New Year’s Resolution: What’s Your Career Strategy?

It’s a new year. Let’s talk about your career and your career strategy.

In many of our leadership and career development presentations, we talk about self-assessment and career strategy.

1. Self-assessment: Do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.
2. Career strategy: People, professional brand, and online presence are three important aspects of your career strategy.

Here are some ideas and resources (from our presentations and blog posts) to get you started:

• Our leadership and career development presentations
• Career Tips for LIS Students, Graduates, and Professionals
• Are You T-Shaped?
• I’m Not Job Hopping, I’m Job Shopping
• The Secret to Job Security
• Making the Most of 3.5” x 2” (Business Cards)
• Maximize LinkedIn
• Get Your LinkedIn in Shape
• Quick Guide to Attending Library Conferences on the Cheap
• E-Portfolios: Webinar Recap, Tools, and Resources
• Using Google Sites to Create An E-Portfolio

SLA 2012: Picks from a SLA Rising Star

SLA 2012 is less than a month away. Here are some of my picks for this year’s SLA conference in Chicago:

Rising Stars and SLA Fellows Roundtable – Monday, July 16 @ 10am
Join us for the 3rd annual Rising Stars and SLA Fellows roundtable. Due to schedule conflicts, I wasn’t able to participate in last year’s roundtable. I’m looking forward to participating in this year’s.

Reinventing Library Skills – Monday, July 16 @ 4pm
Mary Talley will moderate a panel consisting of case studies and practical advice for transporting library skill sets to other areas of the LIS profession or entirely different careers.

Chocolate Reception – Monday, July 16 @ 8pm
It’s a reception with chocolate. There’s nothing more to say. I wonder if there will be chocolate ice cream – it is July in Chicago.

From Info Pro to Info Hero: 5 Easy Ways to Turn Information into Insight – Tuesday, July 17 @ 8am
Mary Ellen Bates will talk about five ways to provide more insight and value in what you send your clients.

Lincoln Park Networking Lunch – Tuesday, July 17 @ 12pm
Free lunch. Networking opportunity. Only wish: lunch in actual park.

User Experience Caucus Roundtable Meeting – Wednesday, July 18 @ 10am
Check out the newest caucus in SLA. This is the 2nd User Experience Caucus meeting.

More SLA 2012 picks.

Leveraging LinkedIn for Your Career – SLA-NY Event Recap

On Wednesday, I attended a great presentation on “Leveraging LinkedIn for Your Career” by Brian Tietje, Strategic Account Executive at LinkedIn (and professional envelope pusher — from his LinkedIn profile headline). The event was organized by the New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA-NY).

Sandra and I are big fans of LinkedIn (as you may know from our leadership and career development presentations and blog posts). Being a LinkedIn fan, I was glad that I learned some new things and not-so-new things from a different perspective:

• Update your LinkedIn profile according to your professional/career objectives.
• You can create a company page on LinkedIn, for free.
• Make a good first impression: use the headline space of your profile. Don’t just put your job title — that’s what we said about name tags and on maximizing LinkedIn.
• Your summary section = your elevator pitch. Make it count. Highlight your role and career experience.
• When it comes to LinkedIn recommendations, be specific in your recommendation request. Tell them what you want to be recommended for. Don’t have more than 3-5 recommendations displayed on your profile (Brag, but not too much).
• Weed your LinkedIn connections at least once a year.
• You can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups, but do you really want to be part of so many groups? Think quality over quantity. Feel free to test drive groups.
• As a LinkedIn member, you get 5 introductions per month to use within your network. Get an introduction to the person you need to reach. You may share similar professional interests with this person or this person works at a company that you’re interested in.
• When you search your network, you can save those searches and create weekly alerts.
• Participate in Answers. It’s a way to share your knowledge as a professional in your field.
• LinkedIn Today, news headlines (which I enjoy reading and sharing) comes from a few places: LinkedIn’s editorial team and what your network and industry are sharing.
• Keep an eye on your profile stats. This helps gauge the impact of your LinkedIn profile. Are people finding or looking at your profile?
• LinkedIn recently acquired Slideshare (we’re big fans of Slideshare too).

For more tips on leveraging LinkedIn for your career, check out Brian’s presentation slides on the SLA-NY website.

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The one LinkedIn tip that Sandra and I keep sharing in our presentations (so we’re going to share it here as well): 

When you send an invitation to connect with someone on LinkedIn, please customize your message.

The default message is “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”, which is fine to use, in addition to your message. We can’t tell you how many times people just send us the default message. You wouldn’t just walk up to someone, give them your business card and then walk away — would you? Don’t do that on LinkedIn.

Customize your message. It can be something as simple as “We have similar professional interests: x,y,z.”. Remind them if you met in-person at an event, worked together on a project or were in the same class together.

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What are your tips for using LinkedIn? Share them in the comments section below. 

Quick Guide to Attending Library Conferences on the Cheap

Another year means another round of library conferences that offer opportunities for professional development and networking. Unfortunately, with increasing budget cuts and staff shortages, conference attendance support from your organization may be minimal or non-existent. Similar situation if you’re not working.

Here are some tips & tricks that I’ve picked up along the way (attended over 10 library conferences in the past five years) on attending library conferences on the cheap:

1. Register at the student rate until you can’t anymore. 
2. Apply for travel scholarships, grants and continuing education awards. Most library associations offer them for LIS students, recent graduates, new librarians, etc. Here’s a list from LISjobs to get you started. Also, look into your local and student chapters for scholarship opportunities.
3. Apply for diversity, professional development and leadership programs. Extra program bonus is complimentary conference registration or conference sponsorship opportunities. Look into ALA Spectrum, ALA Emerging Leaders, ARL Diversity Scholars, and SLA Rising Stars.
4. Submit proposals to present at conferences. Not only is it a great way to gain public speaking experience and share your knowledge, the registration fee may be reduced or waived for speakers. Also, your organization may be more likely to support your conference attendance if you’re presenting.
5. Attend on work time. If your organization can’t provide funding support, ask if you can attend on work time.
6. Crash at family/friends’ place or find hotel roommates. Also, consider staying at a cheaper hotel that is a little farther away from the conference but easily & quickly accessible via conference shuttle or public transportation.
7. Be on the look-out for free conference exhibit passes. It will, at least, get you into the exhibits.
8. Buy snacks at a local supermarket/store. You’ll want snacks to munch on when you get hungry and conference/convention center food tends to be blah-tasting and expensive.
9. Be on the look-out for events and receptions with free food. Not only do you get food, they’re great networking opportunities. Also, some conferences such as SLA offer a free meal voucher.
10. Crash. I have yet to try this one.

What are your tips and tricks on attending library conferences on the cheap?

New Year’s Resolution: Get Your LinkedIn in Shape

Earlier last year (March 2011), we shared some tips on how to maximize LinkedIn. This was around the same time LinkedIn announced that they reached 100 million members.

Now that it’s a new year, it’s time to get your LinkedIn in shape. Get started with the LinkedIn Boot Camp infographic from MindFlash.