My Professional Brand

I've been getting a bit behind and I think this "thing" was the reason.  I got a bit stuck here.  

I was fairly pleased with my incognito Google search.  In the main, I'm careful with my Facebook profile, I try to keep my security settings high as I keep it for personal contact.  Having a young child my Facebook is mainly filled with pictures of him and my contact with other mums - not the most professional but absolutely essential to my sanity!  My only point of concern is that my name would be connected with our work Facebook as I am one of the main contributors and Facebook does attribute page posts to personal users.

I've been on Twitter for a good few years though I'm not prolific, I tend to retweet.  I did notice that my Twitter profile picture is a baby photo so have resolved to update that ASAP.  Twitter also gave me pause for thought though.  I use Twitter at work being the main person behind our account but my personal Twitter very much reflects my politics and my passion for social justice.  In terms of professional brand, how much is this likely to affect potential employers or partnership working in future?  I'm still undecided on this, but I'd hope it wouldn't be a negative as I wouldn't want to hide who I am.

I had a LinkedIn account a few years ago but deleted it after a security issue.  I opened a new one a few months ago but didn't get round to updating it.  I've been working on it this evening but it's definitely highlighted the need to update my CV.

All in all, a difficult "thing" for me but I am starting to have an inkling of where I'd like to take my career over the next few years and professional branding is going to be crucial so it's something I'll keep working on.

So who becomes a librarian?

I spent all my childhood with my head in books.  I visited the local library every week and was never out of the school library.  I even have family who work/have worked in libraries.  I just never considered it for myself.  I went to uni straight from school not having a clue what I wanted to do so just went for a course I thought would get me a job - business studies - and hated it.  I left just before the end of my first year and went to work in financial services.  After 3 years of working to look after the interests of people with lots of money I knew it wasn't for me.  I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I wanted it to be something that contributed to wider society.  I went back to uni and came out with a 2:1 in Social Sciences.  I loved my degree, I loved studying for it, I made the best use of all the resources that were available to me and I honestly don't think I'd have passed if it haven't been for the library.  I still didn't think of becoming a librarian - slow on the uptake or just a profession not very good at shouting from the rooftops - you decide!

Just before my final exams I took advantage of an appointment with a careers advisor.  They rewrote my cv and pointed me towards some vacancy sites where I found out about graduate traineeships in libraries.  The seed was planted and I applied and was accepted for a years graduate traineeship in a university library.  In the intervening summer I worked in public libraries and that's when the penny dropped - this is what I wanted to do.

After my year in the uni, I studied for an MSc in Library and Information studies and was lucky enough to get a job in public libraries before I'd even written my thesis.  I spent 5 years behind the scenes in cataloging and acquisitions before moving front of house as a branch librarian.  I'm now in my second branch library and have just finished a secondment in a school library.  

I love public libraries, I'm passionate about what we do and feel we should and could be doing so much more.  The fact is we're a soft target for cuts but more and more is being piled on us with welfare reform.  It infuriates me that despite the vast amount of research linking early literacy to attainment and as a way out of poverty we're constantly firefighting to deal with the consequences rather than put the work in now to improve things for future generations.