Experience through Volunteering

Months between posts then 2 in the same day!!

I have always preached about the value of volunteering, you can learn so much by simply donating your time. It doesn't cost you anything and you gain so much, plus, you don't have to go through the dreaded interview, there is no wrong.

The latest voluntary thing I'm doing is helping to arrange a fundraising party through CDG. What I have gained through this-

• Project working - my job does not involve any sort of projects, despite repeatedly asking to be picked for projects I have yet to see my name come out of the hat. I now have experience of working as part of a project team.
• Liaising - while I do some liaising as part of my job and through CDG as Website Officer I am now developing my liaison skills, especially important when you're trying to get freebies as prizes!!
• Time management skills - I am helping to organise a party, a raffle, do my job and have recently moved into a flat which needs gutted, it would have been impossible without good time management skills.
• Networking - again, it is often overlooked but I have worked with people I would not normally even meet so it's been interesting.
• Advertising/publicity - I have helped to advertise this event by creating a Facebook event and promoting it on CDG event pages.

I have gained and developed valuable skills through something which I am actually enjoying doing, organising a children's book themed fundraising party, how many people can actually say they developed professionally by doing fun activities? My advice, if you haven't already tried it, sign up to a voluntary group and get involved, especially if you're in a situation where you feel you have done as much as you can within the confines of your job. Your time will be appreciated.

Organisation restructure - opportunity knocks?

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because nothing has changed or struck me as worth writing about after 23 Things. Now a restructure has dropped a fantastic opportunity at my feet, finally a chance for more personal and professional development!!

I've reached the stage where I have done all the training offered by HR, I have done the MSc and updated my training every year, jumping on any new training sessions offered in-house. I am now suitably qualified for a higher position, however, despite getting close at interviews I have not yet had that life changing phonecall to say 'Becky you got the job, when can you start?' So needless to say when the emails started going round saying there was a restructure and the circulation team (my current team) would be merging with the enquiry team I leapt at the opportunity to expand my experience.

To date I have attended a number of 'training' sessions which are more like an overview of what the enquiry team does now and what I will do at a future date. My advice, for all it's not an actual training session, go on as many as possible because you learn things that you did not know, even if it's just a chance to talk to someone you wouldn't normally get to talk to, it's an opportunity to network.

Instead of just dealing with basic library tasks such as issuing/discharging/fines/reservations etc I will be doing 'quick and easy' IT queries, learner enquiries and basically feeling much more useful to customers by not having to refer them to a different department on a different floor. While it will only be lower level enquiries that I deal with it is still an opportunity to expand my knowledge, an opportunity I'm grabbing with both hands.

Personally, I can't wait to start the training and actually do new things, while it will be challenging to start with as new people get used to working with eachother and we have new tasks to learn overall it's definitely an opportunity to be taken advantage of. Of course there are the change-fearing 'moaners' to contend with but how often do things stay the same? If things always stayed the same we'd be living in caves, cold caves, because man hadn't invented fire (that was a welcome development!). We would be stuck walking everywhere because people hadn't embraced the developments the invention of the wheel brought. Wait until you've tried it before you moan.

Library roots/routes

Thing 20 - The Library Routes Project

Library Roots
Way back when I had the careers progression 'chat' with the progression coach at school I first wanted to be a vet (this quickly changed when I found out I would need to be good at Biology) then I wanted to pick subjects which appealed to me so I did a BSc in Environment and Development. For all the school provideed a progression coach the idea of a career was never discussed, all he wanted was to get as many people as possible to do A levels and go on to university, what happened after that was never discussed. Consequently I was so focussed on doing Geography and doing well in that subject that everything else was stuck firmly in the background, I was aware that at some point I would need a job as I wanted to buy a house and have nice things in it, but that was something that 'grown ups' thought about.

That magical time of the end of the first degree was looming and I had no idea what I was going to do with  my life, noone at uni discusses careers, they want you to pay the money on time, hand in assignments on time and that was my experience of university, they didn't care what you did after you left as long as you could tick a box saying that you had either went on to postgrad education or got a job so that they could say that a high percentage of students were engaged in something worthwhile after graduating so they looked good.

At this point I was really fortunate to be talking to my aunty who happens to work in a library, she got me a temp job here to finish the book move and RFID the books. Until that point a library was one of two things to me (both happy things!) there was the public library which provided the means to escape into different worlds with different characters and then there was the academic library which was full of knowledge and wonderfully knowledgable staff. I had never considered a career in librarianship, I wasn't even aware that being a librarian could be a career, how I wish I'd known this when I was having my career 'chat'.

Library Routes
I think I'm making progress in my career, still waiting for that break though I am prepared for when it happens. After gaining a permanent position here I realised that I was happy and that this was something I could actually spend my life doing (happy times!). I started looking at job adverts for higher positions to see what experience I needed to move up the career ladder. The first thing that struck me was the need of a qualification, after completing my BSc I could not afford to then do a second undergrad course, nor could I face another 3 years of lectures and assignments, fortunately Northumbria offers a distance learning MSc. This seemed perfect, my employer was willing to part fund it which made it even better, it would fit around my work so I could still afford to live. First step achieved (I'm on the right ladder, below).

After completing the MSc I then began applying for jobs, after a failed interview a senior member of staff noticed that I wanted to move up but was lacking the experience and so arranged some volunteering opportunities for me, therefore adding experience to qualifications (I'm now on the left ladder).

I hope to soon be on the centre ladder! I'm almost ready to submit my application to Charter, adding the professional body qualification to an educational qualification and experience. One thing that does worry me, though I am confident that I have done everything I can to professionally develop, is the jobs market. It is one thing to be ready to move up but when that dream job presents itself I am always aware of just how many people are going for it due to the current economic climate.