Anastasia Gould on Professional Development

Professional Development

Anastasia Gould is in her first term at Western. She still considers herself a Maritimer and Acadian, even though she has spent nearly as much time in Ontario as New Brunswick. After more than a decade as a policy analyst with the federal government, she looks forward to making a difference as an information professional—ideally near water, where she prefers to spend most of her time outside class.

One of the reasons I joined the UWO student chapter of the CLA was for its focus on professional development. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to learn about its plans to host a daylong professional development workshop in June with Ulla de Stricker, a respected leader in the information industry—see her website for details: http://www.destricker.com.

I was unsure what to expect, really. We certainly had a full agenda:

  • Where do you “fit”? Understanding your career type. What elements of culture and personality figure in a good organizational fit?
  • Cover Letters – Do They Do Us Justice? Transforming ineffective cover letters into a powerful marketing device.
  • How to Construct a Superb Résumé: Ways to make the résumé stand out visually and make an impact in the first 3 seconds.
  • The Job Interview: Projecting competence, confidence and fit with organizational culture … making yourself the perfect candidate.
  • Could You Be A ... ? Other employment opportunities in which our skills are applicable, and how to translate the description of those skills into terms meaningful for potential employers (e.g. business analyst, stakeholder relations manager).
All the many practical points, which I have since adopted, exceeded any expectations. What I found surprising, though, were all the intangibles. It reminded me of our orientation, when the Acting Dean Dr. Nick Dyer-Witheford welcomed us to the program and the university: he invited us to set aside our preconceived notions of where we thought we belonged as LIS professionals or the strengths we might eventually bring to bear. He recommended we try, instead, some courses outside our area of concentration. He suggested we prepare to be surprised by which courses and issues may resonate with us—which may lead us, in turn, to follow an entirely different path than the one that had brought us to the MLIS program in the first place.
Thanks to the UWO-CLA professional development workshop and to Ulla de Sticker’s motivational style, I am inspired anew to reconsider which co-op postings I apply for and which courses to select for the next semester. Granted, it is early still in my academic preparation, so who knows where it will take me professionally. Yet I am much more open now to the possibility that I will find myself working as an information professional rather than a public or academic librarian. In fact, that has become an exciting possibility!
Participating in an association has been positive and productive in other ways, encouraging me to look beyond classes for professional development—be it to volunteer, join other student organizations or simply exchange with my peers around LIS topics and issues.
All that to say that already professional development has become more than making myself the ideal candidate, more than finding the right professional fit. It is now about being engaged with the issues that define the profession—and those who would advocate for it. This first semester has shown me what makes LIS a profession. It has given me many welcome occasions to commit—and recommit—to the responsibilities we bear to our profession and to our communities.
With that, gentle readers, I wish you your own inspiration –

Anastasia.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Comment