My brilliant career (rather long)

For Thing 10 we are asked to blog about our career so far, how we got here and where we are going. I'm afraid mine is rather long, because I am old!

The blog title is a quotation from a book title by the way http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brilliant-Career-Virago-Modern-Classics/dp/0860681939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313497456&sr=8-1

I always wanted to work with books. My earliest ambition was to be a poet, but this was not a terribly practical way to earn a living. I did however take an undergraduate course in Librarianship at Brighton Polytechnic (as was). This course ran alongside the Library Association 2 year course for a couple of years until the profession became entirely graduate. I'm not sure at this distance of time what was in the course to distinguish it from the LA Diploma. I was accepted onto the course with no library experience and I suspect as a result of this I found it extremely dry and hard going. The course did not offer an honours option, which bugged me for quite a long time, as people tended to assume I'd failed the honours bit. 

After graduating I found a library assistant post at Middlesex Polytechnic (as was). In retrospect I was extremely fortunate but at the time I thought I should have gone straight into a professional post and was probably not a good employee. After this I did find my way into a variety of professional posts mainly in HE and Chartered in 1981. At that point you didn't need to present any evidence except getting your experience signed off by a senior colleague. I have an ambivalent attitude to this - it was easy but I think even after 4 years experience I was probably not a really mature professional and maybe having to do something like the current Chartership would have helped me.

At some point in the late 1980s I started to feel that my skills were getting out of date and topped up my qualifications with an MA from City University in Librarianship and Arts Administration. They don't offer that course anymore but I found it a fantastically enriching experience. The Librarianship bits brought my IT skills up to date and the Arts Administration bits on topics like "Audiences through the ages" and "Popular Arts" were completely new and fascinating. My dissertation was less so, but I did manage to battle through and submit.

That pass degree in Librarianship continued to niggle though so in the 1990s I decided to study something I was really interested in and started a part-time BA in English Literature at my local University. In spite of producing twins while studying I completed this in 7 years with a 2.1. I  also took a 2 year break in employment while the twins were young.

When the children started school I went back into employment in the HE sector, doing a variety of maternity cover and temp jobs until getting something permanent. I moved from being a business studies subject specialist to working at Imperial College in the post grad. biology/environmental sciences library. This enabled me to more easily try something different and obtain a post in a Healthcare Library at Wexham Park Hospital which would probably not have happened without the Imperial College experience.

While working at Wexham I was able to undertake the PTLLS and CTLLS teaching qualifications. Annoyingly, I never managed to convince my tutor that librarians undertake what they call a full teaching role so was not able to take the DTLLS which includes much of the more interesting educational theory. Then in May 2011 I was made redundant. This was a huge blow, and made me really take stock of my skills and think about marketing myself at which I am not good.

I am now shortly to start a post in another healthcare Library. I am very grateful to have a job but it does feel as if I'm starting on the bottom rung again. I am not sure where my career can go after this. Realistically, I am around 10 years from retirement, so who's going to promote me or give me a challenging post? Perhaps my role now is to encourage younger professionals and get involved in outside work stuff? 

Everything in the garden's rosy.

I've been offered a job !!!

Public domain image from Clker.com

I won't say more until all the paperwork is finalised but - it looks very promising.

I'm fortunate not to be the main breadwinner in the household at the moment, so able to take a less than full-time post at less than the salary I was getting. Even so, after all the knockbacks and starting to really feel I might have to take a job outside the LIS sector as a stopgap I'm completely delighted!

Interesting to reflect on why this one worked out for me. I am 100% confident I can do the job - it's all the less challenging parts of my old one. The interview probably reflected that confidence. In addition I knew one or two of the questions I was likely to be asked from having been interviewed for a different job in the same organisation a while ago so was well prepared for those.

The excel test turned out to be relatively straightforward - as a result of not panicking I think.

So, if there's anybody out there reading this blog who is still looking for work - take some encouragement. There is something out there for you.

