covering the gaps in your employment history

Gaps in employment are tricky to handle in job applications and interviews (from both side of the desk). Your prospective employers want to understand your work history, but they certainly don't want to ask any unlawful or inappropriate questions. And their curiosity is understandable - one thing I learned in  interviewing training is that past actions are the clearest indicators of future actions.

So how to satisfy the reasonable concerns of the employer, without getting mired in the details of your personal life? Here are my tips:

1. Don't lie.
2. Make sure your employment history is a story with a plot that the interviewers can follow. The activity during employment gaps may provide needed information about your career moves and ambitions. 
3. Keep it simple: child or elder care, education, illness, relocation for family or financial reasons, travel. You and you interviewers may both be uncomfortable if you share too many details and it will likely take the interview off-track.
4. If you can (without breaking rule #1) reassure the interviewer that this situation is unlikely to recur.
5. Non-chronological CVs highlight employment gaps, rather than hiding them. The CV reader will immediately start trying to assemble a timeline in their head, which is annoyingly hard to do.
6. When possible, insert a line or two in your cover letter or personal statement explaining the gaps. Some applications will require you to do this, but otherwise imagine the shortlisters scratching their heads when they read your employment chronology.
7. If you did something during the gap that is worthy of note, try adding it to your CV in the correct chronological space. Worthy of note activities include formal and informal volunteer work and professional development/education. Now take another look at your CV and decide if the new version is stronger or weaker.
8. Bottom line - you can't hide them, so take initiative to present gaps in the best light.

Other suggestions?

Add it up

 Here are my cpd23 inspired behaviours:

• organized a social/networking event for library staff from two different types of libraries (public and academic) located near each other. Event happens in November, so will report back on its usefulness. This required a bit of courage and carefulness over workplace political issues. Hopefully I have negotiated them correctly and if not will fall back on "bull in a china shop American" excuse.
• tweeted and blogged regularly, rather than only taking information from the stream. I will probably discontinue the blog, but will continue tweeting. The experience was valuable as I will become active in social media on behalf of my organisation this year.
• not sure about the chicken and egg here, but cpd23 encouraged me to apply for an Umbrella sponsorship as I was aware of Twitter cpd23ers who planned to attend.
• reengaged with podcasting. Armed with knowledge from Thing 18, I've worked with my manager to map out a way to build organisational expertise in creating quality recordings from live talks in the library.
• went back to my Google Reader account. I will add and delete feeds regularly and read weekly as I enjoy the mixed bag of mail on my doorstep - Succentorship without Sneers' writing, the cartoons of BitBookish and ridiculous high heel fetish of The Sartorialist among others.
• shared the good news about cpd23 in my workplace. At least one person has started cpd23 since then and I've been approached about mentoring.
• become more feisty and informed about library-related political and regulatory issues. I've enjoyed listening to newer voices in librarianship and educating myself through the open debates around advocacy, volunteers and publishing.

While cpd23 distracted me a bit from working to the letter of my PPDP for chartership, it has pushed me into exploring technology and testing practical library applications for technology. The other aspect of cpd23 is social; cpd23 has encouraged me to connect virtually and face to face with a wider range of library people.

Thing 18 - getting back on the horse

Having failed earlier this year in my attempt to make a podcast of an author talk, I am glad Thing 18 is here to help me back up on the horse!

Thanks to travelinlibrarian's six steps to podcasting I've been able to find a solution to one of my podcasting woes. Full disclosure requires that I share all the pits I fell into, in hopes of sparing someone else.

• lack of background in A/V and failure to consult experts (such as the Communications team at my organization)
• not enough time set aside to research and test recording and editing process with the actual equipment
• wrong microphone set up: tried to use a standard microphone set on a table near the author
• hadn't heard about Levelator, which travelinlibrarian uses prior to editing recording in Audacity. Because my audio levels were so up and down it was impossible to filter out the bad noise from the recording when I went to Audacity.

Luckily when I asked the author for written permission to record and distribute the recording of the event, I warned her that it was a trial run. Back up I go and hopefully will make a satisfactory podcast in November...Audacity is a great program.

Love Jing as well! Did a quick test and again there are microphone issues to be aware of. I am going to make a screencast for PC users who have trouble setting up the scanner software...

it's not easy being early

Isn't it fun to be an early adopter? Other people stand on the street near an Underground station, wondering which way to go while you stride confidently along with your smartphone showing the way.  Or your app ensures that all the pubs you stop in have a fabulous selection of real ales. Or perhaps the audience for your presentation is tickled by Prezi and your content glows in the reflected glory.

