Cafe Hitch-hike

2004-10-14

Simon Says

This rant may give a teensy little background to this e-mail sent back & forth...

Needless to say, he was diplomatic. At the same time, it feels true. I am ok with this. I should be ok with me.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hitch-hike
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 11:55 AM
To: Simon
Subject: Librarian Interview Questions


Hello Simon:

Thank you for meeting with me in early July 2004 for an interview for the position of Librarian. I greatly appreciated your time and assistance throughout the process, and your assistants were very helpful.

I have some questions about my interviewing process. What are some points you and your search committee believed made me a strong candidate? On the flip side, what are some points I may need to improve? I am still seeking full-time employment and want to enhance my interviewing and related skills, and I am interested in any feedback you or your committee may have.

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Hitch-hike

Reply:

Ms Hitch-hike:

We were blessed with having three solid candidates for the position. As I recall, your pre-MLS experience and background looked very good to the committee. In particular we were impressed with your level of of scholarly and professional activity for someone just coming out of Library School. Your references all regard you very highly as well,

Ultimately, it came down to a candidate who had stronger professional experience. You were not excluded due to any shortcoming on your part. Rather we went with the applicant with more experience and who met more of our preferred qualifications.

I do not know where you are or are not applying in terms of location, institution size, duties, etc. My best free advice would be find a position which would be tolerable for a couple of years and then move on. I found that to be true in my first position at the U of Al. Applying elsewhere after two years there opened many more doors for me.

My sense too is that the job market is tight, particularly for new librarians. One of our paraprofessional staff who had about three years of diversified experience with us while she pursued her MLS applied for more than a year and one-half before she got a position. She was starting to wonder if she was hexed or I and her other references were saying nasty things about her, or her resume was not eye-catching enough, etc. In the end, perseverance and persistence paid off

I sincerely wish you the best in your quest. I am confident you will be an asset to the profession. I would also encourage you to consider applying here again if we have any openings.

If I may be of further assistance, please let me know.

Peace,

Simon

downwind | upstream