LIS Career Week is an annual professional development initiative
empowering LIS students & alumni to explore pathways, build
networks, & prepare for impactful careers across the evolving
landscape of information work.
Description
Graduating with your MLIS soon? Come talk to two full-time
librarians at IU Indianapolis as they show how you can craft superb
cover letters to land you that first interview! They bring perspective
from both sides of the hiring process.
- Designed for MLIS students, recent grads, or alumni wishing to brush up on their skills.
Workshop facilitators
Gary Maixner
User Experience Librarian and Liaison to Communication Studies
- Maixner has served on multiple hiring committees for full-time librarian positions.
Rachel Moilna
Digital Publishing and Repository Librarian
- Molina is an alumna of IU Luddy Indy (MLIS 2024).
Slides & Resources from the workshop:
https://go.iu.edu/8t0u
Note from the speakers:
"Thanks so much for attending our workshop on writing cover letters for librarians! We’d love to keep in touch, and know if our workshop contributed to your success in landing your first library job! Feel free to reach out to Gary Maixner or Rachel Molina through email or LinkedIn!"
Applicant tracking systems came up in the live discussion. While not as common in academic hiring, here are some notes from Luddy Career Services on ATS: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are used in some hiring processes alongside human review of application materials. When formatting your resume to pass review by ATS, these tips can be helpful:
- Avoid italicized font, as some ATS are not able to read italics. Bold, underline, and regular font are acceptable.
- Avoid writing anything in the header and footer, as these sections are sometimes ignored by ATS. Keep text in the body of the document.
- Avoid inserting columns (How to Add and Remove Columns in Word), as some ATS cannot read text formatted into columns.
- Write out acronyms fully. so the ATS registers the keywords you are using.
- Some ATS scan not only for relevant keywords, but also for how frequently they appear in the resume. Find relevant keywords from the job description and use them throughout your resume, wherever they are applicable.
- Tailor your resume to the specific opportunity you are applying to by only showcasing the strongest, most relevant work, project, and volunteer experience in a 1-page document.
- Be sure to submit the correct file type; the application will most likely let you know if it can accept PDFs, Word Documents, or other files.
- Ensure any links on your resume (such as to your LinkedIn profile or portfolio) are up to date and functioning.