Make your mark. Develop a career statement.

Last updated on 5 January 2018

Following my last blog post about how a personal professional development plan can assist LIS newbies with discussing career aspirations, I got to thinking about another valuable activity (completed as part of my Masters ePortfolio) that has assisted me with gaining a sense of direction. So while I’m on the subject on career and professional development planning, I’ll share with you the “career statement”.

I share this experience as a LIS newbie professional, a testament of how important and valuable developing a career statement can be for future reflection and planning. I’m by no means an expert on the subject. I recommend this exercise to students and newbie info pros just starting out, as well as any more established professionals seeking clarity or to explore alternatives.

Over four years ago now, I was faced with this task of developing a career statement in the study guide for the Professional Practice unit of my Masters course. I’ll admit the task appeared daunting, and like the personal professional development plan, I tried to seek out all the resources I could to gain a clear idea of what this statement might look like and say. Turns out there is no magic formula to develop a career statement. Completing the task itself is the only way. Probably my most used resource was “The Personal Development Handbook” which allowed me to explore my values and strengths, among other things. And even still, this book didn’t see me arrive at my career statement ‘tah dah!’

Whether you start with the personal professional development, goal setting or the career statement, I don’t think it really matters. I started with defining what I really valued and the sort of things I’m seeking in a career, and goal setting. I brainstormed possible sectors I could find myself working, my professional interests and what I feel I’m good at. I went back to the roots of why I’m in this profession in the first place and the joys I had from an early age from learning, reading, seeking new and interesting information and facts and curiosity. From here, the career statement evolved. My career statement has two distinct parts:

• what will I do, provide, give
• to what end, what outcome/s, what difference do I aim to make in the world, the profession, the community, whatever.

There is no set format for how a career statement should look. I thought of a career statement as essentially like a mission statement for a company. You could do a video of yourself, a presentation, a painting, a collage, a poem or even in the humble written form. I’ve temporarily decided on the written format, but perhaps one day I’ll explore my creative side with it.

Here are some questions I asked myself to get you started.

1. What interests or draws you into the LIS profession?
2. What gives you joy?
3. What is your mission? What contribution do you seek to make?
4. What would you like to see as fruits of your labour?

There are a number of reasons why you should have a career statement. Here are a few I’ve thought about:

• looking at job advertisements and position descriptions while job hunting it can be easy to be swept up. A career statement can help you to be strategic with your search and avoid the risk of potentially heading in the wrong direction. This is not to say that an unexpected turn in direction can lead you up the career garden path. But a career statement can be a good reminder about what you seek in different positions.
• as a newbie there is so much to learn, you might ask ‘how am I supposed to know my career direction?!’ But what you could do with your career statement is turn it into a skills shopping list. What skills and experience will you need to fulfil your mission?
• a career statement is a call on you to commit to making the difference you wish to make. Use it however you wish or feel comfortable to make it happen.
• finally, and this is one of the purposes for my career statement, is that it can be a useful reflection tool. I’d like to look back on my career statement in about three, five, ten years time.

Ultimately, I believe a career statement is a personal process. There are no right or wrong ways to do it or answers. It took me a long time to figure that out! A career statement is not set in stone, but I think it captures your thinking at a given time and gives you something to refer to when in need of guidance. It certainly does that for me.