Category Archives: Career planning

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August 1, 2014

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Developing a (personal) PD plan: a presentation

Last week I was kindly invited to deliver a presentation to TAFE Library staff about developing a personal professional development (PD) plan. I’m no expert, but developed a PD plan as part of my ePortfolio requirements in my LIS Masters course. I was happy to help out and aimed to share my process, tips and learnings on developing (and reviewing) my own PD plan. I hoped I shed some light and made a bit of sense of the mystery around what a personal PD plan looks like, what it does and the benefits of having one handy.

My presentation was roughly divided into three parts:

  • what is a personal PD plan and why information professionals should have one
  • what the personal PD plan looks like: what guides it, tools available, parts of the plan and some learning options, and
  • how to keep track of the personal PD plan (aka how you can make it work for yourself and your needs)

So, what is a personal PD plan and why should you have one?

1. Productive conversations

No doubt there will be (dreaded) HR processes in a workplace about PD planning every six months or so. By having a personal PD plan handy, you can have a productive conversation with your manager about opportunities in your workplace towards building your desired skills and experience. This also means that the conversation you have won’t be a ‘self discovery’ session, but a prepared and productive one, mapping out your next actions.

I have previously written about a unplanned conversation with the big, big boss at my workplace late last year. She flat out asked me ‘So, what do you want to do?’, to which I had an informed reply about the current stage of my career, my wishing to explore and I outlined a couple of goals I had set for myself. This information came directly out of my personal PD plan.

2. Meaningful contributions to your organisation, your profession and your career

With a personal PD plan, you can carve a career path that is personally satisfying and fuels that sense of progress and meaning to your career, as well as make meaningful contributions aligned with your organisation’s strategic direction and objectives. And if you’re super keen (and there are many reasons why you should be), make a meaningful contribution to the information profession. Make your mark. Be informed about where you’d like to go.

3. Make informed decisions

Just a few notes on a beer coaster or spare piece of paper and 15 minutes can chart a course and next actions that are informed. A personal PD plan can help with making strategic and informed decisions about your next career step or learning experience, and also guide where to direct your PD energies and focus. I have to remind myself fairly regularly that I can’t be all the information professional I want to be within even a short few years. This stuff takes time.

 

There is no magic formula to developing a personal PD plan. (I’m sorry)

What I have found helpful is to examine my current career need and be guided by my career mission. I also love collecting position descriptions I aspire to as I can conduct a bit of a gap analysis of where I am now and the skills, knowledge and experience I need to gain to become the information professional I want to be.

Having a sense of priorities in your life is important. I have a section devoted to this in my own personal PD plan. I have listed my life priorities over the next two years. This serves as a reminder to myself that it is okay to not take on everything (all at once) and that I am focused on other things in my life too, like writing (not here, but other kinds of writing).

A personal PD plan can be as long or as short as it needs to be, and as loose (think beer coaster) or as detailed as it needs to be…..to work for YOU. The plan could be a few notes to a project plan and schedule. It could be for two years, three years, five or ten years. Really, the personal PD plan is a document that charts your course from A to B. Seriously, that’s it. The PD plan is a living document and will need reviewing from time to time. My top tip is to keep track of the amendments you make along the way and I recommend having a brief review every six months and a more thorough review every 12.

The overall aim of the personal PD plan is to have a clear enough path to work with to forge meaningful career experiences, opportunities and outcomes.

Here are my slides.

It was absolutely my pleasure to present to the TAFE Library staff last week. I jumped at the opportunity and really enjoyed myself. I loved giving others a chance to work out the benefits of a personal PD plan for themselves and I really hope it was worthwhile. I was fortunate to have a tour of the Southbank TAFE library (which has some really cool chairs by the way) and be taken out for a chai latte with good company afterwards. :)

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June 12, 2014

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Dual-career households: some reflection

Every now and then I’ll write a blog post that is a little on the personal side. Yesterday, or last night rather, I wrote a post on my ‘other’ blog reflecting on a recent article from INALJ (I Need A Library Job) about negotiating dual-career households, but I think it is equally relevant to be posted here too. So here it is….

An interesting blog post popped in my RSS feeds from INALJ (I need a library job) about negotiating dual-career households. In this blog post, Alphild Dick shares her experiences and tips about juggling her library career with her husband’s career in the military. I recommend reading this post as Alphild covers some considerations around the impact of decision making and compromising when you have a dual-career household.

This blog post had me reflecting on some of my thoughts and discussions my boyfriend and I have had with regards to our careers. We have very different careers - I’m in the library and information sector and he’s an accountant. We’re of similar age and career stage. And we’re both very independent, passionate, career-driven people. Our situation is probably not uncommon, particularly as us girls have been for years now, told at a young age that we can achieve whatever we want. There are some keys I think, to negotiating a dual-career household. However these are yet to be fully tested as we potentially move to the life stage of having a family.

