Last night the Victorian ALIA SNGG graduates group hosted their annual Resume and Key Selection Criteria discussion in Melbourne. Janet from Monash Public Libraries, Katie from ALIA SNGG /NMIT, and Helen from NMIT gave valuable insight, tips, and experiences from both sides of the recruitment process.

We hope you got some great ideas, motivation, and most importantly, you feel a little less overwhelmed by the job hunting process in the library world.

If you couldn’t make it, have no fear! We have included some key points and a couple of links that can help you find information to keep going on your library journey.

 Resume, Cover Letter  & Selection Criteria Tips:

Before you start your application:

• You should ring the organisation beforehand to get more information about the role and responsibilities for the role you are applying for.
• Find out who the cover letter should be addressed to. Call the contact on the job advertisement, and be nice to whoever answers the phone: they will remember you!
• Do your research: find out what information is available. What are the goals, vision and values  of the library? (look at their website); What is the demographic of the area you are applying to? What are the trends in information services?

Application Tips:

1. You MUST follow the instructions of submission.  Read the full position description to know: how to formate your documents, how the organisation wants documents returned (A single PDF document with resume, cover letter, response to selection criteria OR individual Word documents). Is there a resume page number limit.
2. Be organised: don’t leave it to the last minute. Make time to plan everything; be methodical, and prepare your documents from scratch.
3. CHECK YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR! Don’t spell the organisation’s name incorrectly! Make sure it is addressed to the correct person/place. Re-read everything.

Resume:

1. Your resume doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be easy to read.
2. If you have gaps from when you’ve been doing things that aren’t library or career related, that’s okay: select the most relevant information, tasks, and skills, and be positive about them.
3. If you have any extra skills such as writing a blog, working as a volunteer (even working in schools as a parent volunteer), or other achievements that can be transferred to libraries, you can demonstrate this  in your selection criteria answers and resume.

Cover Letter:

1. Your cover letter should be succinct, specific to the position/organisation you are applying for, and no more than one page.
2. Read the submission instructions to check if it is a single document, needs to be added to a PDF with your resume and KCSSor needs to incorporate the KSC.

Key Selection Criteria:

• Your Key Selection Criteria found in the Position Description MUST respond with the correct answers.
• Don’t miss any information out and don’t ramble. The easiest way to make sure you’ve got everything in there is to drop them into a blank document and use their bullet points as your headings.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and our three speakers for being involved!