[{"source":"Canadian Association of Law Libraries / L'Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit CALL/ACBD Blog","id":3241437,"description":"By Erin Clupp, Research Librarian in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Vancouver office. Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed library school and are a freshly minted information professional. What is an exciting time in your life can also be overshadowed by what comes next: the dreaded job hunt, heightened by the fact that we are still struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this being a challenging and unprecedented time to enter the workforce, there are still many exciting opportunities that await you. Here are some tips and words of advice that I hope are helpful and comforting as you navigate through this next phase of your career: 1) Manage your expectations but be kind to yourself First and foremost, job hunting can really suck. It’s important to acknowledge this and understand there will be periods of frustration, self-doubt, and worry (especially when we have bills to pay). This is normal! Rejection can be painful, and sending applications into that black hole where resumes seem to go can be demoralizing but don’t give up! When job hunting, be mindful of the following: As a new grad, you are probably eager and excited to land that first job and start working! Have some patience, the process may take longer than you would like it to be (before and during the interview process). It is also great to have goals, but realize you may not get your “dream job” right outside the gate. That is fine! Along the way, you may find you don’t have one dream job after all, and that you enjoy doing many types of work. Resist the urge to compare yourself to others. Some people may seem to have better “luck” or have more apparent success early on. We don’t always know their stories, what their past experiences are or who they may know. Just remember, we are all operating on different timelines and your opportunity will come. It doesn’t make you a failure or unworthy if it takes you a bit longer or if you end up in an area completely different than you originally thought. While job hunting can become a full time job, don’t forget to take breaks and don’t let it become all-consuming. Focus some energy on your hobbies, personal relationships, and most importantly rest! 2) Beyond the library – be flexible and think outside the box The information profession is evolving, and while there are still plenty of “traditional” LIS jobs in academic and public library settings, there are increasingly more jobs in special libraries and in larger “information teams” in government, private corporations, and non-profits. When searching for job postings, don’t just focus on the job title, be sure to also read the descriptions and position requirements. Look for buzz words like “information analyst”, “knowledge management”, “content creation”, “competitive intelligence”, “prospect research”, “information architecture”, or “data curation”, all of which use the skills of an LIS professional and are increasingly in demand as businesses recognize the need for improved information governance and user experience. I know people with LIS backgrounds who work in academic institutions, museums, archives, law firms, government, telecommunications companies, non-profit organizations, healthcare, and international organizations doing a variety of work including research, privacy, information security, instruction, technical writing, and management. Basically any organization that deals with information and people (read: all of them) may have a position that you can apply for. Now is the time to experiment and try new opportunities. Don’t worry about pigeonholing yourself, because you can always leverage your transferable skills and move within industries and organizations. 3) Take a leap – consider a move! While not possible (or desirable) for some, consider moving to a new city (or country!), especially if you are in a very competitive market","pubDate":"Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:55:45 +0100","titre":"New Professionals SIG Article: Library School and Beyond – Job Hunting Tips for New Grads","url":"https://www.callacbd.ca/CALL-Blog/10326333"},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/08/stick-security-require-secure-passwords-authentication","titre":"Stick with Security: Require secure passwords and authentication","pubDate":"Mon, 05 Oct 2026 08:07:08 +0200","source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","description":"Stick with Security: Require secure passwords and authentication lfair August 11, 2017 | 10:47AM Stick with Security: Require secure passwords and authentication By Thomas B. Pahl, Acting Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection To make it harder for hackers to bluff their way onto a computer network, careful companies follow the advice of Start with Security and require strong authentication practices . We’ve considered FTC settlements, closed investigations, and the questions we get from businesses about implementing good authentication “hygiene.” Here are some tips on using effective authentication procedures to help safeguard your network. Insist on long, complex, and unique passwords. A password’s very reason for being is to be easy for a user to remember, but hard for a fraudster to figure out. Obvious choices like ABCABC, 121212, or qwerty are the digital equivalent of a “hack me” sign. Furthermore, experts have determined that passphrases or longer passwords are generally harder to crack. The smarter strategy is for companies to think through their standards, implement minimum requirements, and educate users about how to create stronger passwords. Also, when you install software, applications, or hardware on your network, computers, or devices, change the default password immediately. And if you design products that require consumers to use a password, configure the initial set-up so they have to change the default password. Example: A staff member attempts to select payroll as the password for the database that includes employee payroll information. The company sets up its system to reject an obvious choice like that. Example: To access the corporate network, a business allows employees to type in their username and a shared password common to everyone who works there. Employees are also allowed to use that shared password to access other services on the system, some of which contain sensitive personal information. The more prudent policy would be to require strong, unique passwords for each employee and to insist that they use different passwords to access different applications. Example: At a staff meeting, a company’s IT manager offers tips for employees about good password hygiene. She explains that passphrases or longer passwords are better than short passwords based on standard dictionary words or well-known information (for example, a child’s name, a pet, a birthday, or a favorite sports team). By establishing a more secure corporate password standard and educating employees about implementing it, the IT manager is taking a step to help her company reduce the risk of unauthorized access. Store passwords securely. A company’s first line of defense against data thieves is a workforce trained to keep passwords secret. But even the strongest password is ineffective if an employee writes it on a sticky note on her desk or shares it with someone else. Train your staff not to disclose passwords in response to phone calls or emails, including ones that may appear to be coming from a colleague. Con artists have been known to impersonate corporate officials by spoofing phone numbers or email addresses. A compromised password poses a particular risk if it can be used to open the door to even more sensitive information – for example, a database of other user credentials maintained on the network in plain, readable text. Make it difficult for data thieves to turn a lucky password guess into a catastrophic breach of your company’s most sensitive data by implementing policies and procedures to store credentials securely. Example: A new employee gets a call from someone who claims to be the company’s system administrator. The caller asks him to verify his network password. Because the new staffer learned about impersonation scams at an in-house security orientation, he refuses to disclose his password and instead reports the incident to the appropriate person in the company. Example: A company keeps user credentials and other passwords in plain","id":3197409}]