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Use a SWOT analysis to plot your career strategy

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Businesses use SWOT analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to help them plot their next moves. Where should they spend their money, where save it? What opportunities should they go after, and which aren’t worth the effort? That same approach can be just as valuable for you as figure out your next career moves. (more…)

Is it ever smart to take a lower-paying job?

One of the challenges you’re likely to face during your LIS career is whether or not to take a job that pays less than your previous (or current) one.

If the finances are doable, there can be some great reasons to consider it. Although the right choice depends to a great degree on your personal circumstances, here are the questions that will help you get to your best answer. (more…)

The power of “yet”

By the time you’ve reached a certain age (okay, let’s say any spot north of forty), you generally feel like you’ve pretty much figured things out. Or if not, you’re perhaps trying to hide that fact from the rest of the world, especially your professional peers.

The good news: you can stop hiding; we’re all in the same boat!

Getting Your Head around Not Knowing
One of the greatest and most unremitting challenges of the LIS profession is that it’s moving so quickly and in so many directions that it’s really tough to keep your skills current. It’s even tougher to reach a level of competency that won’t become obsolete within the next five years.

From a career standpoint? Pretty daunting. From an ego standpoint? Pretty demoralizing.

Why? Because most of us in the profession are borderline if not certifiable perfectionists – it feels pretty awful to be in “beginner’s mind,” that place of not even knowing what you don’t know. But it’s clear that how good we become at getting comfortable with this discomfort will determine whether we stay professionally viable or become increasingly marginalized.

This reality has been driven home for me as I’ve worked on starting a new project/business. My business plan was exquisitely (I believed) well-thought-through, organized, and formatted (and of course based on all of my research about how to create a killer business plan). Then I started actually doing the work, and was stunned to realize how much I hadn’t, well, realized. (more…)

Strong vs. weak – when weaker is definitely better

Pop quiz: which is likelier to help build your career opportunities – your network’s strong ties (people with whom you have share professional interests and experience) or weak ties (people outside your professional sphere)?

Although it would seem like your strong ties would be the obvious answer, nope – it’s those weak ties that have been shown to do people the most good. (more…)