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No job-hunting traction? Consider LIS temp, staffing, recruiting, and outsourcing agencies

In a tough job market, finding alternative ways to get your foot in the door of prospective employers can give you a serious competitive edge. One of the best of those alternative strategies? Signing up with one of the temp, staffing, recruiting, or outsourcing agencies that specialize in information work. (For more on the benefits of temporary gigs, see 6 Ways Temping Can Help Build Your LIS Career.)

What’s the difference among these types of firms?

Although there’s often overlap among these four terms, you can make some general assumptions when you hear these terms. (more…)

6 Ways Temping Can Help Build Your LIS Career

When you’re at a career transition point – say, just starting out in your career, struggling to find a job, or needing to “get a foot in the door” after a move to a new community – working a temporary job, or “temping,” can be your best friend.

It can also be a great solution for those who simply prefer the variety of temporary or project work to the predictability of a permanent position.

Temping Can Help Build Your LIS Career Options
In terms of career benefits, temporary LIS work provides you with opportunities to: (more…)

Job-hunting? 5 ways to help your network help you

Yep, asking your network for job-hunting help can sometimes feel awkward.

But did you know that experts say less than one in three jobs results from an online application? That one statistic alone should quickly vault “reaching out to my community of colleagues” to the top of your job-hunting tactics list.

In order to give your outreach efforts (and your contacts) the best chance of actually being able to help you find a job, however, it’s important to do some prep work first.

Do these three things first
Before you send that first e-mail or make that first phone call request, you need to: (more…)

10 signs your LIS job might be at risk from smart machines

If we peer into the future of LIS careers, are there indicators that might signal what types of LIS jobs are most at risk for being automated or taken over by smart machines? (See Will smart machines compete for LIS jobs for more background on this  issue.)

Although automation is likely to impact different areas of LIS work in terms of when, and by how much, these changes disrupt our assumptions, authors Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby suggest 10 job characteristics likely to result in worker replacement (or displacement) through automation in their Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines (HarperCollins, 2016).

Job characteristics that lend themselves to LIS job automation
According to the authors, the 10 job characteristics most likely to suggest it’s time to start watching your back are: (more…)

Will smart machines compete for LIS jobs?

In my work with LIS students and practitioners throughout the country, we often focus on where the new jobs and career paths might be emerging – which is a smart, useful approach. But the corollary question, and especially important if you are considering building a specific LIS skill set, is where the disappearing jobs and career paths are likely to be.

Will automation affect LIS jobs? Without question. Perhaps a more realistic question to ask might be what aspects of LIS work are likely to be replaced by automation or robotic intelligence?

Because if recent studies are any guide, the question isn’t if automation will replace information work, but rather how soon, and by how much. (more…)