for any library school student, it’s a good idea to hedge your bets and not just train yourself for a single job. It’s important to take tech classes, but if you know you don’t want to have a job where you’ll need to program, you shouldn’t have to. Focusing only on technology and not at all on public service-type classes is an even bigger mistake, since anyone developing tech for libraries needs to understand user behavior and how to train librarians on how to use the technologies.

Dorothea already wrote a lot of really brilliant things about teaching tech in library school, so there’s really no point in my going into more depth when she already said it all. Like most things she writes, I agree with 99% of it.

But my mind is on all of those people who are already out of library school and didn’t have the opportunity to take tech classes (or perhaps just chose not to because they didn’t think it would be important). Those are the people I write my column for. And the reality is that there are many libraries where no one has good programming skills (mine included) or the money to hire/rent talent. There are also many libraries where no one has an MLS at all, so the issue of tech in LIS education is irrelevant to them. I started writing my column because I saw too many articles that only highlighted things that could be done for a lot of $$$ or with serious programming talent on staff. I wanted to highlight the things that people could accomplish at almost any library so long as they are willing to experiment, maybe break things once, twice (or twenty times), and rely on documentation and the robust user communities that are a part of most of the tools I highlight. I like to show the range of what can be done with any technology, from things that require significant programming to the very simple nearly-out-of-the-box job. That way, they know what’s possible with the software at both ends of the spectrum.

I want small libraries to realize that they can have a decent website without necessarily knowing HTML or having a web designer on staff. I’ve learned over time that most librarians have no idea what they’re capable of doing with tech. I certainly didn’t think I was capable of doing anything with Drupal until I tried it out and realized that it wasn’t as beastly as I’d imagined (though the whole taxonomy/node stuff really took me a while to understand properly). I want to encourage people to try things out and to realize that they’re capable of so much more than they think they are. So, while I’d love for every library to have someone on staff with mad tech skillz, it’s important for people to realize that they still can do a lot of great stuff with tech even if they don’t have tons of money or programming talent.

I found this definition of the word expert in the Wikipedia:

An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well distinguished domain. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study. An expert can be, by virtue of training, education, profession, publication or experience, believed to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual’s opinion. Historically, an expert was referred to as a sage. The individual was usually a profound philosopher distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment.

I have a lot of friends who are knowledgeable about various topics who I would certainly trust if I needed advice in that area. Some are considered experts and some are not. The only difference I can really see between those who are and aren’t experts is how they have positioned themselves. The ones who are considered experts often speak at conferences or write articles or teach classes on their chosen subject. Because of this, their name becomes associated with that subject, making them an “expert”. It’s like me and wikis or Greg Schwartz and podcasting or Rachel Singer Gordon and career stuff. We created some stuff, wrote some stuff, talked about some stuff, and suddenly, we were authorities on the subject. And, for some of us who are now considered experts, it’s a title we’re rather uncomfortable with.

Tto me, the definition of an expert should be someone who has knowledge on a certain topic (or set of topics) and is willing to share that knowledge with others. There are likely lots of people out there who know as much, if not more, about a topic than an expert, but they don’t feel the inclination to share their knowledge publicly. This may mean that an expert is frequently no more an authority on a subject than any other person with similar knowledge; it just means that they’re more likely to be willing to share that knowledge (maybe for free, maybe for money).

No matter how much Web 2.0 pushes the notion that the amateur has a lot to offer, I still find that many people would rather ask questions of someone publicly seen as an expert. For example, I wrote a column for American Libraries (published last month) where I talked about using Wordpress as a content management system for a library website. I highlighted several library websites in the column including the Troy Public Library. Instead of emailing the people at the Troy Public Library to ask them about their site, one librarian emailed me to ask me all about their website and how he could do something like that. I certainly don’t know more about how the Troy PL achieved their website than they do. I get lots of people writing and asking me about things completely outside of my areas of knowledge like computer reservation systems for public libraries or careers for youth service librarians. Why someone would feel more comfortable asking an academic librarian about these things than, say, a listserv full of people who have varied experience in these areas is beyond me. I’m always happy to help with something I feel comfortable offering advice on, but sometimes I get questions that seem much better-suited for “the hive.”

Relying solely on the opinions of experts can also be dangerous. When I was a child and family therapist, I worked with a lot of clients whose parents pretty much saw the word of their psychiatrist as the word of God. They would never question a doctor. I mean, if they have an MD, clearly they must be right, right? I went to the psych evaluation of one of my clients where the psychiatrist asked the child if he fell asleep in school. The child said “yes.” He then said that the child was narcoleptic. Luckily I was there to bring up the fact that the child can’t sleep at night and falls asleep in class because of his insomnia, or he’d have been put on a serious medication needlessly (that probably also would have made the insomnia worse). I’m glad many people these days don’t just accept everything that’s told to them by a doctor — second opinions (or third, or fourth) are very valuable to help patients make the best decisions for their own health. We should question the advice of these experts.

