Career Development Modules

Curriculum Vitae

Annette Messell

a.messell88@gmail.com

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Using skills I have developed throughout my university career, as well as experiences gained through personal development, I hope to gain a role in the LIS profession.

CURRENTLY STUDYING

 

Februrary 2013 - July 2014.
Masters in Information Technology - Library and Information Science.
                        QUT - Gardens Point Campus.

EDUCATION

 

Tertiary

January 2011 - July 2011
Certificate IV TESOL - Gold Coast Institute of TAFE (Teaching English as a Second                 Language)

January 2010 - November 2010
Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) - Specialist Teaching Areas: English and                         Study of Religion. University of Queensland.

January 2007 - November 2009
Bachelor of Arts - Majors in Writing and Religious Studies. University of Queensland.

Secondary

2001 - 2006 -  Higher School Certificate - St Michael’s College, Merrimac.

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT

September 2011 - October 2012

English Language Teacher - GnB English Academy. Hwajeong, South Korea.

• Responsible for teaching Elementary, Middle, and High School students.

• Creating and implementing lesson plans.

• Accommodating different learner levels into planning.

• Liaise with the Korean English teachers to ensure that standards were being kept.

• Conduct telephone English conversations for higher level students.

• One to One conversation classes preparing students for study overseas.

• Host the annual English Performance for the school.

• Plan and prepare summer camp activities for advanced English learners.

• Keep meticulous records and assess individual students on their performance monthly.

 

OTHER EXPERIENCE 

 

Waitress October 2012 - February 2013.
Garlic Clove Restaurant (Emerald Lakes, Gold Coast)

Front of House 2008-2010
Oporto Fast Food Restaurant (Pacific Fair, Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast)

Host/Waitress/Bartender 2006-2008
Lonestar Steakhouse and Saloon (Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast)

Statement of Career Goals

I am still very new to the LIS profession so I am cautious about boxing myself into one particular career path. My past experience with high school students told me that I enjoyed working with young people, just not in a classroom setting. This leads me to believe that working as a Youth Librarian would fulfill my passion for helping young people engage with self-education and helping them to realise their dreams. Many of my life goals fit in with my career goals, these are listed below:

1. Help young people realise their potential.
2. Work in an environment where creativity is encouraged.
3. Find work that allows me to travel, either for work or pleasure.
4. Work in a role that has good career progression and provides a challenge.

Professional Development Plan

Below is a brief table stating my plan for personal and professional development for the next 5 years. I expect this plan will change as the years go on, I will strive to update this plan every 6 months, making sure to highlight the goals I have achieved.

 

Linked-In Reflection

My experience with Linked-In is limited to what I have done for this semester and admittedly, it is not much. When I look at Linked-In and see the profiles I see professional individuals who have very established careers and skill-sets. When I think of myself as a Master’s student with very little ‘real world’ experience, I begin to doubt my relevance on a site like Linked-In at such an early stage in my career. I can see the benefits of being exposed to people in the LIS industry through my connections and I can see why people would utilise this service to make more connections, it’s just at this stage I am still a unconfident in my abilities.

I have expressed in earlier reflections about my initial reservations for networking. I need to practice my networking skills and accept that it is a natural part of business practice, Linked-In is just an online extension of that. The more I think about it, the more I feel like Linked-In is like a dating site... but for professionally minded people. When you go out to a bar/club/professional conference, the idea is the same: you get dressed up and think of interesting things to say so you can meet people and (hopefully) take them out to coffee. Personally, I get nervous in these situations and I would like to think I am not alone. For the most part I feel like everyone is standing on the sidelines wanting to talk to the person they spotted across the room but are too nervous to make the first move. On a dating site, or professional networking site like Linked-In it is an even playing field. Networking (or dating) in the online world is more transparent, everyone is there for the same reason: to network and expand their business contacts. Linked-In makes networking seem less contrived, at least for me.

My profile is far from being complete, even at my limited skill level. I have yet to really think about my professional skills, upload a professional photo of myself, or even start networking with fellow students. Once I start to feel more comfortable in the online world of social networking I think I will utilise Linked-In in my professional life.

Twitter Reflection

I would be lying if I said I was good at using social media. I only started to use Twitter because it was requested of us in the course. I resisted Twitter for a number of reasons, the main reason being I thought it was just a place for celebrities and really bored people to stroke their ego. To me, Twitter was anything but professional and just another waste of time; however, in the past semester I have discovered that Twitter is so much more than that.

Using 140 characters to compose a meaningful ‘Tweet’ is harder than it looks, but I like the challenge. I liked the Twitter activities we were required to participate in, they were useful because they ‘forced’ us to really explore the world of Twitter and become involved. During these exercises I began to fall in love with this new form of communication. There are so many opportunities to network and keep up with what is going on in the world with a simple click of a button or ‘Re-Tweet’.

