Select Page

Five tools for designing your 2017 career

Network Lines Connecting to ServersA well-designed life is a life that is generative – it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise.
– Designing Your Life

Yep, we’re putting 2016 in the rear-view mirror and moving into a 2017 that will be (hope springs eternal) more productive, rewarding, and opportunity-rich for everyone. How can you nudge the odds in your favor? By embracing career-focused design thinking. (more…)

LinkedIn recommendations: help them help you

One of the most powerful types of “social proof” (testaments to your professional strengths) hiring managers can see is a great recommendation on your LinkedIn profile.

And people who like you well enough to be willing to write a recommendation for you do sincerely want to help you out!

But actually getting that recommendation written for you? That’s where things tend to fall apart…. (more…)

LIS generalist vs. specialist – which is best for you?

One of the questions most frequently asked by students is whether to specialize in a specific area (say cataloging or government documents) or graduate as a generalist, someone who has a broad range of skills but is not an expert in any. Ask five seasoned practitioners for their advice here, and you’re likely to get five well-reasoned, passionate, and completely different answers.

The reason is, there are benefits and disadvantages to both approaches. (more…)

Resources for the presentation design-challenged

little-boy-painting-on-easelSome of us have the presentation design sense of a turnip. (Raised hand here.)

Which is why I was ecstatic when I decided to explore SlideShare after it had officially become another LinkedIn property, and found that it offered a decent collection of tips, tricks, and tools.

True, Amazon shows an impressive 239 title results when searched for “SlideShare for Dummies,” but none of those are actually a book called Slideshare for Dummies (always my starting point….). So as an alternative, I’ve worked my way through SlideShare’s “Get Started” coaching materials and found them to actually be pretty helpful for those of us in the design-challenged category. It’s really, really basic information, but a starting point.

What’s Worth Checking Out (more…)