Respect for each other and each other’s professions

We have very different professions and in particular, will have very different pay scales and earning potential. While I am fiercely independent and currently insist on ‘pulling my weight’ by paying half of everything, I need to realise one day that I will likely play a game of snakes and ladders in my profession. This will mean moving sideways, diagonally downwards then up, up, then down again. I will potentially never earn the same as an accountant. Luckily, I don’t participate in my profession necessarily for the money (though of course there are financial commitments). Moving sideways, etc doesn’t bother me. I seek satisfaction in my work, my contribution to the profession and seeing the potentially positive impact on people’s information experiences and learning.

There is also respect by the way of what we’re required to do to get the job done and/or succeed in our professions. My boyfriend was incredibly supportive of my completing the Masters degree and the other professional involvement I participate in, including writing here and my professional blog, Flight Path. He has seen me present at events and can appreciate the passion I have for my work. Vice versa, he has times when he comes home crabby or has to stay back late or work weekends to ensure his outputs are delivered and delivered well. Respect for each other is about some realisations and some give and take.

Knowing there are other outlets than the workplace to make a contribution

I’m coming up to a time when I need to start thinking about (though really, this is years away!) how I will continue to contribute to the profession while raising a family. A few years ago I freaked out with the thought that my career would be over once I have children and I need to jam in as much as possible before this happens. Well, now I just find this thinking a bit silly. Firstly, my work is only one part of me. I have other roles I play in my life, as well as interests and hobbies. Having children won’t be the end of my life as I know it (or will it? :) ) We, as in nowadays, have tools and avenues available to 1) keep in touch with the profession, and 2) continue to make a contribution while away from the workplace. We have Twitter, blogs, conferences to attend, online webinars and chats, etc to keep in touch with industry trends and issues, as well as people in our networks. There are other ways and arrangements available to share and grow knowledge, to contribute, and I guess you never know where these might lead! What I aim to achieve is to keep up some pace, some momentum throughout my career. Whether this means from a laptop at home or at my desk in a workplace, I’ll find an outlet for my passion.

Understanding the need for ‘wriggle room’ when opportunity comes knocking

It is unlikely my boyfriend will be transferred somewhere at a moment’s notice. But we have considered, and have plans for working overseas together….some day. In addition to the places where we’re willing to live and due to our very different professions, there are certain areas of the world where we can both enjoy good job prospects or career incentives. For example, I’d really, really like to gain some experience in the Trinity College Library in Dublin with digitising, preserving, cataloguing and promoting historical items. But there is little to no career incentive for my boyfriend to do this beyond a couple of months or so. Similarly with other parts of the world, there are places I wouldn’t enjoy benefits for my career where my boyfriend could. So if we were to live and work somewhere overseas for something like 12-18 months, we need to compromise, find the ‘wriggle room’ to find a happy medium. What if that isn’t possible? Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. What if something is too good to pass up? We’ll find a way. Neither of us could ask the other to give up on something completely.

Alphild asks some really good questions to think about when negotiating dual-career households. My favourite is “What are your long-term plans for your career?” I think it could be easy to get caught up thinking about the short or medium term, that we may lose sight of what we ultimately want to achieve. When something comes up in either person’s career that prompt thinking about ‘your team’, following this question, then next would be, “What else would I be happy doing?” There’s always a need for perspective.

Thanks Alphild for a thought provoking post.

 

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February 26, 2014

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5 career planning posts for new information professionals

Navigating a career path and coming up with a flight plan can be difficult for those new to the information professions. There are many possibilities and even more ways to get there. My last couple of blog posts have focused on career planning for newbies. I’m by no means an expert, I only share my own experiences and tips about developing a career statement and my personal professional development plan for the next two years. Both I’ve found to be valuable exercises.

After taking a look at popular posts I’ve written here, three others on this topic may also be useful. I thought I’d bring them together for you.

1. Building a career path with Lego

A career, professional ‘self’ or identity can be put together by connecting ‘Lego’ blocks (knowledge and skills). Over time, a structure or a completed picture forms that is unique to each professional. This is what differentiates one professional to another.

So, take your career statement, then identify possible sectors you could pursue to fulfil your “mission”, then the skills and knowledge you might need. If you have an opportunity to be mentored, awesome. Do it. They can help put your building blocks together by being a sounding board. A mentor can also help guide you through all the ‘cool stuff’ that comes up and filter the ‘nice to knows’ from the ‘I need to focus on this right now’.