I was mildly surprised to find out that Twitter was a primary form of communication between people in the LIS industry. I say mildly surprised because I have come to learn that LIS professionals are always on the cutting edge, and what finer way to communicate new advances in the profession than technologically in 140 characters or less?

Once I become more technologically savvy ie. get a smart phone, I fear I will become addicted to Twitter. Admittedly, this fear comes with a lot of excitement for how much I am going to learn about the LIS profession and how many people I can get to ‘follow’ me.

Workshop 7: Moving Out into the Profession

This workshop was somewhat bittersweet because it marked the end of semester and the last time many of us would see each other until next semester. The guest speakers for this session were there to give us advice about moving into the professional world, from how to conduct ourselves professionally to how to find a job.

I found the advice about networking particularly helpful. While a part of me has always been opposed to networking, I am now becoming aware of just how valuable it is. I used to see networking as an underhanded tool to get jobs and advance your career. Now I see networking as a legitimate business practice, kind of like an art-form that is accepted and used by everyone to make contacts. I think networking is a skill that I need to practice and develop. I find it intimidating to introduce myself to people who I have something to gain from knowing. This also lends to an idea which has permeated through this course and which was reiterated in the workshop, which is to keep up with the LIS industry and know about the recent developments in the field.

One highlight of the guest speakers was the discussion around ethics and legal responsibility. The guest speaker, Fiona Doyle, worked in a medical library so she face a number of ethical and legal implications. At the end of the day I think it comes down to plain common sense - and this was a theme through out the speakers on the night. Using common sense to handle an ethical situation, using common sense when speaking with potential employers, and using common sense when writing a CV.

I like that the last workshop focused on moving out into the profession. It made the semester seem ‘real’ and made me feel like I am becoming a real Information Professional.

Workshop 6: Being GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums)

For whatever reason, until this workshop I had never thought about galleries and museums being associated with libraries and archives. After listening to the guest speakers in the workshop and even just looking at the title of this workshop (GLAM), I finally understood they all had something much more in common than I thought. I think that my initial reaction to GLAM is what one of the speakers, Katherine Howard, was researching: the disconnection between these four cultural heritage institutions. At the end of the day, GLAM are tasked with documenting history and the professionals that work in these fields have the skills to do this. The fact that I didn’t associate GLAM with each other shows either my complete ignorance or that the separation between these institutions is much greater than it should be.

I think it is right to want to incorporate these four big institutions in the name of cultural heritage. As mentioned in the lecture, the professionals that work in these environments have overlapping skills which could lend to developing professional experience. I like the idea of moving through each of these areas and working across boundaries. The challenges of merging these four very different environments seem many, but I think an attempt should be made to integrate them. I know it is an idealistic view, but I like the idea of working in an environment where resources and cultural heritage can be shared and viewed simultaneously. This lecture has sparked an interest in me to delve further into GLAM and hopefully gain more insight into the issue.

Workshop 5: Research Led Libraries

When I applied to study at QUT at the beginning of 2013 I initially wanted to study my Masters in Education to become a teacher-librarian. I hadn’t met many teacher-librarians before, save for the ones I encountered in primary school and high school. At the last-minute I decided to change to the Masters in IT and I don’t regret that decision, but I am still interested to find out more about teacher-librarianship. The workshop for this week featured a guest speaker, Anne Gillespie, spoke to us about her work as a teacher-librarian and PhD in evidence-based practice.

I found much of her talk useful and informative, particularly in explaining the benefits and strategies she used to incorporate evidence-based practice in her work environment. Much of her work incorporated reflective practice and her Reflect Plan Act cycle helped to illustrate how evidence-based practice can be conducted. I liked that goal-setting, benchmarking, influence building, and reflection all contribute to improving professional practice.

In the second hour of the workshop, Helen expanded on evidence-based practice and discussed whether or not librarianship is a profession. In terms of EBP, the most interesting thought of the workshop for me, was the story of the blind men and the elephant. At the end of the day, there is no wrong or right way to conduct EBP, every individual will have a different experience and different opinion. I really connect with this idea, mainly because there is a qualitative aspect to it and somehow knowing that the experiences of the librarians have been lived provides more validity than ‘hard’ facts.

Workshop 4: A Learning Profession

When I think about being a reflective practitioner, which was the first workshop of this semester, I immediately think of learning. Library and Information Science is definitely a learning profession and anyone who says it isn’t is lying! As a new student to LIS, it is intimidating to learn that the whole profession is constantly changing and that keeping current most important job for a professional. The amount of information I need to process as a student is overwhelming but I understand that it is important to learn and to continue learning.

The guest speakers in this workshop were really candid and provided great tips for being a learning professional. Some of the advice they gave was seemingly obvious, but at the same time I think needed to be said out loud in order to be fully understood. I really connected with the idea of taking advantage of the situation at hand and do not rest on being ‘comfortable’. I think a great part of learning is to challenge oneself to be better. I like the idea of a challenge and I think in the LIS professionals need to really push themselves to remain on the cutting edge of knowledge and technology.

