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The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
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Move Along: Relocation
for Librarians |
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Librarians relocate for the same reasons that any worker might decide to move: a change in personal circumstances or the unavailability of local work. For example, perhaps you have promised your family that you will return to your hometown after graduation, or your spouse or partner has received a job offer in another city and you have agreed to take your turn as the “trailing spouse.” If you’re a job seeker who can move anywhere, you have the advantage of being able to choose the best labor market for your talents. If you’re a trailing spouse, you may have more resources available than a librarian whose local job prospects have dried up, but you will have to take your chances in a location that’s already been chosen for you. Whether you are moving to a particular location or moving “anywhere but here,” there are a variety of tools and techniques you can use to move along to a new job. Holistic Job Search Typically, we look for work in stages: search, apply, interview, and begin work or keep looking. We only move forward if the previous step is completed. You decide what you are looking for and you apply for those jobs. You get a phone call for an interview, do your research for that position, and attend the interview. You get an offer or you “rinse and repeat.” Instead of a sequence, think about the job hunt as a holistic and integrated process by which actions taken at any time will move you closer to your ultimate goal. Meeting library professionals during internships or at professional events, researching different career options using resources like Dority’s Rethinking Information Work, learning how to answer behavior-descriptive questions, writing a presentation for an interview, or meeting with human resource professionals at a career fair will all contribute to landing your new job and can be done at any stage in the job search process. During a relocation search you will look for a place to live—if it costs more than one-third of your salary to live there, should you move there? You see a news item in The Chronicle of Higher Education that a new library in Michigan will be opening its doors in eight months and they expect to hire four new librarians. This is labor market information, the fuel of a holistic job search, and it is one step beyond the traditional job search in which you find and respond to a suitable ad. Career Focus If you are free to relocate anywhere, you still need to select your flavor of librarianship: academic, public, school, or special. Wait, you say, since you have already had trouble finding work in your current location, you don’t want to be that narrow; shouldn’t you apply for everything to increase your chances of landing a position? Sorry, that strategy won’t work: There just isn’t enough time in the day to be continually reshaping your resume to make it appeal to hiring supervisors in completely different types of libraries. If you concentrate on a particular type of position, you will be able to focus your energy and build your momentum. For example, as you apply to a number of young adult librarian positions, you will see trends in required or desired skills, answer similar interview questions, and build presentations that will eventually support your work as a young adult librarian—all pieces of the holistic work search. On the other hand, if you have no choice in where you are going and the librarian labor market there is limited, you need to be flexible in your career goal. That could mean moving from children’s librarian to business reference, switching from academic to special librarianship, or transferring your skills to a position that has not previously been filled by a librarian. Focus on what is available and don’t waste time looking for the job you left behind or dreamed about in school. Research Your Locale Only apply to positions in locations where you really want to live. Don’t waste the employer’s time as well as your own. Deciding on a specific city or region will also help you write a targeted cover letter or answer questions about the library community during the interview. Lack of focus may hinder you from effectively researching the community or library, and it may lead to interviewing gaffes if you mix up the communities or library services. Just as you can anticipate one obligatory question about the OPAC, also expect that any interviewer will ask about your knowledge of the community and the library’s place within the community. Of course, the library website is an essential part of your research, but the local chamber of commerce can also assist you in researching the community. Use the World Wide Chamber of Commerce Guide to find the local chamber. Internet Sites and Tools Focus your Internet searches so that everything you read about your new community helps you in the job-seeking process. If you know where you are going, bookmark the websites of local libraries, relevant professional organizations, and civic or state government sites, since they may post job opportunities and also may determine policies that could have an effect on your potential job. If you are throwing a dart at the map, your bookmarks should include Forbes Best Places to Work and the North American Best Companies Lists from the Great Place to Work Institute, so that you can find communities with stable corporations and industries. For the academic dartboard, include the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and ALA and its divisions. The National Center for Education Statistics also provides an online directory for schools, colleges, and libraries, a useful tool for