Getting to grips with the PKSB

A couple of weeks ago I took part in my first Chartership chat where a couple of people asked for advice on tackling the PKSB.  Like them, I too was initially daunted by its size and the language it uses so I thought I’d share my strategy for rationalising and demystifying the PKSB in the hope that it might prove useful to others.

On my first attempt to tackle it I spent an inordinate amount of time wading through the full version of the PKSB and looking up lots of unfamiliar terms in various dictionaries and glossaries.  This left me feeling I knew even less about my profession than I did to begin with and that I had more gaps in my knowledge and skills than I could ever hope to tackle.  After a couple more equally disheartening attempts I decided to take a more pragmatic approach.

Before registering for Chartership I’d spent some time looking at job descriptions and person specifications for the types of posts I’d eventually like to move into so it made sense to use these in conjunction with the PKSB to help me pinpoint the areas I need to develop in order to take the next step in my career.

To do this I downloaded the gap analysis spreadsheet from CILIP’s VLE and, keeping the PKSB areas with their pop-up descriptions in the first column, added columns for my current position and each of the posts I’d looked at.  I then matched the selection criteria from the person specifications with the corresponding areas of the PKSB.

Person specification analysis using the PKSB (click image to enlarge)

Although this proved pretty time consuming to begin with, it helped me to translate the PKSB into more familiar language and develop a clearer understanding of the different areas without having to wade through the full version several times.  Any selection criteria which didn’t match the PKSB exactly I either put against an area that made the most sense to me (e.g. time management isn’t specifically mentioned in the PKSB so I matched it with project management) or added it to the bottom of the spreadsheet (e.g. specified qualifications).  To remind me why I’d matched each of the selection criteria to a particular area I added the text from the person specification as a comment.  This made it easier to go back and rematch it against a more relevant area as my overall familiarity and understanding of the PKSB developed.  The resulting spreadsheet allowed me to see at a glance which areas are relevant to me and my current career aspirations and those which I can, for the time being at least, safely disregard.  Although this helped to reduce the PKSB to a more manageable size, I was still left with more than 6-10 potential areas to cover.

To narrow them down further, I first weighted the essential and desirable selection criteria for each post by adding a score of 10 or 5 respectively.  By calculating a total for each of the PKSB areas I could then apply a filter to limit the spreadsheet to those over a particular score (in my case 40) to start identifying priority areas for development. I then downloaded another copy of the gap analysis spreadsheet which, having already used it for the job analysis,  I was able to complete very quickly to assess myself against all the PKSB areas.

Filtered person specification analysis (click image to enlarge)

Using these two spreadsheets I was able to come up with a shortlist of PKSB areas to consider.  These were all areas where the difference between my current and ideal self-assessment score was -1 or below.  Some were priorities identified by the filtered job analysis spreadsheet and others, such as strategic management, were areas of particular interest and/or those I thought would help me with forthcoming projects in my current role.  From this shortlist I was then able to select the 6-10 PKSB areas to focus on developing for Chartership confident that I’ll be concentrating my efforts in the right areas to progress my career.

I appreciate that the above approach may appear a bit convoluted but it helped me to break tackling the PKSB into smaller, less scary steps, and has given me a method I can use at future points in my career to review my professional development. Although it might not work for everyone reading this post I hope that sharing my experience will offer some encouragement and reassurance to others currently struggling to get to grips with the PKSB and will help them to find their own way of making it work for them.

New beginnings, or, Why I’ve finally started Chartership

Natural Bridges, Sunrise, Seagull by Kellan http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellan/4193593389/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Last year, after much deliberation (and admittedly some procrastination), I finally registered for Chartership.  There were a couple of reasons why the time seemed right: planning my next career move and the introduction of the new Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB).

After completing my Masters I frantically set about gaining as much experience as possible at work, as a member of the CILIP East Committee and through voluntary roles and projects.  Along the way I learned a great deal (about myself as well as about librarianship), met some amazing library folk and had lots of fun.  I quickly learned that saying yes to one thing often opened the door to another opportunity to gain new skills and experience, build my network and confidence and, eventually, to secure my first professional post.

However, after celebrating a big birthday, I started to think more seriously about my career and realised that I’d fallen into a bit of a rut.  I’d been so busy saying yes to things that I’d not given myself time to properly record and reflect on what I was doing and why I was doing it.  As a result I was getting less enjoyment and satisfaction out of the extra things I was doing because they were no longer taking me to where I wanted to go.  I could see that there were gaps in my knowledge, skills and experience these activities weren’t helping me to address and that I was letting these, and my consequent lack of confidence, stop me from taking the next step in my career.  It was time to step back, take stock and refocus my efforts.

It was also around this time that the changes to Professional Registration and the new PKSB were due to be launched and so I decided that Chartership might be worth a second look as an opportunity to lift my career out of the doldrums.

I’d previously considered Chartership shortly after completing my Masters as it had been presented to me as a way of demonstrating my worth to employers.  However, after attending a portfolio building workshop to learn more, I left feeling sceptical.  I could certainly see the value in producing a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate that I’d improved my personal performance through developing and applying new knowledge and skills.  However, being newly qualified and not yet in my first professional post, I had no tangible frame of reference to help me assess my current performance and to identify and prioritise areas for development.  I had some idea of where my strengths and weaknesses lay by looking at various job descriptions and person specifications but without a clearly defined benchmark against which I could properly assess myself I was left unconvinced of Chartership’s validity and consequently lacked the motivation to pursue it further.

I’m happy to say that the introduction of the new PKSB has changed all that by providing what was for me an essential component which was previously missing from the Chartership process.  The PKSB offers a comprehensive list of competencies that might be expected of any library and information professional at any stage of their career.  Although initially quite daunting, once I got used to the language and understood that I wasn’t expected to cover it all, I could see that it would allow me to identify a relevant set of knowledge and skills by cross-referencing it with the job descriptions and personal specifications of my current role and those to which I aspire to map how I’m currently performing and where I need to develop in order to progress.  With the PKSB, the Chartership process feels more relevant and purposeful and I’m more convinced that it will give me a valuable portfolio of valid evidence that I can cite in job applications and interviews to demonstrate my worth not only to future employers but also to myself.

I’d love to hear from other Chartership candidates.  What motivated you to register?  Did the changes to professional registration and the introduction of the PKSB have a bearing on your decision?  How are you finding it so far?