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January, 2013:

Making Your Work Hours Less Stressful and More Productive by Sitting Less

I recently read this article “Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation” from Harvard Business Review Blog recently. And I couldn’t agree more. Like many, I spend long hours at the desk ‘sitting’. I sometimes sit all my eight hours of work in the office chair (not even a fancy ergonomic one) working through lunch until I go home. When this happens, which is often, it really doesn’t help my productivity nor my mood. My mind fears to take a break once I am glued to the computer screen although I also know in full that it is counter-productive. My Outlook keeps beeping every five minutes with new emails. My calendar shows a series of meetings. I become a slave to the computer and the office chair everyday. So when I read this, I thought I need to take an action to break this habit for real.

As we work, we sit more than we do anything else. We’re averaging 9.3 hours a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. Sitting is so prevalent and so pervasive that we don’t even question how much we’re doing it. And, everyone else is doing it also, so it doesn’t even occur to us that it’s not okay. …… Of course, health studies conclude that people should sit less, and get up and move around. After 1 hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat declines by as much as 90%. Extended sitting slows the body’s metabolism affecting things like (good cholesterol) HDL levels in our bodies. Research shows that this lack of physical activity is directly tied to 6% of the impact for heart diseases, 7% for type 2 diabetes, and 10% for breast cancer, or colon cancer. You might already know that the death rate associated with obesity in the US is now 35 million.

So what can I do? Here are a few things I did. A while ago, I ran into this idea of a standing desk to reduce some of the hours we spend sitting. I can use a laptop at work and I have a bookshelf in my office. So I emptied two top rows of the bookshelf in the office and removed one top shelf. But the problem was I was rarely standing up to even do this. If you don’t get off the chair, there is no way you are going to use this.

For this reason, this time around, I also decided to add a timer. When I arrive in the office, I turn this on and set it to ring a bell every 60 minutes during my 8 hours of work. When the bell rings I get up and move around for a few minutes or use a standing desk even if it is only for 10 minutes. I like the sound of the meditation bell. So I use a meditation timer but you can use any timer for this, either on your work computer or on your smartphone. I set the timer program, so that it would run automatically whenever I power up the work laptop. And all I need to do is to just press the start button once a day. Easy!

Lastly, I turned off my new e-mail notification in my work e-mail. The frequent beep from my email has been always breaking my concentration and I realized that I am most productive if I can just do work without checking my emails. But like many people, I could not habituate myself to check work e-mails only two or three times a day and  people often expected my replies in an hour or less. But by turning off the notification sound, at least I was not being interrupted when I was in the middle of doing something.

These three simple things I did – a standing desk, a timer reminder, turning off the new e-mail notification beeping sound -so far have been successful in making me move a bit more and preventing me from sitting for eight hours straight and leaving the office physically miserable and mentally tired at the end of the day.

If you have any other simple tricks that work well to make you sit less and move more during your office hours, please share in the comments!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Misconceptions about Library Job Search: What I have learned from the other side of the table

I have been invited to speak as a panelist for the American Libraries Live Episode 2 on Thursday, January 10th at 2pm EST. Since this program will feature David Connolly, who manages the ALA JobList site (which every budding librarian should know about), and Jill Klees, a Career Liaison who works with the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science, it is going to be informative for sure. So if you are looking for your first librarian position or getting ready for job search, make sure to tune in.

Previously, I wrote about personal branding for new and budding librarians and interviewed a few librarians for my blog who were successful in landing their first librarian job. (Search for ‘Interview with brand-new librarians’ in the search box on the right if you want to check them out. The links are also at the end of this post.) But for the last four years or so, I had opportunities to serve on several search committees, to hire many library assistants myself, and to be at many candidate interviews and presentations. So, in this post I would like to share several things that I have learned about library job search from the other side of the table, that is, not the job-seeking but the hiring side.

