I Found My Dream Job, But It’s Not in a Library: Stories From The (Out)field

Created by June Avila, Hannah Loshak, and Emily Porta for the OLA Superconference 2016

slides: goo.gl/0LqxSh

Who We Are And How We Got Here

• June Avila, Customer Success Lead, Vantage Analytics
• Hannah Loshak, Project Coordinator, Centre for Effective Practice
• Emily Porta, Scrum Master, Rangle.io

What This Talk Is about

• You have a unique skill set that can open doors to a wide variety of careers that don’t start with a capital L.
• Bringing your skills into a new career can not only teach you new skills, but also forward the momentum of ‘librarianship’ as a whole.
• We should consider that the future of librarianship, for most, might take place largely outside of the library.

how we sold our MLIS skills outside the library world

• Step one: you have to learn to talk to people who aren’t librarians
• When you enter into non-library worlds, you are the expert
• Learn about fields outside libraries by talking to people in roles you might see yourself in
• Learn the culture of the industry you’re getting into and understand that the job application process can be very different
• Seeing new industry jobs as a learning opportunity - you want to gain their skills as much as they want yours
• Manage your online presence: Linkedin, Twitter, personal homepage, portfolio

Positions and Careers outside of MLIS

• Scrum Master, (Agile) Project Manager, Development Manager
• Customer Success/Support
• Project Coordinator

Also: User Experience Design/Researcher, Information Architect, Database Admin, Web Master, Technical Writer, Quality Improvement/Assurance, Knowldge Translation, Information Specialist, Content Creator, Content Marketer, SEO Specialist, Social Media Coordinator, Prospect Researcher, Business Analyst, Data Analyst, Entrepreneur!

Skills and knowledge desired in non-library occupations

Personality traits:

• (Servant) leadership
• Communication and situational flexability
• Passionate, with follow-through
• Problem solver, helper
• Empathetic, and friendly!

Skills and knowledge desired in non-library occupations

Skills:

• Any and all technical skills
• (Web) design skills
• Project management

• Critical thinking
• Writing
• Leadership

Next Steps

If you're thinking of branching out in to a career outside the big L, here's what you can do:

The End!

Take-aways:

Be open to learning, be flexible, open yourself up to new experiences

Learn where to find opportunity: come to terms with the fact that your dream might not happen from day one; getting skills and continuous growth and improvement is more important

At the same time: push yourself, challenge situations where you are not valued as a worker, have a life plan

Questions?

JUNE: @juneavila

HANNAH: @hannahloshak

EMILY: @agentemily