Early adopters have their ears to the ground for what is becoming possible.  Some of the possibilities may cost money (i.e. iPhones), other require a time investment to get through a steep learning curve and some ask for both. The early adopter inventories resources and needs, estimates the potential payoff and then places a wager.

23 Things has been a great way to trail around some early adopters, though I find my resources aren't always comparable. After spending several hours working on a Prezi it still did not satisfy basic design criteria. I think a background in design or a better spatial sense would help. On the bright side, there may be some evil application for a presentation that causes nausea!  In the case of Prezi, while the software is free, the time investment is too high for me to try adopting it. My work doesn't require many presentations, so I don't estimate a high payoff.

Isn't it hard to be an early adopter? Wagering your time and money on possibilities that are often dead ends. When you succeed, you bring other people along, demonstrating and teaching the useful new technology. Then you start testing the next possibility.

Shout out to all the early adopters in the library world who've been sharing their knowledge in cpd23.

Getting the Money - how to pay for conferences

Most of us work in libraries, right?
a hugely remunerative field, leading to the acquisition of country homes, right?
so we can pay up front when we want to go to a conference of our peers, right?

Let's get real and talk about how to get to money for conferences.
(You know you want to go! If not, read Mind Matters cpd23 blog)

You're going to have to ask for money.

Ask your employer.
Try this first. I know it sounds crazy as most of our employers are strapped for cash, but it worked for a friend of mine. Take a look at your goals for the year,  think of three reasons why attending the conference will benefit your employer and help you meet your goals and then share those reasons with your manager. Even if the boss says no, the conversation highlights your interest in CPD. If you're able to come up with the cash from another source, management is more likely to be onside with helping you get time away.
Remember that the ways of Management are mysterious and miracles do happen, especially at the end of the financial year.

If that fails, you need to take a look at yourself and pick option a or b. If you're an outgoing type or excited to share success stories or research with your peers then:

a) Ask the conference organizers
Try this if you want to present a paper or a poster or live near the site and can volunteer to work at the conference. Read the conference website and see what the opportunities are, then telephone the contacts listed and tell them you're interested. Don't skip this step as contacts are hoping for lots of valid submissions and will be glad to give you insight into the selection process and timing. Check out the cpd23 posts on submitting papers and preparing presentations by thewikiman and others. Good luck!

if you want to network and learn, but aren't ready to present at the conference, then:

b) Ask the professional organizations you belong to, your religious institution, your parents.
Okay, maybe not your parents. But do think who else might have a vested interest in seeing you succeed. Do you work in a special library supporting accountants? Maybe the Association of Chartered Accountants will sponsor you, or maybe your CILIP/ALA special interest group will sponsor you.
Keep in mind that your sponsor will expect you to thank them profusely and publicly. Your pitch to a sponsor should include 1) how the conference will help you meet your goals 2) how your conference attendance will help meet the sponsor's goals and 3) how you will report back to the sponsoring organization. Be sure to follow through.

Best of luck, and if I can't get money for conferences from now on, I'll know you've been busy.
xx

hardcore cpd23'ers only - Thing 14, referencing software

Doggedly devoted to each and every Thing, I surveyed the blogs of academic librarians and student cpd23'ers and decided to download Mendeley. It took an hour or two to understand the options in Mendeley. By the end of my trials I was able to import PDFs and their reference data from the web at large and academic journals (via CILIP). I could also collect reference data only by copying the DOI (digital object identifier). The Watch folder makes the procedure seamless as you can toss anything you're reading into the folder on your desktop and Mendeley picks out the reference information while running in the background.
There was a payoff - I've realized that Mendeley is a good way to organize my chartership background reading and then pop out a reference list when I'm ready. While I don't plan on having 100+ references in my chartership portfolio, now I understand how other people have amassed such lists!

Paranoid about Google Docs and Dropbox

It's time to call in the techies, because I want to share my family finance worksheets in a secure way.

Google Docs is lovely for collaboration (aside from its inability to convert some file formats). However, I believe that Google employees are waiting for me to choose the wrong setting and publish everything to the web where they can pick it over for data to sell. And no, I don't think that is paranoid, but you can try to convince me otherwise.  This concern has kept me from really getting on with Google+ and similar issues are clouding my relationship with Facebook.