Twitter and more thoughts on branding

Bit late blogging this week due to a crippling migraine earlier on. Gone now though and I feel quite energised following a good night's sleep.

Thing 4 in cpd23 is to sign up for Twitter and use some other tools.  A post on the clinical librarians mailing list made me see that there is real potential for using Twitter in an information context. Some medics are using Twitter (+ blog) to run a journal club. Isn't that fantastic! So I'm signed up but haven't tweeted yet. This is mainly because Twitter is yet another place where you're advised that you should upload a photo before you do anything else and I'm still really reluctant. Just looked at my leftover passport photos in case I could use those and I look really grim - what to do???

I do have a vision of myself Tweeting during Umbrella and thus saving myself taking notes for my write up but I would need an app to record my tweets or maybe the whole Twitter stream (is that the expression?) 

This page lists 10 ways to record your Tweets. The journal club mentioned above are using Twapper Keeper which looks as if it works well.

I've signed up with Pushnote - this one seems even harder to find a use for. I suspect I'm probably not seeing the potential - I will wander round some other blogs and see what other cpd23ers have to say.

I'm already familiar with RSS but I could work on some ways of incorporating it into this blog page - I've seen some blogs which incorporate Twitter feeds.

I've uploaded my CV to my Linkedin account which has improved my profile. Still awaiting photo upload though! 


I see that there are going to be some opportunities for networking in person as part of Thing 6. I find this really quite scary - which no doubt means it would be very good for me to attend a f-2-f event. I've ordered some business cards which will hopefully arrive in time to take to Umbrella. I looked at some examples of business cards for unemployed people and the advice seems to be to use them as a very mini CV.

On jobhunting - more feedback that I don't appear confident. I'm just not sure what to do with this as it's a kind of Catch-22. The more you're told you appear unconfident - the less confident you become. Ah well, move on.

Keep on keeping on

Taking the chance of a cpd23 lull to add some more job-hunting news. I'm still unemployed and feeling anxious.

So far I've been chivvying my sons about their exams and generally keeping busy on a domestic front, but I can see that that's going to pall quite quickly. When I receive my final payment from HWPH I think I may really start to panic.

So, what's going on.

Completed Applications

• Clinical Librarian post in Surrey - unsuccesful. Waiting for feedback.
• 3 posts I've asked agencies to put me forward for - no news. I'm slightly miffed about this because in one case I didn't even get an acknowledgement from the agency. This was an academic library post in London so not ideal, but even so.. Next time I think I'll try phoning.

Current applications in progress/under consideration

• Librarian in very local to me NHS Trust Library. This would be perfect, and I have the skills. Just need to refine and complete the application form and submit.
• School librarian in a very local to me primary school. I'm not sure about this one -  I don't have school library experience but I do have some experience with primary age children from my work with the After School Club and volunteering in the CofE school when the boys were there.
• College library post in Hants. I have the academic library experience, but I'm put off by the travelling (48 miles, 51 mins according to Bing) and the fact they start at 7.45. I know that's shallow. On the brightside I'm guessing the travelling would be much quicker at that time in the morning. I think this will go on the back burner.
• Final post is in Herts.(43 miles, 45 mins) Library manager, Part time and a band 7. This actually sounds better the more I think about it. I think I will move onto this one when I've finished the local NHS one.

So that's a brief update. I'm being even more circumspect about details than I was before, following my thoughts about branding. If any other jobseekers would like to compare notes I'd be delighted to hear from you via comments or by e-mail - and good luck to all of us.

Redundant Stock - Me.

So, I was made redundant today, and I've decided to start a blog to chart my progress (or lack of it). I've never been good at keeping a diary, so I'll see how this goes.
I'm finding it hard to believe what's happened - I don't think many people expect to be made redundant when they go into public service, and there really aren't that many jobs for librarians in the pivate sector. I'm also a bit old to consider a complete career change, although I have a couple of thoughts on possible new directions.

Having said that, I have an interview tomorrow for a temporary contract with a 3rd sector organisation, so that's not exactly publicly funded.