ALIA New Grads Webinar

29/11/2022

Subject Area: Selection criteria for position descriptions

Format: Online Webinar

Length:  1 Hour

Audience: Practicing Librarians, library students and new graduates

Organisers: ALIA New Grads

ALIA New Grads hosted a webinar ‘Decoding Selection Criteria’ which included a selection of  panellists who described different selection criteria they had employed with their organisation, broke down certain key phrases used in selection criteria, and how to go about answering selection criteria when applying for jobs in the sector. The panellists each gave a series of tips on what to consider when addressing selection criteria including: 

• pitching yourself as a product for the employer’s needs, by considering what wording works and more accurately explains your skills and experience and what you can bring to the organisation.
• understanding the advertised role, by looking at what isn’t being said as well as what is being said, and not being afraid to contact the recruitment officer to ask for more clarification of a role, or to see if there are certain skills they are looking for that might not be mentioned in the advertisement but that you could possibly meet.
• how joining Special Interest (SI) groups could help grow your network, noting that recruitment officers are more likely to remember your name and how you interact with other members of the group, which offers them the chance to see how you could fit with the team.

 

Throughout, the panellists offered real-world examples of applications that meet criteria from previous applications ranging from various positions that had been previously advertised from their organisations and explained how the successful applicant had answered the selection criteria and worded their transferable skills to match the criteria. Attending this webinar helped me to gain confidence when applying for positions, especially as a student new to the information profession, what skills to highlight in your CV and how to relate transferable skills to the position you are applying for. Utilising the points given in the webinar I had more confidence when I needed to reach out to hosts for our professional placement, and was able to explain how my transferable skills would be beneficial to my host organisation. I have also been more confident in reaching out to recruiting officers for more clarification regarding position descriptions for advertised positions which has led to securing more interviews for positions since attending the webinar.