I recently had the pleasure of attending the ACRL conference in Pittsburgh. While I could have stayed home and attended great sessions from the comfort of my sofa or my cozy office on campus, I was looking forward to being in person again. I enjoyed connecting with colleagues from all over the world. If I heard correctly. we had more first-time attendees than ever before. It was exciting to look out over the audience at the First Time Attendee Orientation on the opening night of the conference. (I was there to introduce the first speaker in my role as Chair of the ACRL Membership Committee.) I hope those who attended the orientation found it helpful and took advantage of the opportunity at the fair to learn about different sections and roundtables in ACRL. I strongly believe there is a place for everyone in ACRL with the variety of committees, roundtables, task forces, and sections.
This is the first time I’ve volunteered at an ACRL conference. I chose to put a couple of hours in at the Career Center as a resume reviewer. As a hiring manager, I have looked at many resumes over the years when hiring for positions at my library. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen any “bad” resumes, but there are ways to stand out with a strong resume that showcases your skills and achievements. Unfortunately, I did not have anyone meet with me during my volunteer time. In fact, there were more volunteers than anyone coming in for help, although a few people did take advantage of the Career Center. Hopefully we didn’t overwhelm anyone when they came in and all the volunteers perked up ready to help, as librarians will do. Still, I don’t begrudge the time I spent volunteering because I got to chat with a librarian from Canada about knitting and travel.
Still, if you are attending any conference that offers a Career Center where you can get help with interviewing, resumes, or just general job search questions, take advantage of it. Even if you are not currently looking for a job, it is important to keep your resume up to date. Plus, you can make connections with other librarians who may be helpful to you in your future job searches.
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