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Library Day in the Life Round 6 - Day 1

For the first time since this whole Library Day In the Life thing started, I am not employed by a library. In fact, I'm not employed at all. Thanks to a perfect storm of circumstances, I've found myself stranded in a new city with my husband and I both getting the short end of the health stick. Some other time it might be worth going into the long story behind that last sentence, but right now, suffice it to say that job hunting hasn't been able to be my main concern lately.

It's been a few years since I've been actively looking for a job and while I'm excited to have more of that experience I lacked last time around, it doesn't mean that job hunting is any easier. The tech skills that I so carefully cultivated in library school have really faded while working in a position where those skills were less important than other day to day responsibilities. I'm searching in a much bigger market, which means more jobs to apply for, but also much stiffer competition for each job. So, as with each job search, there are unique bright spots and challenges.

Today's main library job hunting activity was reading 2011 Career Plan: The Best Moves Now for a Solid Future by Laurence Shatkin. It's published by JIST Works who anyone buying non-fiction in a public library should be aware of because they publish great no nonsense guides to all sorts of career related topics. I'm looking at this as professional development as much in the sense that I'll know all the good job search books to suggest to my future patrons as much as it will help me in my own job search. This really is a solid place to start your job search showcasing fields expected to grow in 2011 and tips for those job hunting in any field. For me it was a nice quick refresher on general job hunting skills, which I'm realizing I, like many people, could use.

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