As everyone knows, job search is a stressful process. You may have been searching for a job for a long time. You may have been without a job for a while. You may have been selected many times for a phone or in-person interview only to hear that the job went to someone else. You may even had been offered a job and then told that the position was canceled last minute for the budget issues. You will be anxious and worried about the future. You might even doubt if any library will ever offer you a job. You may start to feel desperate and depressed. Well, this is not just you but something that almost everyone goes through a job search process. But still, that won’t cheer you up much while you are still looking for a job. The worst part of job search is the feeling that you are powerless.

But what I have learned from being at the hiring side of the table is that this is not necessarily the case. The hiring process is just as stressful to an employer as the job search process is to a job applicant. There are many misconceptions that job applicants tend to subscribe to but are not necessarily true. Here are several of them, and I will explain why these are misconceptions even though each of them may appear pretty convincing. Hopefully this will help you to get a more balanced view about the whole process than I had and reduce some of the anxiety and stress you are bound to feel during the job search.

1. Since my MLIS degree is brand-new, I won’t stand a chance competing with more experienced librarians applying for the same position, right? No.

This is common fear that many new LIS graduates have. But the truth of the matter is that many employers actually prefer new graduates to experienced librarians for a variety of reasons. Many employers think that new LIS graduate are likely to be (a) more up-to-date with new library trends, (b) more capable with technology, and (c) more enthusiastic and energetic. These are great strengths to many employers’ eyes.  Now it is up to you to show them that all these strengths apply to you.  Sometimes, employers explicitly look for candidates with a specific amount of work experience in a particular field. But if that is the case, the job positing will clearly state so. If no such condition is found in the posting however, you can safely assume that new graduates are welcome to apply.

So don’t worry in advance whom you are going to be competing with. Instead, focus on what contribution you can make to the position if you are selected.

2. I will be at a disadvantage if I don’t want to relocate. I will be at a disadvantage if I apply for a job far away from where I currently reside. Right? Not really.

Generally, finding a job can take less time if you are willing to relocate. However, it is also true that many employers prefer to hire local candidates for a variety of reasons. Many employers are willing to fly qualified candidates across the continent for an interview as long as a candidate has qualifications they want. But some employers like to save expenses involved with bringing in a candidate from far away. In such cases, you may get invited for an interview even if you are not the top candidate because there is little cost involved. Sometimes, it is not expenses that make employers prefer local candidates. They may be interested in those who are more likely to stay with them rather than leaving after a few years of service. They may want someone who is more familiar with the local culture and environment.

The point is that many employers will make different decisions based upon different considerations at different times. Those considerations are almost impossible for a job candidate to predict. So my advice is to simply apply for the positions that match your experience and skill set. If you are willing to relocate, apply for out-of-state jobs. If you are unwilling or unable to relocate, then focus on the jobs available in your area and don’t worry about others.  Do your best at what you can do, and do not worry about things that you have no control over.

3. Applying for as many jobs as possible will increase the chance of landing a job. No.

This seems to be simple enough. The more jobs you apply for, the more chances you will have in getting an interview at least, right? Well, unfortunately, finding a job is not like winning a lottery. The fact that you submitted your resume and cover letter has almost nothing to do with the chance of being considered as a candidate for the position. You will be considered so only if your resume and cover letter actually show that you are qualified for and likely to be a good fit for the position. Otherwise, the act of submitting an application is just a waste of time. I know that many send in applications to jobs that they are remotely qualified for or are not even half-enthusiastic for the reason of ‘just in case.’ This is understandable, but what it does is to lessen your anxiety by giving you a false sense of doing everything you can more than to actually raise your chance of being called for interviews and getting actual job offers.

Therefore, invest your time and energy in selecting the most relevant jobs to your qualifications and in making your applications for those jobs as good as they can be. This takes time and focus, and you cannot maintain this level of perfection if you are applying for as many jobs as possible. It will be hard, but be wise and selective in applying for positions, so that when you do apply you can give all you got.

