By Donna Braquet & Susie Skarl
RRS Committee Co-Chairs, 2003-2005
Had you walked past the Resume Review Service (RRS) at the ALA Placement Center, you may have thought the crowds were in line for a Chicago deep-dish pizza giveaway or free tickets to a Cubs game. From our statistics and comments from both job seekers and resume reviewers, it looks like the Service was a big highlight for many conference attendees! Between Friday and Monday at ALA’s Annual Conference, approximately 335 conference attendees visited our booth and 162 had their resumes reviewed by our terrific group of resume reviewers!
With over 20 volunteers staffing our booth, visitors could sign up for a review appointment, check out the new employment resources provided by ALA’s Placement Center, or just take a chat break between interviews. We’d like to thank our great group of booth volunteers for making the four days run so smoothly!
Our stellar group of resume reviewers came from universities all over the United States, including Vanderbilt, Northeastern, Duke, and Harvard, in addition to many other academic, public, special, and school libraries. In Chicago, we were grateful to have 59 reviewers, with as many as four reviewers at a time during peak hours. Along with years of experience as librarians, many of our reviewers have had extensive experience in the hiring process, on search committees, or in human resource management.
Praise from job seekers was massive. Here are a few of the comments we received on evaluations:
“My reviewer was EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you so much for providing this valuable service.”
“The information was helpful and I am confident that I will have a stronger resume. This is a great service. Thanks!”
“Good & quick service. I would recommend it to everyone job hunting.”
Reviewers in Chicago were equally positive:
“As I’ve said before, this is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done as a professional. Please contact me for San Antonio!”
“I enjoy reviewing and meeting such great new librarians with so much enthusiasm!”
“This is a great service you guys have. I’ll be glad to review at Midwinter!”
As Co-Chairs for the last two years, we’ve had an incredibly rewarding experience on the Resume Review Service Committee, and we’re pretty excited about the increase in job seekers requesting reviews. Back in Midwinter 2004 in San Diego, 60 attendees had their resumes reviewed; while back in Midwinter 2005 in Boston, 113 were reviewed. At Annual 2004, 127 job hunters had their resumes reviewed; while we had 162 in Chicago.
These numbers could not have been possible without the incredible hard work and dedication of NMRT volunteers and our outstanding group of committed resume reviewers. As we sign off as co-chairs, we’d like to say THANK YOU to all of the volunteers and reviewers who made this committee such a successful and positive experience for job seekers. We would also like to say thank you to and to ALA Placement Center Director Beatrice Calvin and her colleagues for making our event in Chicago such a hit!
For those of you who didn’t have an opportunity to have your resume reviewed in Chicago, NMRT members can have their resume and/or cover letter reviewed year-round via e-mail. For full details, visit the RRS website: http://www.geocities.com/nmrtrrs. We will then match your library interests with a reviewer who will critique your resume and send you comments via e-mail within a two-week period.
As we close these exciting two years as co-chairs of the RRS, we’d like to introduce everyone to 2005-06 co-chairs, Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen and Susanne Sacchetti!