academic librarians and school media center specialists. Other tools include Placeblogger, where you can read community newspapers and blogs. Plug in your new zip or postal code to Google Local and look for neighborhood libraries. Serendipity may occur on major job boards like CareerBuilder or while you are searching for a place to live on Craigslist, but don’t count on it or look exclusively on these boards. Relocation Assistance The military, some corporations, and some postsecondary institutions offer relocation assistance to spouses and partners of employees. Generally, these programs offer assistance researching the labor market, learning about local employers, and preparing resumes and cover letters. They may also be able to recommend additional support such as referrals for counseling to deal with loss or isolation after the move. These programs vary in size, funding, and clientele. For example, in the university setting, one program may assist tenure-track faculty spouses or partners only whereas another may offer assistance to postdocs. The program may be managed by the academic department or outsourced to a government agency or human resources consultant, which can lead to variations in the quality of assistance. This service is not to be confused with placement: you will not show up for your meeting with the human resources officer or career advisor and receive a job offer. However, if you have been in contact with the officer in advance, expect that she has reviewed your resume and career expectations and researched major employers in the area. Your specific career objectives will make this meeting meaningful. Take advantage of this valuable service if it is offered. I strongly recommend that you find out about the confidentiality of any information that you disclose to the officer during the session. In a corporation or small faculty office, you could be expressing frustrations with the corporation, community, or your personal life to your spouse or partner’s coworker. Is the officer bound by professional ethics or a program guideline that states that he/she will not tell your spouse/partner (or his/her boss) about anything you say—for example, how angry you are to be uprooted? Ask about the confidentiality of the sessions prior to accepting any counseling—you might feel excited and hopeful now, but if it takes several weeks to find a position or you experience other frustrations, you may want at least one impartial, discreet ally to confide in. Career Fairs Career fairs work best for the searcher who has no geographic restrictions and no immediate pressure to move. Any interview after the fair will require the usual thorough preparation, but at the fair, interviewers tend to be more forgiving if you don’t know a great deal about the community. They may concentrate on behavior-descriptive questions for which you can cram prior to the event. (Behavior-descriptive questions ask you to describe how you behaved in a previous situation.) You may have multiple interviews in a few days and get immediate feedback on your performance. The drawback to these events is that the interviews are usually only the first round, and real openings can take months to materialize. Before you sign up for an interview, you can ask outright if they are interviewing for actual vacancies, how many the library expects to hire, and how long the hiring process takes. ALA hosts a career fair at both the Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. As with most career fairs, it is industry-specific, provides a list of attending employers in advance, and charges no fee (beyond conference fees) for job searchers. Measure any upcoming career events in your prospective city against those criteria to make sure that you are not wasting your time.
Attend career fairs in suitable interview attire to stand out
from the window shoppers who show up in jeans and flip-flops. Bring an
updated copy of your resume, list of references, and cover letter for
each position that you would like to interview for (though you should be
aware that you may not get on an employer’s list, the employer may not
show up, or you may find something even better while wandering in the
fair). If no specific positions are posted, you can bring a letter of
introduction that indicates your career interests and highlights any
special or desirable skills that you can offer the Final Thoughts One of the best books on this subject, even if you are not a spouse, is the New Relocating Spouse's Guide to Employment: Options & Strategies in the U.S. and Abroad by Frances Bastress. Though the advice in the book is solid, especially on focusing your search, it is highly dated. For some searchers, a move to a community with limited library positions may require some flexibility. In cases when you have already been relocated and no suitable library jobs are available, you are now investigating a “career transition,” another topic entirely. A successful relocation requires focus, flexibility, research (using the Internet to find specific community information), and networking (getting out to meet with people in the industry). Every step in your search will contribute to the holistic job search process, so keep in mind that all of your efforts will lead to your new position in your new home. Christine Gertz is currently the Library and Information Specialist at Career and Placement Services (CaPS) at the University of Alberta, where she manages a specialized career collection and answers information and research questions about finding work in all fields. She has also worked in public libraries and in the nonprofit sector. Article published Mar 2007 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
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Page last updated
02/24/2007
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