Transferable Skills: Identifying and Marketing Your Unique Value to Non-LIS Employers

Kim Dority & Scott Brown
SLA Rocky Mountain Chapter
November 15, 2012

© 2012 Kim Dority & Scott Brown 1

Where are we going today?
Today we’ll focus on:
 Identifying your skills that transfer into multiple
career opportunities
 Translating those skills into non-LIS language
 Finding opportunities (i.e., job openings) for
which those skills are appropriate


Last time: Roles & Skills
What are all of your qualities and roles?


Exercise: Roles, qualities & skills
What are the details of those skills?
 Volunteer

 Event planning
 Planned 14 continuing education meetings over an entire year
for 200-member regional association, bringing in revenue to
the association treasury
 Recruited, scheduled and coordinated speakers for each event
 Sought and secured funding from local, national and
international vendors for events
 Managed registration and advertising for events


5

How could your skills combine?
 LIS + Nursing
 Medical librarian
 Patient advocate
 And…..

© 2012 Kim Dority & Scott Brown

6

• Competitive intelligence specialist for bioinformatics,
medical research, pharmaceutical company
• Information director for clinical research/academic
health center
• Records manager for managed healthcare company
• Content developer for consumer health website
• Business analyst, medical industry venture capital
group
• Librarian for healthcare-related professional
organization


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• Research-guide developer for consumer health topics
• Current-awareness research for clinics, doctors,
patients
• Consumer health specialist for public library
• Grant-writer, prospect researcher for community
health organization
• Teacher of medical-research course for nursing
program


Learning more…about invisible jobs
Invisible LIS jobs are sometimes tough to
“unearth,” but more and more LIS
professionals are ending up in these roles
 Embedded librarianship
 Embedded/integrated information professionals
 What are these positions called?
 Sample keywords and job titles
 “Off the beaten track” sources

Invisible jobs – where do I look?
A few examples
 “Off the beaten track”
 EDUCAUSE: http://jobs.educause.edu/jobs
 Non-profit:
 http://www.coloradononprofits.org/career-
center/nonprofit-jobs
 http://www.redcross.org/about-us/careers

 Employer sites: http://nikeinc.com/pages/careers


Invisible jobs – where do I look?
A few examples
 Local
 Oregon: http://www.oregonlive.com/jobs/

 Twitter lists
 https://twitter.com/scbrown5/infojobs
 http://listorious.com


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Yes, they’re really there


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Yes, they’re really there


Translating LIS language
LIS-Wording Non-LIS Wording
Reference Information needs assessment
Research (possibly research and
analysis)
Customer service
(see also Research)

Cataloging Information analysis
Metadata assignment
Records management / access and
retrieval
Taxonomy-building


Translating LIS language
LIS-Wording Non-LIS Wording

Acquisitions Contract negotiation/management
Content licensing
Purchasing management
Vendor relations

Research Research analysis and synthesis
Business or data analysis
Market research
Product development support
Competitive intelligence
Donor/prospect research


What do you do?
Contrast: Cataloger
“I know MARC and XML, and I’ve cataloged books,
videos, periodicals, and other media in a public
library.”

“I make sure important information is findable by
making it as accessible as possible through tagging
and cataloging quickly and efficiently.”


What do you do?
Contrast: Cataloger
“I know MARC and XML, and I’ve cataloged books,
videos, periodicals, and other media in a public
library.”
> This one says: “Zzzzzzzzz….”

“I make sure important information is findable by
making it as accessible as possible through tagging
and cataloging quickly and efficiently.” >This one
says, “I kick ass!”

Back to your skills - Keywords
Look for the jobs you want and synch them up
 Job postings
 Resume/LinkedIn
 Targeted to one job
 Targeted to the types of jobs you want


Keywords


Keywords
In LinkedIn, use them in:
 Summary
 Specialties
 Experience descriptions
 Volunteer work
 Education
 Interests
 Skills (if they match up with LinkedIn skills)


Watch for words that hide specifics
 Trained
 Taught or instructed
 Assisted
 Provided
 Participated in
 Oversaw
 Worked with
 Served (on a board or committee)


Multiple “identities” in social media
LinkedIn – what do I do if I’m transitioning, or combining
multiple “lives”?
 Write about your experience and skills more generically –
more skills-based than industry-based
 It’s possible to create more than one LinkedIn account, and
this may be a best option – but consider those searching for
your profile, and how to manage in the future
 You may not have a perfect solution – and so maybe
blogging or Twitter may be a better option


Pop quiz: key take-aways?
 Your information skills can be broadly applied
(transferred) across a multitude of job
opportunities and industries

 To identify your strongest (or most rewarding)
transferable skills, consider all the aspects of
current and previous roles, both professional and
personal


Key take-aways (con’t)
 Then research potential areas of interest to see what
words are used to describe your “LIS” skills – this will
also help you discover those invisible jobs

 Also - you may have developed and mastered
additional transferable skills that have nothing to do
with your LIS knowledge/expertise – don’t hesitate to
embrace these opportunities as well


26

Upcoming webinars
• So Tell Me About Yourself: Personal and Professional
Branding for LIS Students and Professionals, December 20,
2012, 2pm ET

Sign up at http://rockymountain.sla.org/tag/virtual-
programs/


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Questions


Transferable Skills: Identifying and Marketing Your Unique Value to Non-LIS Employers

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