Interviewed by Ellen Mehling

EM: What was your first professional position?

KD: I was a copy editor and copywriter for Libraries Unlimited, a publisher of reference books and textbooks for the library profession.

EM: How did you get it?

KD: Libraries Unlimited was located where I lived and where I was completing my MLIS (Denver), and the company had called the grad program to see if they could recommend someone with good writing and editing skills who was looking for an entry-level position. I’d attended the Publishing Institute as part of my MLIS coursework, and was known to the program administration, so they recommended me.

EM: To what do you attribute your job search success?

KD: At that point in my career, I would attribute my success to the three things that have opened up every job opportunity I’ve had since: 1) build good relationships with as many people as possible, 2) become visible for the type of work you want to do (the MLIS administrators knew how interested I was in publishing), and 3) try to be in the right place at the right time, what I would describe as putting yourself in the path of opportunity. You never know what skill or connection or contribution will open up opportunities for you, so just keep engaging, talking with people, volunteering, helping others, and doing everything you can to be standing in the middle of the road when an opportunity comes rolling through. Every job or project I’ve taken on since has been the result of this type of “happy happenstance,” but it only happens when you’ve created the conditions for it.

EM: What advice do you have for librarian/info-pro job hunters?

KD: Let everyone know what type of job you’re looking for, ask for their advice/counsel/recommendations, and then get active. Make sure you have a killer online presence (especially a solid LinkedIn profile) so that if someone casually recommends you in a conversation with a potential employer, that potential employer can immediately check you out (and be dazzled by you). Volunteer in some way or on some project that lets you use your information skills to create value – this not only extends your network and professional visibility, it also gives you good stuff to talk about in an interview. Don’t focus so much on sending out 100 resumes to online job postings every day; instead, do several information interviews a week (be sure not to ask for a job!), work on cool information projects that interest you and could help others, and remain active and professionally engaged. And if a part-time gig or temp job helps you get a foot in the door and demonstrate how amazing you are, go for it!

I’d also recommend that job-seekers think of potential jobs from a broader career perspective. With every new job, you want to be able to continue to build what I would call your “professional equity” – that is, what you know (skills and domain knowledge), who you know (your professional community or network), and who knows what about you (your professional reputation and visibility, also known as your brand). Sometimes a job may not be the perfect match at first blush, but when you consider a position from the broader perspective of your career lifecycle, it may turn out to provide substantial benefits.

I think this is especially the case in an era where people may be changing jobs (voluntarily or not) more frequently. Going into a new job knowing 1) that it may not last ten years, but 2) that’s okay, because you’ve put together an agenda for what career goals you intend to accomplish while you’re there, tends to make it much easier to become professionally independent. The reality is that regardless of where we work today, we’re all self-employed, and need to look at our careers from that sense of self-management. That said, who could imagine a cooler, more interesting, or more infinitely adaptable skill set than we’ve got?!

 
Kim Dority is President, Dority & Associates, Inc. and author, Rethinking Information Work, 2d ed. (Libraries Unlimited, 2016)

Interviewer: Ellen Mehling

EM: What was your first professional position?

JK: Accounting Librarian at Price Waterhouse now called PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

EM: How did you get it?

JK: I built a relationship with the individual who ran the Career Services department at the library school I was attending. It was then called Rutgers University – School of Library and Information Services (now called School of Communication and Information). The department was manned by one person and she needed someone to run the office while she was out on summer vacation. I was going to graduate in August, so I covered for her and was able to see the job opportunities before I posted them on the bulletin board for the rest of the students to view. In 1984, there wasn’t any online job sites like there are today. A few business librarian positions came in. One for Price Waterhouse (PW) and one for Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now called Deloitte). A position also came in to work at the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Mid-Manhattan branch.

I applied for all three and interviewed at NYPL and PW. Two weeks later PW called me and offered me the position. NYPL called me back nearly four weeks after the interview and offered me the position but I told them “the early bird gets the Jackie”. I remained a business librarian working at PWC and then McGraw-Hill Financial until 2011 when I started a new life with my family in North Carolina. I wanted to continue working in a library but not in a high-stress corporate library environment. A part-time position opened at a community college library in 2012 and have been here nearly four years.

EM:  To what do you attribute your job search success?

JK: On the day of my first year anniversary at PW, I asked the person who hired me what made me stand out apart from all the other candidates. She was honest and told me “It was the suit”. No one else interviewed in corporate attire. I was puzzled. This is a Big 8 accounting firm, everyone wears suits [I thought,] but according to her that was not the case. I also showed confidence and most importantly technical expertise in the “new field” of online research. I told her I beta-tested the Dow Jones News Retrieval database in library school and had been using the Dialog databases since I was a library student worker at Fordham University.

EM: What advice do you have for librarian/info-pro job hunters?

JK: I was fortunate to find employment during the recession recoveries of 1984 and 2012 respectively but it is still a challenge to look for employment in the library field.

My advice is to convince yourself that you are better than anyone else competing for the position.

Do due diligence by researching the organization and the position you are applying for.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to utilize your library association memberships. Many have job search strategy classes, resume review services and job support groups.

Networking sites such as LinkedIn are also critical in finding connections and contacting them about upcoming positions. I knew about my current position before it was even posted from a school media specialist in the middle school my daughter was attending. Network, network, network!

Don’t minimize [the importance of] your references. They are your brand managers. Have a proven track record of exceptional work at your past positions and your references will sell you.

Jackie Kilberg is Library Technical Assistant – Western Campus Library, Wake Technical Community College, Cary, North Carolina.