Decision resume

A three-day weekend, even a freezing three day weekend, was the perfect antidote to conference exhaustion and first day of classes overload. Rest, relaxation, and shopping therapy, revived me and I felt capable of putting together coherent documents; specifically a cover letter and accompanying resume to apply for an academic librarian job opening. After my angst concerning choosing resume or CV, I determined it would be most beneficial to supply the form of reference asked for by the job opening; in this case a resume was requested.

It was challenging to create a sharp, focused resume out of my lengthy CV. The existing document was compiled at the request of my boss for our library's academic review at the beginning of the year. Since then, I had worked steadily to update the online version for my personal benefit and because of various accreditation processes ongoing at work. Creating a new resume including the most pertinent of the current CV information and that fulfilled the announcement requirements took longer than I thought it would. While CV's have no specific length, resumes should generally be confined to two pages. This means my cover letter/letter of application needed to address current project and information not specified in the resume itself; always a delicate balancing act.

I enjoyed creating the application materials packet as a PDF and emailing it to the co-chairs of the search committee. What a nice change from mail and printing and lapsed time between submission and receipt. There were a few dicey moments when the size of the pdf (seven pages including package cover courtesy of Word 07, application letter, resume (2), references, and undergrad and grad transcripts) was swallowed by my first my gmail account and then my personal ISP email account, but alls well that ends well. The second job I am considering requires completing the universities online form. Technology is saving me a ton of money in postage (oops, should I say that out loud?). I know I possess the qualifications for the job. However, if I was able to successfully present myself to the search committee remains to be seen.

On another note, I did extract conference photos from my camera to my computer(s) this afternoon and will be sharing Philly soon. I'm toying with uploading them to Picasa and creating short photo vignettes for the blog ...