4. In order to get the job offer, I have to meet ‘all’ the qualifications in the job posting. No. 

A job posting is often a wish list of qualifications and skills. So if these do not match 100% with what you have, don’t be discouraged. Apply if you meet their base qualifications, that is, all of the required qualifications. But focus in the cover letter and the resume on showing that you do have relevant experience and skills and how they will allow you to quickly learn the rest of needed skills, that is, some of the desired but not required qualifications.

If you are unsure, step back and try to think in the shoes of a hiring manager. If you were a hiring manager, what would be the absolutely necessary qualifications and skills for the position? What would they consider as great strengths? What would they consider as something that they can easily teach you or something that they need you as an expert for? What would be a reason for the hiring manager to prefer you to more experienced candidates? Try to answer these things from the employer’s point of view while being honest and realistic about yourself. If you are called for an interview, be sure to ask about these things. The interviewers will be more than happy to tell you about the position you are applying for.

Also important is your interest and eagerness to pick up new skills and apply them to work. This is really important to employers. They know that skills can be learned but passion and enthusiasm are harder to find. So make sure that this comes out during the interview process.

5. If I am being called for a phone or in-person interview, the search committee and the hiring manager would be already familiar with everything I wrote in the cover letter and resume for sure. No.

The search committee members do their best to prepare for interviews, but they deal with a large volume of cover letters and resumes. They interview multiple candidates and can be serving on multiple search committees at the same time. Scheduling interviews itself can take up to 2-3 weeks at a large organization. So even if you were selected for an interview, your interviewers may well have to be reminded of why they picked you in the first place and what makes you a great candidate for the position.

Never assume that your interviewers would remember everything you wrote in your application. Do not repeat everything you put down in your cover letter or resume. But make sure to present the most important part of it in your interview more succinctly and convincingly. The search committee knows that they have already liked what they saw in your cover letter and resume. But it is up to you to make them remember and be assured of that in person (or over the phone).

6. Those who interview me will be looking for my weaknesses or flaws. Not at all.

When one is interviewing for a job, the whole interview process can seem intimidating. But believe it or not, the search committee and the hiring manager are the ones who want to see you successful most. They will ask questions, hoping and praying that you would give good or correct answers, and they really want your presentation to be excellent.

Why? It is because they already picked you once, twice, or three times out of a huge pile of resumes and cover letters. Just as you have worked on your cover letter and resume for hours, your search committee worked for hours to find out qualified candidates for the position. (And you would think that there would be plenty of qualified candidates in a tough job market. Surprisingly, this is not the case, more often than not. It is really really hard to find good candidates for many positions. So if you are one of them, they are more than happy to see you!) Remember this, and you will find a whole job search and interview process less daunting, intimidating, and stressful.

Last thought

Mostly what I really wanted to address is how to eliminate some of the anxiety and stress that are bound to go along with many new LIS graduates’ job search process. This is best dealt with by realizing that (a) some of the worries may be groundless, can be handled productively, or simply beyond control and  that (b) job search and hiring are two sides of one coin and share one and the same goal: a fit between a person and an organization. No doubt finding this fit can take a while because the ‘fit’ is more than just a sum of work experiences or the list of skills. But with patience and smart strategies, you can make the process as less stressful as possible. Please share any tips you can offer in the comments!

I am closing this post with some really excellent tips from the librarian who has a great deal of experience in hiring librarians (much much more than I have) and was generous enough to share them with me for all of you.

  • Never hide who you are or what’s happened in your career.
  • Don’t avoid dates on resumes and make a resume a clear and simple progression of what you’ve done.
  • And being clear about your jobs and education is infinitely more important that some bland statement of objectives.
  • Do not repeat what is on the resume in the cover letter.
  • Look for an eloquent and simple way of expressing who you are.
  • Demonstrate your ability and confidence; don’t just state that you are capable
  • Ask lots of good questions.