2. Audit your Personal Learning Environment

You’ve started your library course or you’re maybe looking to learning more about another sector. What resources and tools will you need for your learning? Perhaps you’ve signed up for Twitter, trying Feedly, signed up for another web-based tool which seemed useful a few months back? It’s time to think about the combination of tools that will be most effective for you. It’s time to tidy up all these things to help streamline your information feeds. I’m due to have a review of my PLE myself. The methodology isn’t perfect, but this post’s key message is to ensure you regularly check your collection of tools so they continue to work for you, not against you. I know my needs and ways of thinking and doing stuff changes over time. This may be true for you.

3. 10 must-reads for PLNs

Among the most valuable things you can do as a new information professional (I’ve found, at least) is to start thinking about your personal learning network (PLN). A PLN is the human component of your PLE. In 2011, I undertook an independent research project looking into the theory of connectivisim and developing a personal learning network. I presented my findings at the 5th New Librarians’ Symposium. My paper is available online, if you’re up for a sticky beak. :)

During this project, I came across some great starting points for developing an understanding of PLNs and how they might contribute to your professional development and establishing connections in the information professions. There are probably more up to date resources available since this post, but these will surely provide the basics, as well as identify some key authors in this space.

I hope these posts about career planning and professional development help those just starting out in the information professions, or indeed anyone seeking for a bit of (re)direction.

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February 2, 2014

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Make your mark. Develop a career statement.

Following my last blog post about how a personal professional development plan can assist LIS newbies with discussing career aspirations, I got to thinking about another valuable activity (completed as part of my Masters ePortfolio) that has assisted me with gaining a sense of direction. So while I’m on the subject on career and professional development planning, I’ll share with you the “career statement”.

I share this experience as a LIS newbie professional, a testament of how important and valuable developing a career statement can be for future reflection and planning. I’m by no means an expert on the subject. I recommend this exercise to students and newbie info pros just starting out, as well as any more established professionals seeking clarity or to explore alternatives.

Over four years ago now, I was faced with this task of developing a career statement in the study guide for the Professional Practice unit of my Masters course. I’ll admit the task appeared daunting, and like the personal professional development plan, I tried to seek out all the resources I could to gain a clear idea of what this statement might look like and say. Turns out there is no magic formula to develop a career statement. Completing the task itself is the only way. Probably my most used resource was “The Personal Development Handbook” which allowed me to explore my values and strengths, among other things. And even still, this book didn’t see me arrive at my career statement ‘tah dah!’

Whether you start with the personal professional development, goal setting or the career statement, I don’t think it really matters. I started with defining what I really valued and the sort of things I’m seeking in a career, and goal setting. I brainstormed possible sectors I could find myself working, my professional interests and what I feel I’m good at. I went back to the roots of why I’m in this profession in the first place and the joys I had from an early age from learning, reading, seeking new and interesting information and facts and curiosity. From here, the career statement evolved. My career statement has two distinct parts:

  • what will I do, provide, give
  • to what end, what outcome/s, what difference do I aim to make in the world, the profession, the community, whatever.

There is no set format for how a career statement should look. I thought of a career statement as essentially like a mission statement for a company. You could do a video of yourself, a presentation, a painting, a collage, a poem or even in the humble written form. I’ve temporarily decided on the written format, but perhaps one day I’ll explore my creative side with it.

Here are some questions I asked myself to get you started.

  1. What interests or draws you into the LIS profession?
  2. What gives you joy?
  3. What is your mission? What contribution do you seek to make?
  4. What would you like to see as fruits of your labour?

There are a number of reasons why you should have a career statement. Here are a few I’ve thought about:

  • looking at job advertisements and position descriptions while job hunting it can be easy to be swept up. A career statement can help you to be strategic with your search and avoid the risk of potentially heading in the wrong direction. This is not to say that an unexpected turn in direction can lead you up the career garden path. But a career statement can be a good reminder about what you seek in different positions.
  • as a newbie there is so much to learn, you might ask ‘how am I supposed to know my career direction?!’ But what you could do with your career statement is turn it into a skills shopping list. What skills and experience will you need to fulfil your mission?
  • a career statement is a call on you to commit to making the difference you wish to make. Use it however you wish or feel comfortable to make it happen.
  • finally, and this is one of the purposes for my career statement, is that it can be a useful reflection tool. I’d like to look back on my career statement in about three, five, ten years time.

Ultimately, I believe a career statement is a personal process. There are no right or wrong ways to do it or answers. It took me a long time to figure that out! A career statement is not set in stone, but I think it captures your thinking at a given time and gives you something to refer to when in need of guidance. It certainly does that for me.