Resumes and the Older Librarian
May 4, 2020 10:13 PM Subscribe
Looking for apps and suggestions for (re)creating a resume after being in the same job for seventeen years.
I've been furloughed from the job that I've had for over seventeen years, and am a bit nervous about my future job prospects with my long-term employer, especially as the furlough has just been extended for another month. It has been so long since I've even looked at another job (over a decade) that I no longer have access to an electronic copy of my old resume. Not to worry, too much, since my current job is now the bulk of my professional experience, but it's been a while since I've sent one of these things out and the best current prospect (at my old alma mater, not that far from where I currently live, and in the professional subspecialty that's what I do now) wants me to apply electronically. Are there any apps (iOS preferred) that I can use to knock something together quickly? Also other resources would be appreciated.
I've been furloughed from the job that I've had for over seventeen years, and am a bit nervous about my future job prospects with my long-term employer, especially as the furlough has just been extended for another month. It has been so long since I've even looked at another job (over a decade) that I no longer have access to an electronic copy of my old resume. Not to worry, too much, since my current job is now the bulk of my professional experience, but it's been a while since I've sent one of these things out and the best current prospect (at my old alma mater, not that far from where I currently live, and in the professional subspecialty that's what I do now) wants me to apply electronically. Are there any apps (iOS preferred) that I can use to knock something together quickly? Also other resources would be appreciated.
As far as "other resources" go, you might be interested in poking around Open Cover Letters (it's all library jobs).
posted by unknowncommand at 1:33 AM on May 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by unknowncommand at 1:33 AM on May 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
Websites like Creative Market have a lot of good-looking templates for resumes and covering letters, mostly in Word format, priced at a handful of dollars. I used one recently, and it worked.
posted by Hogshead at 6:46 AM on May 5, 2020
posted by Hogshead at 6:46 AM on May 5, 2020
Best answer: Librarian here! My preference has always been to keep it simple.
My recommendation: since you'll have electronic applications, do a master file list that includes name of where you worked, location, dates (to the month), your job title while there, and then a shorter version of your duties (for those forms where they only give you 200 or 500 characters) and a complete version that you edit down as needed (in bullet points or similar: I usually do dashes and carriage returns, since they transfer into electronic tools better.)
This doesn't need to be formatted in any sort of fancy way, you just want something so you can copy and paste your info into the form as needed without having to recreate it from scratch each time. (This is also a good time to think about possible references and do a list of their information somewhere handy. )
And then do a file in whatever word processing program you like that can produce a PDF, with a simple layout. (I use Pages, for slightly better layout control than GoogleDocs).
Mine has my name in big font at the top, my contact information below, and a brief overview of my experience (5ish bullet points - how long I've been working in libraries, particular areas of interest/focus/experience).
Then my professional experience, additional skills (that are notable, like I've been the hotel chair for events before and am familiar with the degree of planning involved there, and contract negotiations, and there's sometimes useful crossover into library events planning.)
The only fancy formatting I do other than bolding is that I do have it in a table where I have the name of the place I worked (with city/state), and a brief summary (i.e. mine say "independent school", "state university", etc. to give a little context.) If you've been working for a major institution around where you're applying for work, you probably don't need that, but my last round of job hunting I had jobs from half way across the country, where people wouldn't know the type of institution.
Alison Green at AskAManager also has tons of info, and her book was priceless to me in my last two rounds of job hunting. The open threads on Fridays have a number of librarians participating, if you want feedback on things, too.
posted by jenettsilver at 7:54 AM on May 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
My recommendation: since you'll have electronic applications, do a master file list that includes name of where you worked, location, dates (to the month), your job title while there, and then a shorter version of your duties (for those forms where they only give you 200 or 500 characters) and a complete version that you edit down as needed (in bullet points or similar: I usually do dashes and carriage returns, since they transfer into electronic tools better.)
This doesn't need to be formatted in any sort of fancy way, you just want something so you can copy and paste your info into the form as needed without having to recreate it from scratch each time. (This is also a good time to think about possible references and do a list of their information somewhere handy. )
And then do a file in whatever word processing program you like that can produce a PDF, with a simple layout. (I use Pages, for slightly better layout control than GoogleDocs).
Mine has my name in big font at the top, my contact information below, and a brief overview of my experience (5ish bullet points - how long I've been working in libraries, particular areas of interest/focus/experience).
Then my professional experience, additional skills (that are notable, like I've been the hotel chair for events before and am familiar with the degree of planning involved there, and contract negotiations, and there's sometimes useful crossover into library events planning.)
The only fancy formatting I do other than bolding is that I do have it in a table where I have the name of the place I worked (with city/state), and a brief summary (i.e. mine say "independent school", "state university", etc. to give a little context.) If you've been working for a major institution around where you're applying for work, you probably don't need that, but my last round of job hunting I had jobs from half way across the country, where people wouldn't know the type of institution.
Alison Green at AskAManager also has tons of info, and her book was priceless to me in my last two rounds of job hunting. The open threads on Fridays have a number of librarians participating, if you want feedback on things, too.
posted by jenettsilver at 7:54 AM on May 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
I used Creddle to design my resume last year. My favorite feature is that anything you add is dynamically resized so it always fits on a single page.
posted by theodolite at 7:55 AM on May 5, 2020
posted by theodolite at 7:55 AM on May 5, 2020
Response by poster: Follow-up: Thanks for all the responses! I did apply and used Pages for my resume template. We'll see what happens!
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:39 PM on May 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:39 PM on May 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by RichardP at 10:44 PM on May 4, 2020 [2 favorites]