Glittery Applications and Sparkly CV's!

Ok... so I might have embellished the title a bit...


This post isn't a how-to guide on jazzing up a job application with a pot of PVA and some glitter - today I went on a course led by Suzanne Wheatley from Sue Hill Recruitment, called "Career Progression; Or, Making Yourself Sparkle in CV's and Interviews". But I liked the sparkly reference, and who isn't partial to a photo of some glitter?

Sue Hill is a London-based recruitment agency specialising in the information, library and research sectors, and Suzanne led a great workshop held at Murray Edwards College, on tailoring your CV format and interview technique so that you shine out to potential employers.

I was particularly interested in going because, although I have rewritten my CV countless times for part-time jobs, internships, my current traineeship and academic interviews, I have never applied for a professional role in the information sector, and will be doing so in 2015, after I complete my LIS postgraduate course. I thought I'd take the chance to benefit from a recruiter who sees thousands of library CV's, and knows specifically what employers are looking for in the perfect CV.

We started off by brainstorming hard skills and soft skills we possessed, and separating the results into four categories: 'Good at', 'Enjoy', 'Want to develop' and 'Don't Enjoy'. The idea is that skills in the 'Good at' and 'Enjoy' category should be prioritised and scream out to the reader on your CV... there is little point listing 'shelving' as one of your job's skills if you hate and despise it, because you won't want to be asked about it at interview. I'd heard of the terms hard and soft skills before today, but have never been entirely sure what they meant. Basically, hard skills are related to tangible, technical knowledge or techniques that are specific to your profession -  so for librarians, this could be cataloguing, knowledge of library management systems and information literacy. Soft skills are what Suzanne called the "touchy-feely" skills - personal and interpersonal aspects of your job that are less tangible, such as time-management, creativity and communication skills.

 I found this whole exercise really useful because I've never actually asked myself which specific aspects of my job I really enjoy. I know the tasks I'm good at, and I know I enjoy my job as a whole, but it really made me think about the individual things that get me excited. For me, these skills are project management, marketing, and being creative. A tip I really valued from Suzanne was that - if this process does not come naturally - ask your family and friends (apart from maybe your Mum, who will sing your praises even if you suck at something!). They will be able to recognise what you're good at, even if you take it for granted and overlook it.

Another tip Suzanne gave, was to create a 'glory folder'. Save any emails you get from users saying "THANK YOU, YOU'RE AMAZING!" (or words to that effect) or jot down every time someone has been really grateful for your help. Tracking praise will make it easier to identify what you really excel at and are valued for.

We then moved onto CV writing. A few of the points I jotted down were:

• Don't leave lots of blank space down one side - use the full width of the page.
• Don't waste space with the phrase "References available upon request" at the bottom!
• Don't put your phone number as one long string of numbers - break it up into smaller chunks to make it more readable. 
• Include a key achievement for each of the jobs you've held.
• Acknowledge any gaps in your timeline - i.e. year off for maternity leave, sickness, gap year, career break etc.
• Try not to use 'I, I, I' when listing your responsibilities/job role... instead, use action words ending in '-ing', such as "maintaining collection development", "assessing users' needs".

To finish off, we discussed interview technique such as personal presentation (dress smart, like David Beckham but on a good day), body-language (stand up straight, don't slouch when sitting) and confidence. And no workshop would be complete without some hands-on exercises! We practiced hand-shakes by wandering around the room, kept eye contact with our partner for an entire minute without looking away (tricky, and a bit awkward, to say the least!) and, my favourite, practicing speaking slowly and clearly with some tongue-twisters, including one about a pheasant plucker...

A tip I shared with the group, which someone taught me a year or two ago, is that if you find long stretches of eye-contact awkward in interviews (mine tend to dry up like concrete if I look at someone for too long and then it's ALL I can think about), look in the inner corner of your interviewer's eye. Honestly, they will not be able to tell that you aren't looking directly at their iris, but it makes it a lot easier to keep eye contact when you aren't focusing directly on their eyeball!

