I had a career coach for several years. She was very good, helped me to face up to some prickly career issues and helped me to find the courage to make some changes. Most importantly, she helped me to trust my own intuition.
Now I find myself in a tricky career spot once again; complex intertwining issues, strong emotions, little support. I don't have money for coaching at this point, and I'm not sure who I would hire anyway. My former coach knew little or nothing about my profession, and I feel I need someone with that background at this point.
In the end, I decided the best coach for me might be - me. So I did a very un-librarian-like thing and Googled "how to be your own career coach" - and came up with a good inspiring hit (along with lots of links to career coaches. Yes, I saw that one coming) in 4 tips for being your own career coach from the Brazen Careerist. Following Penelope Trunk's guidelines is an exercise in stepping away from oneself to find the answers within.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
What Do You Do (for a living)?
When people have asked me this question over the past couple of years, I have really hesitated. A couple of jobs ago, it didn't seem to be a problem - I tried to disassociate myself somewhat from the library world, and only brought that part back into the context after calling myself a Content and Communications Manager. Then with addition of a short stint of academic library experience under my belt, and now a title that actually has the word "librarian" in it even though the company does not have a library, I've been struggling somewhat.
Recently I took to calling myself a Digital Librarian, and I've now decided it fits. Not only does it fit, but it seems to capture people's imaginations. Most still consider librarians to be people who love and deal with books, and some have expressed to me that being a librarian is their fantasy career, as if it's unachievable in some way. But when I preface Librarian with Digital, well, that sweeps it right into the present age. They get it. I deal with information on the Web, computer, etc., however they frame it. Wow, cool. So interesting.
I'm a little concerned that some may view even this title as more narrowly sliced than what I actually do, so I'm usually sure, if I have the opportunity, to add that I deal with both the finding/retrieval and the organization/categorization/display aspects. I need to know where and how to find information (and thus its nature) and where and how to "put it away" so that it can be easily found and referred to again. Whether it's called information, content, or data, this description seems to resonate with just about everyone.
Recently I took to calling myself a Digital Librarian, and I've now decided it fits. Not only does it fit, but it seems to capture people's imaginations. Most still consider librarians to be people who love and deal with books, and some have expressed to me that being a librarian is their fantasy career, as if it's unachievable in some way. But when I preface Librarian with Digital, well, that sweeps it right into the present age. They get it. I deal with information on the Web, computer, etc., however they frame it. Wow, cool. So interesting.
I'm a little concerned that some may view even this title as more narrowly sliced than what I actually do, so I'm usually sure, if I have the opportunity, to add that I deal with both the finding/retrieval and the organization/categorization/display aspects. I need to know where and how to find information (and thus its nature) and where and how to "put it away" so that it can be easily found and referred to again. Whether it's called information, content, or data, this description seems to resonate with just about everyone.
Monday, June 29, 2009
SubjectsPlus
My manager, who is not a librarian, pointed out SubjectsPlus and some of its implementations to me. All of them were academic libraries with lots of resources. We are a corporate information center with very few resources, although SubjectsPlus could possibly work for us. My manager's apparent fascination with it intrigued me and emphasized the differences in our points of view. While I don't disagree with him in this instance, the memory of my academic experience came crashing back. There we tried like crazy to make information display simpler. Here we are referring to providing more information in various ways. We are working hard to prove value; making display simple and easy is still important but nevertheless secondary. What an interesting contrast.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Concentration
It's no secret to anyone in my life that things are tough for me. I'm finding that one of the first things to go when the going gets tough is concentration. And wow am I having hard time keeping my mind on anything. Even when I think I am concentrating well, I will suddenly find that I've veered off in a different direction than intended when I began a task.
In the midst of a frustrated distracted moment, I googled "improve concentration" and found a wonderful blog post on improving concentration. While there are possibly too many tips here for me to read all at once ;) they are all good ones and worth trying.
In the midst of a frustrated distracted moment, I googled "improve concentration" and found a wonderful blog post on improving concentration. While there are possibly too many tips here for me to read all at once ;) they are all good ones and worth trying.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Quick but Thoughtful Posts
I'm having a bit of trouble with my blogging. I have several blogs on different subjects, all of which I created with great enthusiasm and then let languish. Since I've decided that writing is important to me and that blogging is an excellent way to practice while communicating my views, I gave my problem some thought.
The solution I came up with is nothing new. Just get it down, quick and bite-size if necessary. The post doesn't have to be article length. For goodness sake, people don't want to read posts of that length most of the time anyway. I know that, having learned throught others' research and my own observations how people read online. If I set out every single time to write an organized, thoughtful, complete, perfect post, I'll seldom write much. As I write that truth, it doesn't feel so good, but it's true. Short, pithy, to the point, one or two pieces of information is fine. Now and then maybe a big one.
With that, I'll sign off for now!
