CILIP New Professionals Day 2012 part 3

The final part of the day contained talks from Bethan Ruddock and Phil Bradley.

How to assemble your New Professionals Toolkit

Bethan introduced us to the New Professionals Toolkit and the 5 tools we need;

• Tool 1 - networks - you probably already have one, people you know at work, met at college etc. You can also create networks using social media, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or join groups such as LISNPN
• Tool 2 - mentors - scarily she suggested that there is a chance we could be mentors ourselves, without even knowing it! (I worry for sanity of anyone who would choose me)
• Tool 3 - resources - there is so much out there it can be hard to know where to begin, but you could use your networks to help point you in the direction of resources that would be beneficial to your career
• Tool 4 - a plan - Where are you now? Where do you want to go? How can you get there? You could do a skills audit, and keep an eye out for job adverts for your dream job, you can check on any gaps in your skills and experience and start working towards filling them now
• Tool 5 - a voice - think about the kind of contribution you want to make to the profession (time and skills allowing)

She finished off with advising that we remember to keep our balance and conserve our energy!

 

 

Social Media now and into you Future Career

The final speaker was Phil Bradley, who began by stating that social media is information, and as information professionals we deal with information in all its formats.

"We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we DO it" Erik Qualman (Socialnomics)

He suggested we all make sure we are engaging with social media, and showed us that Google searches now routinely return social rather than traditional media (websites) results. Using social media brings the information you need to you, no longer have to go out looking for it. "Less search, more finding"

However, when he started listing all the various tools you could use, and the many social media accounts he engages with, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. It was a long list, and I'm not sure how he manages it, I barely manage to keep on top of the few that I currently use. I wasn't the only one who was feeling this way, one of the questions put to the speakers at the end was whether it was better to try to spread yourself thinly over all areas, or just focus on a few which you can use in more depth. The general consensus seemed to be that while you should spend some time trying everything out, so that you are aware of them and can recommend them where appropriate, it may be better to restrict your own use to only a few social media tools.