January 19, 2023

Topic: Employment Search Support

Attendance:

Erica, Powderly

Alisha, BPL

Jacob, Gardendale

Lynn, West End

Rikki

Nicole, Tarrant

Maura, Trussville

Shannon, Hoover

This is a vital part of our service in helping patrons on an everyday basis! It includes resume writing, interview skills, and finding jobs online. Resources online differ and there is a lot of clickbait out there that can be a waste of time to those searching for jobs.

Jacob: Technology librarian for Gardendale. It's helpful to search on Google for local jobs, then go to company's webpage for more information. Facebook Community Groups often posts local jobs. Some success with Indeed - but you have to set up an Indeed resume through them. It does garble it up when you input data - so helping patrons is tougher. Better to use MS Word for resume - there are templates for resumes and they are FREE. We have to be careful to guide people away from websites that will offer to create resumes because patrons will spend hours crafting a resume only to find they have to pay for it. Some patrons use Alabama Works, a platform for making resumes, list experiences, job board - same as Alabama Career Center.

Lynn brought up AL Career Center for library jobs within BPL. For municipalities, you go to the city website for jobs & applying. Diane Blaylock has been helpful in getting people hired by the library.

Cherleen sent an email about Indeed and the amount of fraudulent claims for jobs which are actually just seeking personal information. America's Virtual One Stop https://www.americasvos.com/vosnet/Default.aspx might be one to consider.

Erica had a patron that was 18 or 19 and she was applying for the post office. She didn't understand how to apply for a job online. She didn't know she needed to know her previous supervisors name & number, her work dates, etc. Patrons need to understand what a basic job application will require before beginning. Easier if they know up front! (What do they cover in high school??? Probably don't have life skills class or a bad counselor!) Erica says one drawback is that we can tell a patron that a website is fraudulent but they want the job so bad they won't heed our advice.

Hoover received an email from the Alabama Department of Labor that does presentations on resume writing and interviewing skills, Alan Scott Hahn from the AL Dept of Labor has presentations at the ready - office number is 205-663-2542; email alan.hahn@alcc.alabama.gov

 

Middleman websites often have jobs listed that are already closed - so going to a company website to verify is essential. Look for applicable career associations that may have job boards, like our own American Library Assn, etc.

 

It is undoubtedly a very frustrating job helping those in need of jobs. The news will say there are jobs out there going unfilled but our job is connect people to these positions.

 

Maura says staff time often limits the amount of help we can give. Frustrating for patrons applying for jobs that don't require computer skills but they have to apply online. Sometimes they want us to do it all for them because they don't have the time to learn the skill.

 

Sometimes these clearinghouse sites have multi-level marketing scams that we have to steer patrons away from. We don't have the time to teach those skills of discernment.

 

Probably the most frustrating is what Jacob mentioned at the end: patron wants a job that requires NO use of technology - no computer skills needed at all. How do we find those and how can we be sure!?