Ever wondered what you would get out of volunteering and actively contributing for ALIA? Hear from Jade Koekoe, former Regional Coordinator for the ACT and former Social Media Coordinator for our Twitter channel, and Anna Rubinowski, ALIA SNGG’s Convenor about the benefits of being part of ALIA SNGG.Jade has shared a great video talking about her experience with ALIA SNGG – check it out!

In April 2018, Anna participated in a webinar for the ALIA Mentoring Scheme talking about her experience and the benefits for her of convening ALIA SNGG. Below is a summary from her talk together with her slides:

“I came to Australia in 2013 to study my Master of Information Management at RMIT, and I attended the events organized by the Victorian Regional Coordinators such as the Key Selection Criteria and Interview Skills workshops, as well as some of the social events.

Those events were a great way for me to connect and find friends, but also to learn about the job application process in Australia as it is so different to how it works in Germany (we do not have key selection criteria, so that was a whole new world for me). 

After finishing my studies I also got very lucky and found a job as subject librarian at Monash University. While this was an amazing opportunity for me, I was one of only a few new professional in a great team, and it was one of my main reasons for deciding to become part of ALIA SNGG. It was great to connect with like-minded people who were at the same stage of their career as me and to have a safe space to try out new skills.

It also was and still is great to develop new skills and to put them into action, some of which I learned through my job, but also a lot of them that I learned in my convenor role, and the ones listed on the slide are only some of the skills I built.

And last but not least, I also wanted to give back to the profession and ALIA SNGG in particular. I benefited a lot from the events organized by the group and resources like the Job Help Site, and I wanted to ensure that future students and new graduates could make use of all of this and more. And that is only made possible through the work of volunteers – so if you would like to get involved, we are looking for new members!”