Transferable Skills AND I never intended to do this...So how on earth did I get there?
Transferable Skills
What makes a good records manager? What is our job actually all about? How did we get here? What if we want a career change?
If we chose the job, was it because:
- We are interested in history?
- We like basements?
- We like to help people?
- We are control freaks?
Career paths – how did we get here?
- Moving from archives, libraries or knowledge management?
- Via the IT, facilities, finance or compliance route?
- Or were we “volunteered”?
My life before records management….
- Started as an archivist - government sector
- Did the backpacking thing - temp work
- Part-time in the university sector: – research projects/archivist
- Part time in a medical college - archivist
What transferable skills from the above careers make good records managers?
- Some theoretical knowledge
- Good literacy skills
- Ability to multi-task
- Ability to learn fast
- Ability to get on with people
- Tact, patience and flexibility
What skills have most of us had to develop?
- General knowledge of IT systems and tools
- Marketing and training skills
- People management skills
- Change management skills
- Even more tact, patience and flexibility
Records managers now also have to be (or do some of the following)
- Legal compliance advisers
- Facilities managers
- Financial advisers
- Business analysts
- ICT systems advisers
- Project managers
- Change managers
- Knowledge managers
- Risk managers
- Researchers
- Marketing managers
- Educators/trainers
Which of those skills are transferable?
- All of them.
I never intended to do this …. So how on earth did I get there?
Did you get to where you are by carefully planning your career? Or did you get a free ride on the opportunity train to an unknown destination? What if you want to jump ship now and do something different or do the same (or better) but somewhere else? What skills do you need to do this? What have you learnt from your lives: professional, personal and social?
This session will explore these questions, taking the career of the speaker as example and how transferrable skills were acquired and effectively transferred.
Clare Cowling, Solicitors Regulation AuthorityBorn in Australia, Clare began her career as an archivist/records manager in the Archives Office of Tasmania, moving on to... more...
Edith Pringault-Adam, Aberdeenshire CouncilEdith is currently the Information and Records Manager at Aberdeenshire Council. In her role, she formulated the Council’s information management... more...
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- RMS Accreditation AND TNT Train to Gain
- The Role of Mentorship in Distance Education and Training AND Choices and challenges: mid-career decisions for the records manager
- A million dead people can't have been wrong, can they?
