‘‘
It is worth stepping outside the LIS bubble to see what other sectors are up to.
INSIGHT
Professional Development
So long, farewell … W
e hope you are sitting down because we have a confession… we
are no longer new professionals (having qualifi ed in 2013). Now that we’re in mid-level posts, we’re wary that we cannot fully convey the needs of current new information professionals within this column – as such this will be our last one. But before we hand over the baton of ‘new professional’ to the next generation, we would like to take the opportunity to share some advice.
Always say yes [until you need to say no] – At the 2012 CILIP New Professionals Day we were encouraged by Ned Potter to say yes to everything – this led to us setting up our network and becoming heavily involved within the library community. As new professionals you may feel there is an expectation to say yes to everything, but if you’re feeling overwhelmed or think you have taken on too much then it’s ok to say “no”. It might be that you say “not now” rather than “not ever”, but it’s important to manage your time and make sure you have a healthy work life balance. Unless it’s actually part of your job no one will think any less of you for saying no!
Apply for bursaries – As we’ve said in this column, you really should apply for a bursary; whether that be to cover study costs, a conference/event or to help you set up a project. You have to be in it to win it and we’ve been told by many groups off ering bursaries that they usually get a very small number of people applying, as such your chances are even higher! Don’t be disheartened if you are not successful the fi rst time,
March 2020
you can apply again and you can ask for feedback to strengthen your next application; some of the bursary applications we’ve been successful in have been on the third time of applying.
Seek experiences – The LIS sector is vast but you may not know all the various types of job roles out there, job shadowing (in our last column we wrote about our scheme) is a perfect way to fi nd out what is happening in other sectors and enables you to think where you may want to end up. There are lots of events which off er speaking opportunities (including our next event with SLA Europe) – these vary from lightening talks to conference sessions – why not apply and share your experience with the community whilst gaining/ building public speaking skills. It is worth stepping outside the LIS bubble to see what other sectors are up to. You can do this by attending non-library events e.g. Meetup have lots of events. We’re enjoying the HER+Data events which allow you to network and also learn from another sector.
Don’t give into imposter syndrome – Seen a job you like but you don’t meet ALL the essential criteria? Apply for it and make the most of the experience you do have! Worst case scenario is that you don’t get the job, but you can use the opportunity to get feedback and use it as a refl ective exercise in how you can get the skills needed. Best case scenario is that the other people who applied also don’t meet all the essential criteria and it means you get shortlisted!
We would like to thank everyone who has read and enjoyed this column and CILIP for giving us this opportunity. If you would like to stay in touch, we
Amy Finnegan is Information Specialist, NICE.
Helen Monagle (@HelenMonagle) is an Electronic Resources Manager at The University of Salford.
Amy and Helen are co-founders of the New Library Professionals Network (Twitter @NLPN_ and blog at
nlpn.wordpress.com)
are still maintaining our (NLPN) blog which will feature others in the profession providing updates on events they’ve attended, discussing their careers and feeding back on our job shadowing scheme. You can also fi nd us on Twitter. IP
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 31
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