I think the idea of experts and amateurs creates a false dichotomy; as if only the very few are capable of attaining a certain level of knowledge of a subject. I worry that it may make some people feel like they aren’t capable of learning a lot about a certain subject and that they will always have to rely on others for answers. A lot of people underestimate their ability to do things with technology; I see it in my class and enjoy watching students prove themselves wrong on that count. I do not have more talent for learning how to use wikis, blogs and other social software tools than most other semi-tech-savvy people in this profession and I’d hate to think that the whole expert/amateur thing would lead anyone to think that they aren’t capable of doing something on their own.

And I’m sure some “experts” want people to feel incapable. In some fields, experts make a lot of money telling other people how to live their lives, how to make money, etc. Even those of us in the profession who are considered experts benefit in some way, though most of us certainly can’t quit our day job. If everyone felt that they could learn to manage money on their own, they wouldn’t buy Suze Orman’s books or watch her TV show. Then again, none of us really wants to learn everything on our own, so people would probably still read books by “experts” even if they didn’t consider those people any smarter than a lot of the other people who know stuff about that subject.

I’m glad there are people who write books about baby stuff and childbirth that I can read. However, I also don’t take what any of them say to be the gospel. Instead of relying on one expert, I read a lot of books, articles, etc., which tend to offer a lot of conflicting advice (cribs with drop-sides are bad/cribs with drop-sides are fine, cord blood storage is a waste of money/cord blood storage is important insurance for your child, co-sleeping is good/co-sleeping is bad, etc.). I query the hive. In the end, I make the decision myself based on the opinions of doctors, midwives, mothers, writers, friends, and my own gut. Experts sometimes pass off opinion as fact — like the book my colleague read that encouraged women to moderately drink and smoke during pregnancy and strongly discouraged circumcision — and even if they don’t, there will be some bias to what they write. My book was biased towards lightweight virtual reference solutions like instant messaging, and I’d hope anyone considering implementing virtual reference at their library would read more than just my book when planning for it.

I know it would be a lot easier to just ask an expert, get an answer and go with it, but that’s exactly what we teach our patrons not to do. We teach them to be critical of information — to utilize multiple sources and to see where the author is getting their information from. People often ask me which wiki software they should use and I feel very reluctant to give them that sort of an answer. I think people should make that decision on their own, based on research they’ve done. Just because I like MediaWiki doesn’t mean it’ll work for your project and I’m only willing to give people a list of popular software options, not to give them a definitive answer. There’s nothing wrong with seeking out the opinion or advice of people you trust, but it’s important to realize that their advice is just that and isn’t necessarily the best option.

It’s nice to see people becoming more critical of information generally, and it should be interesting to see how this impacts the notion of “experts vs. amateurs” in the future.

Here’s my schedule so far. Adam and I are staying at the Marriott right by the Convention Center, which is a nice change from last year when we were a zillion miles from the Convention Center in DC. I’m covering the exhibit hall again for American Libraries so that means lots of time chatting up vendors and eating free twizzlers and peanut butter cups.

Thursday, June 26, 2008
Arriving Thursday afternoon
Dinner with the hubby

Friday, June 27, 2008
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Mover and Shaker Lunch
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Jim Rettig Advisory Committee Meeting
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Web Junction Member Reception or perhaps dinner

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Spending the day covering the exhibits for American Libraries with my intrepid editorial assistant/husband.
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: EBSCO Academic Libraries Lunch
7:00 PM: Dinner with a friend
11:00 PM: Facebook Librarians After Hours @ Pop the Cork Wine Bar (if I’m conscious)

Sunday, June 29, 2008
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Readex Breakfast (I’m giving a talk called Academic Work is Social: User Generated Content in Support of Research and Learning)
Lunch: No plans, but will probably eat lunch early-ish so I can get to the TTT nice and early.
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM: LITA Top Technology Trends
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM: Bookcart Drill Team Championships (covering this for American Libraries)
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM: OCLC Blog Salon
Afterwards: ???

Monday, June 30, 2008
Morning: Check out of hotel
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: ACRL National Conference Committee, Virtual Conference Subcommittee Meeting
Lunch: No plans
Spend a bit of time at the exhibit hall
Leave for LAX for red-eye to NY.

I’ve had pretty low expectations of my conference experiences the past few times and they’ve actually ended up being pretty darn great. Here’s hoping for more of that since my expectations are rather low this time around as well.

Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow morning, Adam and I are leaving for a vacation in the Adirondacks. This is the first time in AGES that our vacations haven’t either centered around a talk I’m giving or a trip to visit family. This is an honest-to-goodness no obligations, do-as-little-as-possible, email-and-feed-free vacation. And after the year we’ve had, we both really need it.

After that, I’ll be getting back for the second week of our distance learners’ Residency (the first time I ever get to meet the students I’ve worked with for two years previous) and then will be leaving on the 26th for ALA Annual in Anaheim. I’ll be covering the exhibit hall again for American Libraries and am on two committees so I expect to be pretty busy. But I’ll definitely be part of the LITA Top Tech Trends panel on Sunday afternoon and wouldn’t miss the blogger salon for anything. Hope to see you there!

With all that going on, you can expect this blog to be pretty quiet for a while.