Welcome to crowd-sourced 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 guidelines for constructive feedback are here, and the ALA NMRT has brief tips for reviewing resumes here.
This 3 page resume was submitted by a job hunter who says,
I’ve been using this resume to apply for librarian positions in technical services, in both public and academic libraries.
To submit your resume or CV For Public Review,
- send it as a Word document, PDF, PNG or JPEG to hiringlibrariansresumereviewATgmail.
- It will be posted as-is, so please remove any information that you are not comfortable having publically available (I suggest removing your address and phone number at a minimum).
- Please include a short statement identifying if it’s a resume or CV and
- describing the types of positions you’re using it for (ie institution type, position level, general focus).
- Finally, you will also need to confirm that you agree to comment on at least five other posted resumes.
Hiring Librarians 
Education should be moved to the very top. Under each job title, you should put bullet points for each sentence to make visual separation easier. Also, the positions should be placed in chronological order (preferably newest to oldest).
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In addition to Lisa C. Chen’s advice, I suggest that the applicant revise the resume to highlight professional achievement for/ contributions to current and previous employees. Because the applicant has more than 6 years of professional librarian experience, the applicant’s resume should do more than list responsibilities; it should demonstrate how the applicant made a positive impact on current and previous employers.
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i will respectfully disagree with Lisa, education stays on the bottom unless you are a new graduate with little work experience.
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I concur with Kacie. Do NOT put education at the top unless you have no practical experience. If you plan on working in an academic library then I would change your resume to CV format. I also would break apart Skills into Library Related and other because knowing an ILS or MARC is way different than knowing Word. It is nice to have the separation.
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I would suggest adding a little pizzazz to your CV. The formatting is very basic and has limited visual appeal. While you don’t want to go overboard with font faces and sizes, you might want to consider dressing up your top matter (enlarging your name, collapsing the contact info) and adding bullet points throughout for readability.
Regarding your education – place it where you’re most comfortable. I prefer seeing someone’s education listed first so that I don’t have to wonder if they have the degree required, if the degree is in hand, or if they have other, relevant education that might benefit them in the position for which they have applied.
If I were you, I would consider moving the volunteer position towards the end of the résumé (especially given the name of the blog for which you work). I must admit that “I Need a Library Job” was the first thing I saw on your résumé, and it was a big turnoff. If this item were listed towards the end of your CV and positioned under Volunteer Experience (or some such title), I would have thought it was cute or catchy. But, in its current position, it looks like a plea for work.
Lastly, you can remove coursework, internet resources and databases, social networking, and operating systems from your skill sets. These are a given in most work environments. If you feel the need to address certain things (say, your relevant coursework), you can add that information to your cover letter. But, considering that you graduated nearly 8 years ago, it might be best to leave that information out unless you’re referring to relevant continuing education coursework.
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I agree with Kacie that Education should not be moved to the top of your resume.
I also agree with Taylor V. that you need to add a little pizzazz to your resume. Here’s an example of a visually appealing resume:
http://opencoverletters.com/2014/04/26/metadata-librarian-cover-letter-resume-and-references/
Move your “Skills” section to the top of your resume and tailor it for each job application. I would recommend dividing your skills into columns. Be sure to clearly state which internet resources and online databases you have experience with.
Good luck!
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I think we’re pretty much all agreed that you should use bullet points to high lite work experience, etc. I think you could put your education either at the top or bottom, but Taylor V. makes a good point that potential employers may want to see this first since that is usually the first requirement for a librarian position. Wherever you place it, if you graduated with a particularly good GPA you may also want to include that. Also, you might use this more as a primary resume, revising it to suite specific job positions you apply for, including experience and education that are relevant and omitting that which are not. Finally, if you do that, consider re-wording it a little to specify certain areas of work experience relevant to the job description; for example, instead of “Performed circulation services using…” say “Circulation services –” and give a concise description. Since you’ll be deleting some material you can go into a little more detail in certain areas.
You have plenty of experience and useful skills to draw from.
Good Luck!
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Given your years in the profession, I’ll go with leave the education further down the CV. In addition to the skills you have, emphasize accomplishments–did you start the Library’s FB page? Are there committees you chair?
I would leave the skills in only as they apply to the requirements listed in the positions for which you are applying. Otherwise they are pretty standard. I would leave the Spanish language skill in as it does set you apart.
I agree with the need for bullets too.
You have a broad range of experience, if you are seeking to move out of tech services, you will need to emphasize your public services experience.
Join a couple professional organizations and include those too.
I concur with the suggestion to put the Volunteer editorial position in a separate category near the end of the document.
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Full disclosure that I’m viewing this resume through the lens of how my university works. At my university, we prescreen applicants to verify that they have any degree that is required so you can guess I want to see the education section at the top of the CV.
I second Johnnie’s advice to provide more detail under your experience particularly your current position. On an earlier resume, a commenter recommended quantifying experience as suggested in https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-quantify-your-resume-bullets-when-you-dont-work-with-numbers. An example might be to provide some idea of the quantity of materials that you process or catalog.
I am concerned that your resume does not give any evidence of engagement in the profession outside of the blog. Again, at my university librarians are expected to have some service to the community and profession. Perhaps you’ve volunteered at a conference or two? If so, list this.
Random comments ahead:
• Do you supervise any staff in your current position?
• In your skills section, you mention some cataloging tools. I suggest integrating that information into your description of your current job.
• Under the first reference assistant position, give more details as to why you analyzed the geography collection. What did you do with the information?
• In the same section, you list creating library instruction web pages. Did you use LibGuides or a similar tool? If so, tell us that.
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