The Final Thing!

Thing 23 - Reflection, what next?

So the final Thing is finally here and it's time to reflect on what has been done so far and make plans for the future. I think for reflection in the interest of not repeating myself and boring people who have already read yesterdays post it will be best to direct readers to my previous post - Integration I did things a little out of order and ended up doing Thing 19 yesterday.

SWOT analysis
As I've already started Chartership I have a SWOT analysis and PPDP for that, I'm not comfortable showing my PPDP publicly so here is my SWOT analysis:

Strengths
Commitment to professional development
Enthusiasm for my field
Commitment to service improvement
5 years experience in an academic library
MSc Information and Library Management 
Articulate written communicator
Self motivated and can work alone
Competent and practical
Flexible approach to work/learning new tasks
Good interpersonal skills
Can handle responsibility

Weaknesses
Lack of recognised enquiry skills training
No formal teaching qualification or experience
Lack of variety of experience
Fear of public speaking
Underdeveloped critical analytical skills
A small network of contacts

Opportunities
Job cuts create opportunities to volunteer in other departments to gain skills
Networking events for opportunities to expand my network of contacts
CDG opportunities, for example, attending National Council for personal and professional development
Support for personal and professional development

Threats
Current economic climate
Service restructuring
More experienced colleagues
I work mainly after core opening hours (after 5pm) so am less recognisable to senior staff

PPDP
I have found the process of writing a SWOT analysis and developing a PPDP from that to be quite rewarding, having goals and ways to meet those goals is a good approach towards development. My PPDP has also made me think about where I want to go and how I want to get there, I have a development map rather than a plan. I have been able to achieve most of my goals, the ones I haven't are ones which I will work on in the future, while it's important to have a plan it does need to be flexible as situations change regularly.

The Future
My plans for what to do next involve getting my portfolio together to submit for Chartered status, I'm currently working on my personal evaluative statement so will hopefully be ready within the next month or so. After that I will work on completing the goals I have not reached on my PPDP and getting a teaching qualification. I think that I will be inclined to use Prezi when using presentations in interviews as it's nicer to look at and gives a dynamic presentation.

I will continue to develop my use of Prezi and Jing so that when I get the dream job I will already have some useful skills, which will also (hopefully) help me to pick up the next tool that comes along. I will make an effort to keep my online presence cohesive and up to date so that my personal brand will reflect who I currently am rather than who I am when I started CPD23.

My experiences so far...

I got into librarianship by sheer luck, I finished my undergrad degree and realised that I would have to get a job, having very little experience in my chosen field (Geography) my aunt was kind enough to get me a job through an agency to work on a book move in the library that she works at. I started here, found I liked it and was fortunate to get a permanent position when one came up. After working here for a year I realised that I wanted to be a librarian and had completely gone off the idea of being a geographer (the idea of bugs and mud did it), looking at job adverts I came to 2 conclusions: the first was that I would need a degree in librarianship to get where I wanted to be and I needed to look into Chartership.

As I knew that I wanted to continue in education for a higher degree I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and applied to do a Masters in Information and Library Management by distance learning at Northumbria. The best part about this was not so much the course but the way I got to know more people at work as I asked for them for help on various aspects of my assignments, I now have a better idea of who does what and why.

When the MSc was finished I knew I wanted to do more, I love learning things and like to go training courses and events, so Chartership seemed the logical next step. I am now past the half way point and have benefitted from the goal setting imbedded into Chartership. Previously I had simply attended courses/events which were relevant to my current post, after writing my PPDP I found it was better to have a section for the future so I could have aims and direction to achieve my goal of becoming a librarian. At this time I am at the start of my career but I have a plan of how to get where I want to be.

So although I ended up doing temp work at a library by chance it's been really good for me as I've found a career i'm interested in and can see myself being interested in long term.