The solution I came up with is nothing new. Just get it down, quick and bite-size if necessary. The post doesn't have to be article length. For goodness sake, people don't want to read posts of that length most of the time anyway. I know that, having learned throught others' research and my own observations how people read online. If I set out every single time to write an organized, thoughtful, complete, perfect post, I'll seldom write much. As I write that truth, it doesn't feel so good, but it's true. Short, pithy, to the point, one or two pieces of information is fine. Now and then maybe a big one.
With that, I'll sign off for now!
Outbrain Widget
In an effort to figure out more blogging angles than simply writing, I've added the Outbrain widget to this blog. As I understand it, you'll see the widget at the bottom of the blog post (it can also be displayed on top), recommending related posts. These recommendations are based on the content of the post. If you rate the post, you'll supposedly get more focused recommendations.
The widget was very easy to install. You can also get all sort of statistics on your ratings and views. I think it's a pretty cool tool. In my book it gets high marks for connecting blogs exposing readers to more blogs that they're interested in, and for its high usability.
The widget was very easy to install. You can also get all sort of statistics on your ratings and views. I think it's a pretty cool tool. In my book it gets high marks for connecting blogs exposing readers to more blogs that they're interested in, and for its high usability.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Finding the Angle on a Difficult Situation
I have been in my job for less than three months. About a month after I started, my work group, which consists only a few people, received responsibility for the external market research report management and dissemination function in our company. It makes sense that we should be doing this, so that in itself is not a problem, and in fact may be a good thing for the continued life of my group in these times of downsizing.
This additional responsibility has strapped the management of my group, resulting in little attention being paid to the new employee, me. While this does not make me happy, I see an opportunity on which to keep focused on if I want to stay positive and forward-thinking beyond the boundaries of my current job.
So, I haven’t received much training, haven’t been included in important conversations (through no fault of my own, I truly believe) and at times have no idea even what questions to ask. I take a moment and project myself interviewing for my next job. The question is asked of me “Describe a difficult situation you have experienced and the steps you took to handle and resolve it.” I take a deep breath and remember this situation I’m in now.
My answer: “Soon after I started my job, my work group took on an added responsibility that initially didn’t involve me. The learning curve was steep and much work needed to be done to determine how to handle this new function. There was no time or resources for my training. At first it seemed like it would be a matter of a short time until time and resources would become available. Soon though I saw that more proactivity would be required on my part, not only for my own good, but for the group’s and by extension the company’s good too. I began asking more questions, which led to even more questions, the answers leading to answers that were much needed. I documented what I learned. I became a valuable member of the team much sooner than anyone realized or would have anticipated. My manager and coworkers stopped viewing me as just the new person and more as a valued team member. That would have happened anyway, if I had received training and had the normal introduction to my job. But this situation gave me opportunities to learn about my job, coworkers, and myself in ways that provided me with added problem-solving skills and confidence in myself. I found that diving into the unknown can be stimulating, exciting and fun. And my respect for my coworkers grew, which helped me to trust them and in turn for them to trust me.”
Perhaps a long-winded answer, but that’s what I keep my focus on now in this challenging and uncertain time. Look past the difficulty. As Stephen Covey advises, begin with the end in mind.
This additional responsibility has strapped the management of my group, resulting in little attention being paid to the new employee, me. While this does not make me happy, I see an opportunity on which to keep focused on if I want to stay positive and forward-thinking beyond the boundaries of my current job.
So, I haven’t received much training, haven’t been included in important conversations (through no fault of my own, I truly believe) and at times have no idea even what questions to ask. I take a moment and project myself interviewing for my next job. The question is asked of me “Describe a difficult situation you have experienced and the steps you took to handle and resolve it.” I take a deep breath and remember this situation I’m in now.
My answer: “Soon after I started my job, my work group took on an added responsibility that initially didn’t involve me. The learning curve was steep and much work needed to be done to determine how to handle this new function. There was no time or resources for my training. At first it seemed like it would be a matter of a short time until time and resources would become available. Soon though I saw that more proactivity would be required on my part, not only for my own good, but for the group’s and by extension the company’s good too. I began asking more questions, which led to even more questions, the answers leading to answers that were much needed. I documented what I learned. I became a valuable member of the team much sooner than anyone realized or would have anticipated. My manager and coworkers stopped viewing me as just the new person and more as a valued team member. That would have happened anyway, if I had received training and had the normal introduction to my job. But this situation gave me opportunities to learn about my job, coworkers, and myself in ways that provided me with added problem-solving skills and confidence in myself. I found that diving into the unknown can be stimulating, exciting and fun. And my respect for my coworkers grew, which helped me to trust them and in turn for them to trust me.”
Perhaps a long-winded answer, but that’s what I keep my focus on now in this challenging and uncertain time. Look past the difficulty. As Stephen Covey advises, begin with the end in mind.
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