I also identified with the more tangible ways of learning, ie. reading a wide range of sources including journal articles, social media, etc. The idea of networking and using the people around me to learn from and in turn teach is a fantastic way of staying connected and aware. I was interested to learn about the professional development program with ALIA as well.

The biggest lesson I took from this workshop was that professional development and becoming a learning practitioner is a largely self-driven process. This requires motivation and determination, which I know I have in spades.

Workshop 3: What is the Library and Information Science Profession?

This workshop consisted of a number of small presentations by LIS professionals from different fields. These professionals were from a wide range of areas including:

Records Management Supervisor
Heritage library Co-ordinator
Technical Services Librarian
Youth Outreach Librarian
Research librarian.

To be completely honest, at the beginning of this degree I came with the intention of eventually working at a public library. What I have learned through out the past couple of weeks as well as this lecture, is that being an information professional extends so far beyond the traditional role of a librarian.

I become excited when I think of all the opportunities that are available to me in the future. The presentation I learned the most from in this workshop was Laney Robinson, the Youth Outreach Librarian at Logan City Council Libraries. She had at least 6 different roles spanning a twenty-year period, all involving public library services for young people. After discovering that classroom teaching was not an area I wanted to pursue, I began to look for a career that could combine my love for reading and knowledge with my love for helping young people. I was vaguely aware that youth librarians existed and was happy to hear Laney speak about her experience.

I wonder if a librarian is a vocation or a profession. I feel like all the events in my life had led me to this point, never before in an academic setting have I been so sure about what I want to do. In terms of a profession I believe librarians need to govern themselves professionally and have a professional code of conduct. I think a healthy combination of both these areas, with a dose of unique disciplinary knowledge makes for a good librarian, and a librarian that I will strive to be in my future career.

Workshop 2: Understanding Who I Am: an MBTI Workshop.

The MBTI workshop was really interesting and a lot of fun to participate in. I only knew of Myers Briggs by name, I had never taken a test before participating in this workshop. I knew that Myers Briggs is used as a tool by HR managers to assess personality traits for new employees to a company. As an information professional or in any profession for that matter, the ability to know your own personality is so important. Having the ability to know your general strengths and weaknesses gives you the opportunity to pay attention to yourself and work on the areas that need to be worked on.

After taking the test I was surprised to find out that I was “The Nurturer” or ISFJ: Introverted. Sensing. Feeling. Judging. According to the website BSM Consulting, ISFJ are:

“Quiet, kind, and conscientious. Can be depended on to follow through. Usually puts the needs of others above their own needs. Stable and practical, they value security and traditions. Well-developed sense of space and function. Rich inner world of observations about people. Extremely perceptive of other's feelings. Interested in serving others.”

I was not surprised to learn that the majority of people who enter LIS are generally introverted. This made me think of two stereotypes of librarians, the first being meek and shy, the second being harsh and intimidating. How did this stereotype come about? and was I going to to be a stereotype?

One of the main points that I took from this workshop was that just because I fell into the ‘introverted’ category didn’t mean I could use it as an excuse. Like everything else in life, I need to work on and practice my ‘extroverted’ skills. I really like the idea of knowing which way I lean so I know how to behave in social and professional situations.

Workshop 1: The Reflective Practitioner

When I think of the words, “reflective practice” I am reminded of my graduate studies in Education. In 2010 I undertook a Graduate Diploma of Education at the University of Queensland. I was intending to become a high school English and Religious Studies teacher. Through out the year I was encouraged to actively reflect on my teaching practice. The purpose of this -my lecturers and professional mentors insisted- was to learn from our ‘mistakes’ and become better educators. Initially I was resistant to the idea of reflection, I often asked myself why it was relevant and doubted that something akin to diary writing could help me develop professionally. How wrong I was. By the end of the year I was reflecting every week during my studies and after every practical lesson I taught. After I graduated I began to feel depressed about my state of unemployment. In my apathy towards seeking meaningful employment I looked over my reflections again and realised something that I had felt all along and wasn’t admitting: that explicit classroom teaching was not for me and that my heart just wasn’t in education.

Now, in 2013, a couple of years after my graduate studies, I find myself in a happier place and I have reflective practice to thank for that. To be honest, I did not realise that reflective practice was such a large part of LIS. I am excited to utilise the e-portfolio that is required for this course. I believe it is a useful, fun, and dynamic tool that will be helpful in my professional development. While I have not given much thought to the process at this stage, I am contemplating using a blogging website ie. wordpress rather than the QUT e-portfolio. In terms of a reflective framework to structure a reflection, I generally ask myself three simple questions:

What happened?

Why did it happen?

How can I improve?

I am genuinely excited to begin my journey as an information professional. I believe that professionals never stop learning and reflective practice is a tool for us to keep searching for knowledge.