Overall, Suzanne's workshop was light-hearted but informative, and she had some really good tips and insider knowledge to share. She has written a blogpost here on the topic of interview technique, and you can follow her on Twitter @suzyredrec. I am definitely considering signing up to Sue Hill next year - I didn't realise until today that it's completely free to register, and all it takes to sign-up is a 30 minute registration interview! I really thought you had to pay for these services, newbee that I am. It seems so worth doing, seeing as lots of jobs aren't advertised on the open market, and essentially all the hard slog of job-hunting is taken on by a lovely helpful recruiter in your place! That is definitely the edible glitter on the cake :-)

Meriel x

Naughty November and the dreaded 'Personal Statement'

Ok, so successfully managed to make it all the way through November without posting anything ... not my finest hour!

I have been spectacular at procrastinating - I've actually got lots typed up in notes form from different events, training, research I’ve done… but not got round to the headache that is typing them into coherent paragraphs. In all fairness though, The month of November has been a busy one in my library - Cambridge only has 8 week terms, so the four weeks of November (half the entire term) were ones of last-minute essay writing, printers breaking (a lot), rushing new books through processing so people could borrow them for Christmas, and the obligatory confusion over Vacation Borrowing. Cue lots of enquiries about due dates, renewing books, and the rules on borrowing 3 day loans. In that time I also went to the Library of Birmingham for Library Camp (one of the best experiences of the year so far!), travelled back to uni for a weekend, sat my driving test twice (and passed!) and went to a fantastic event called 'Late at the Library' at the British Library, to launch their new Georgians Revealed exhibition.

However, the single most time-consuming task for November was writing my personal statement for the Library and Information Studies course at UCL. On November 7th the Cambridge trainees had a fantastic session at Pembroke College, where we were joined by Professor Vanda Broughton of UCL, Dr. Stephen Pinker of Sheffield University, and Dr. Lyn Robinson of City University. We heard about the library post-graduate courses that their institutions offered, and what sort of things each department specialised in. 

I have always had a strong interest in special collections, for which UCL is the obvious choice, offering two or three different modules on rare books, and having some overlap with their Archive course, whereas most other university courses have one module on it, if at all. It does, however, have cataloguing as a core module... which is most certainly not my strong point at this current point in time. But any course is swings and roundabouts!

However, the deciding factor - as indeed it is for many library students - is practicality. I really found the course on offer at Sheffield appealing, much more, if I'm honest, than I was expecting it to! I was certain that I wanted to attend UCL, but Sheffield’s course genuinely made me reconsider for a moment. But even if I worked part-time on the side, I could not afford to live away from home with £8000 masters fees and living costs! For me, it makes more sense to live back at home and commute the 40 minutes to Kings Cross, which is conveniently located next to UCL. Plus, the full-time course at UCL is only 2 or 3 days a week, so I could finance my studies alongside. Distance learning is never something I've considered - I enjoy the lecture and classroom environment too much as a student, and I know I'd over-stress myself trying to juggle a full time job with my post-graduate qualification in my own time. 

So on 23^rd November, I submitted my application for UCL’s Library and Information Studies course! My supporting statement went through many incarnations and I had several intense sessions in Starbucks armed with nothing more than a toffee nut latte and an overcrowded CV. As always, with applications, being concise is not something I excel at! And most of my free time in November was spent tweaking it, cutting it down and condensing five sentences into one. I think for the majority of information professionals ‘organisation skills’ are their life-blood, but perfectionism can be an inhibiting personality trait. Even for me, spending a month perfecting a page and a bit of A4 and  a two page CV is a bit much! So I was glad to get it sent off, satisfied that it accurately represented my experience and interests, but more importantly: me, as a candidate and student. One tip I received was that your library school application is not a job application. Yes, it’s important to consult the prospectus, to see whether you have enough experience and whether you are personally suited to the skills taught on the course. But at the end of the day, a degree course is for learning and self-development; you are not, like a job, expected to walk into an MA knowing all about the degree content already.  

I would be interested in knowing how other students have found the process, what courses they’ve applied to and what the deciding factor for them was. I got to know a few students and fellow grad trainees when I went to Library Camp two weekends ago, which was an invaluable experience. But that’s a whole other blog post!

Meriel x