How can I stand out from the crowd when I apply for my next job and if I am not successful how can my next application be better? These are two questions I wanted students and new graduates to get answers for after attending our KSC workshop. Long story short. I got my answers, and so much more.

Our speakers included Andrew Finegan (Reference Librarian, Pictures and Manuscripts, National Library of Australia), Melina Gannon (Operations Manager for Libraries ACT), Christian West (Deputy Manager, Library Services for the University Canberra) and Jade Koekoe (ALIA ACT State Manager).

Andrew discussed how to apply for volunteering jobs overseas. He stressed how important it is to ensure before applying that the work aligns with your values and expectations.

Melina followed up with tips and tricks on how to answer selection criteria and some of the mistakes some people make when applying for jobs (don’t misspell the organisation’s name).

Christian highlighted: 

• Understand keywords in the job description and use them effectively to stand out from the crowd.

Jade finished off the evening by sharing her experiences of applying for work in the public and private sectors. You can learn about her experiences on her blog Misskoko the Librarian blog which includes a number of resources that will be useful when completing your next application. 

Again, thank you to all our speakers for participating and to all of our attendees. We find it extremely rewarding to be able to provide students and new graduates with valuable information to further their careers. We look forward to hearing about your library journey! If you were unable to make the evening, we recorded the event on Facebook for posterity.

https://www.facebook.com/ALIANewGraduatesGroup/videos/10159250131435524/

Jade, Cindy and I all have our own experiences when applying for jobs. We have our success stories and not so successful ones but what they have in common is that from each attempt we have learned something new that we can use to improve our next job application. In fact, after listening to our speakers it was reassuring that some of things I have included in my job application process is what I should be doing. For example, I always seek feedback from the contact officer if I’m unsuccessful in an application and I highly recommend that you do the same. It can leave a lasting impression if you are keen to apply to that organisation in future and you find out how to improve your application for the next time.

Lastly, I just want to acknowledge what a wonderful team the State Managers and ALIA’s Student and New graduates Group make. On the day of our workshop, we had a speaker call in sick and a team member down. But we rose to the challenge, Jade offered to be our fourth speaker and did a fantastic job. I am often amazed at how much experience Jade has in the short time she’s been on this planet and this occasion was no different. We also asked Stephanie Morton from our SNGG Twitter Social Media team live tweet for us and we will be forever grateful. If you’re reading this Stephanie, you need to provide an online tutorial on how to live tweet because, as I’ve said previously, your skills are amazing! Thank you.

Museums Australia, ACT Branch and ALIA SNGG are holding a joint Article club on the 26th October. We also have a Data workshop coming up on the 18th November at the NLA. 

All the best in your job hunt 🙂
Chris Sonneveld