Hiring Librarians

Welcome to crowd-sourced CV and resume review for LIS job hunters!

Please help the job hunter below by using the comment button to offer constructive criticism on her resume. Some resources for constructive feedback:

This 2 page resume was submitted by a job hunter who says,

“I’m a new-ish archivist looking for my next opportunity. I’d like to either stay in academic environments and find a growth opportunity, or pivot to corporate archiving from academic libraries. Obviously, I’d need to create a separate resume template for each path; targeted suggestions given this base template are welcome.”

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https://hiringlibrarians.com/2024/08/20/for-public-review-unnamed-job-hunter-30/

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Aug 20, 2024 at 3:20pmWeb
Show threadHiring LibrariansSep 27, 2024

You have some great experience – I see a strong foundation in archives work and some interesting internships. 

I really like that you’ve got links to your work included. 

I would add the Months to your dates for work experience, for both academic and corporate purposes. Curious what others think about that though. It feels like a “norm” to me but maybe it’s an older style? And I’d remove the start year from your degrees. 

I don’t think that “Archives and library experience” needs to be a separate section from “Internship and practical experience”. It is all experience, even if some might have been unpaid. Although I’m a little unclear about what the Participant and the Specialized Heritage educational and advisory program was. Should that be under education instead? 

For academic jobs, I’d move education to the top.  

For academic jobs, I would consider not including any of the Additional Professional Experience section. It doesn’t feel relevant as it is, you have plenty of other experience that is directly relevant, and it is long enough ago that I think you don’t need to share it. The exception would be if you want to support your ability to perform a task asked for in the job ad (for example, if the job wanted grant writing experience, you’d want to include your non-profit position, and you’d also probably then include your software positions so that there wasn’t a gap in employment). 

I know many people do follow the rule of including the last ten years of experience, so if you do think the most recent software company job needs to be included, consider if there’s any way to make it even more relevant to archives – to describe the work using archives language, or even better, language from the job ad. I also have to admit – I don’t know what a Renewals program is. Does this mean getting people who already use the software to keep using the software? I’m not sure if me not knowing this is a me thing, or an industry thing, but you might consider clarifying that in case it’s not just me. 

Personally, I sometimes have a hard time removing experience from my resume because it feels like I’m erasing an accomplishment. But really it’s good editing, and it will provide a clearer picture of why I’m a good hire. Less to read means the key points stick better. 

For corporate positions, I’d move all the experience (including internships) to one section, followed by skills, followed by education. I would maybe just include the military museum internship, and not the local history museum internship or the Specialized Heritage program participant, unless they were directly relevant to the position I was applying to. 

For corporate positions, think about how the work you’d do would differ and that you would almost certainly be sending this to people who had no idea whatsoever about archives. My impression of corporate archival work is that what is available is primarily DAM, and in that instance, you’d want to emphasize your work with digital collections, and specifically how you have made them accessible for current and future users. “Collect and Process” might not hold a lot of value for corporate folks. I have an interview with a corporate archives guy recorded for the next season of the Hiring Librarians podcast. I’ll try to circle back here with the link when it’s live. 

Thank you for submitting this! Your experiences are very interesting and you seem capable and practical. I hope you find your next thing, and that it’s wonderful for you. Best of luck in your search!