j's scratchpad

As she’s going through her job search, Angelica has been asking some questions about writing resumes. I recently had to update my own resume for the speaking I’ll be doing this fall and found myself pondering some of the same things.* There is no easy answer.

What I did when I was looking for a job a few years ago was post a complete version of my resume on the Web. I included the general URL to my Web site on my resume. If a potential employer wanted to know more about my experience, s/he could find it easily on the Web. If I made it to the interview stage and it was appropriate, I would mention its existence.

I also tailored each resume to a particular position. For example, if filing card catalog cards was one of the duties, I’d include a job where that was one of my tasks. I don’t think I included all of my positions on any of my resumes–I tried hard to keep my application materials down to one cover letter and a two-page resume. If I made it to the interview stage and it became appropriate to mention other work experience that wasn’t on my resume, I certainly would. Employers recognize that people probably have more experience than what they can list on two pages. It’s also, from what I understand anyway, okay to skip work experience. Say, a job someone had three jobs ago is really appropriate to the position, but the job between the most recent job and third job isn’t, it’s okay not to include job number two.

Any experience an applicant has that is relevant to the job is important to include, whether it’s in the same environment or something different. Experience in settings other than that of the position can often be quite valuable. Some employers recognize that, too. For example, experience in a law library might mean someone has some familiarity with legal research and legal sources. News librarians often have to do that kind of research, but the skill set may not be all that common or it may not be something someone in the organization already has. It could be something like that setting one applicant apart from another.

But finding a job is a huge gamble, especially when the job market isn’t good. One prospective employer might be incredibly impressed with a 6-page resume listing a variety of experience. Another might decide 6 pages is too long and drop it into the reject pile.

*Let me reemphasize here that I really am just updating my resume for biographical material for these speaking engagements. I am not planning on leaving my job in the near future. Someone told me it’s always a good idea to keep an updated resume on file. I haven’t updated mine in about two years and I found it an amazing exercise because it really shows me how much I’ve done and how much I’m doing. My list of articles, even though the publications may not be impressive or scholarly (yet), is much longer than I thought I it would be, as is the list of presentations I’ve made and my professional activities.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2004 at 9:27 pm and is filed under News Librarianship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.