Which takes me to Dropbox, an application with few opportunities to inadvertently share information, as long as I stay away from the pre-installed Photos and Public folders. Dropbox encrypts all files so if strangers bump into your data they won't be able to read it.

But then I found out that  Dropbox has been having issues with privacy. According to this Wired article the company has access to the encryption keys, so the files are potentially open to Dropbox employee viewing. I think Dropbox is good enough for me, but if you want to check out the next level of security the Travelin' Librarian recommends Wuala.

Technical and psychological help will be needed before I go any deeper into Internet privacy and security.

My Secret Mentor, an epitaph

This is a small part of the story of A. She was older than me and had more hairs on her chin then I do. Her eyes were sharp blue and when she focused her attention on a topic she did not let it go until satisfied. Some days we could only find time for a greeting, or her head would be down in concentration and we didn't even say hello. Once a month we would sit down around a table together for hours talking about our projects. A. often found fault and never praised my work without qualification, but her criticisms were valid and she was always interested in what I was doing. I wasn't her only mentee; she taught many people informally and was active in the community.

One day A. wasn't in; she'd been taken to the hospital as the result of a fall. Friends who visited said that when they brought grapes and apples to her bedside she asked "Why not oranges?" She didn't return to the library but died months later.

After A. died, I redefined our relationship. Before she had been a customer, a patron, a library user, but my feelings around her death and the ways in which I missed her made me realize that she had been my secret mentor. The last thing A. taught me was that listening, helping and providing information is never one way - the connections we build through library work flow in both directions. "Customer-based services" is the intellectual concept, but the emotional reality is richer.

cpd23, Thing 11

this is my fourth career

Librarianship in the U.S. is often a second career - somehow heading straight for the Masters Degree in Library or Information Science directly after paying for four years at University doesn't hold broad appeal.   Library science lacks the $$$ promise of law or business school or the cool factor of doing a PhD in Linguistic Forensics.

Long story short, I graduated university with a degree in psychology and got a job where I could wear suits, stockings and heels to work in a skyscraper in New York City. There were cockroaches, but not at work. I was a recruiter, then an IT trainer and finally systems manager at an entrepreneurial company - a very 90's progression of working hard and harder until I burnt out.

Looking for something less grinding, I found an HR job at The New York Public Library. Actually, there were two jobs on offer, one in recruiting (hiring) and one in employee relations (firing). Went for the job that allowed smiling.  Carefully built relations with intelligent and fierce librarians - I was lucky to be at NYPL when the highest level managers had worked there forever. NYPL was not a place where you would ever doubt the value of public libraries or librarians!

Some life happened, with babies, and I moved to a beach town where everyone knew my grandparents. Learned to live with sand in the books. I got bored after a bit and worked for a community organization that provided food and basic support to people in need (migrant workers and long term locals). Wrote cool job training/computer training curriculum and got some big grants. Installed a community IT centre,  taught classes and recruited staff and volunteers. Learned a valuable lesson about when to say no to grant money.

Life happened again - this time we ran out of dosh as a family and moved back into the NYC orbit. Deep in the paradisaical suburbs, I needed a calling, a career, a meaningfulness that would offer money and make the world a better place. Of course - Librarianship, in public libraries!

This was a perverse career choice; even in 2005 I thought that 10-15 years might see the decline of public libraries. But perversity is my middle name, so off I went to Syracuse University's Information school as one of the earlier distance learning cohorts.

I enjoyed formal learning as a mature student in a way I never had as an undergraduate. Some trying moments with distance learning group projects and a team member who plagiarized from Wikipedia, but that was real learning. Got a paid weekend librarian job and a work experience gig in public libraries, graduated and was ready to start work.

omg, this is such a saga. Because wanderlust took hold of me and my partner. We wanted to be somewhere other than the Northeast Corridor - the metropolitan blur stretching from Boston to below Washington D.C. With diploma in hand I found promising work in Washington State, near Seattle, but my partner couldn't get a good job there. He did have opportunities in London, so we decided to move to the UK; trading in the certainty of work for the fun of exploring.

If you are curious to know what I thought of UK libraries when I was freshly arrived, please read the 2007 section of this blog. I had a lot to say about volunteers and duplication of efforts.

Earning a librarian position in the UK took patience: school library volunteer work, CILIP membership, completing the ECDL, begging my way into a work experience placement in public libraries, temp work and working as a library assistant.
All the prologue to my fourth career, which I love.