What am I going to be doing?

Tell me about your ideal work environment.

There are a few points in the interview where the interviewer is going to probe to make sure you understand the duties of the job and the work environment. This is one of them. So it measures your research skills, but it also measures your fit. For example, if you respond that you have enjoyed working with children and that you like the daily interaction with clients and you like to have close relationships with your colleagues, if you are about to be consigned to a lonely outpost with limited interaction beyond phone or chat, you are not going to be a good fit for the position.

It is, however, a BDI question, so they are looking for an actual work environment that you have experienced that you felt brought out the best in you. Try to find a work environment that seems closest to the one you are currently interviewing for, with a similar managerial structure. I hope to Hades that this does match with what you are looking for...I'm not going to ask, if this position doesn't match with your ideal, why are you interviewing for it? I'm guessing you need grocery money.

If school was your ideal work environment, think about it: what made it so good? Structure, intellectual challenge, clear deadlines, interaction with knowledgeable supervisors and working with peers. You can also suggest that the ability to assume responsibility for tasks and complete them on time was also exciting and vital to your daily happiness. (There is one problem with using school as your ideal work environment: it's over. Don't look like you will run back to academia with open arms. So be careful how you phrase this.)

This question can also be used as a measure of your ability to mesh with management. If you have seen their org chart or if this is part of a series of questions that asks about management style or structure, you can reiterate some of the points about management style in this answer. But, be brief: you have already had a shot at those questions.

And I'll form...the Head!

Can you explain your role in a previous project that you worked on that required the efforts of a team to complete?

Yes, you can answer this question with a class project but work experience is preferred. This question wants to find out a few things about you:

• Are you a leader or a follower?
• Are you a bully or a consensus-builder?
• Did you complete the project on time and within budget?

I'm not going to kid you: very few librarians get to be leaders right out of the launch bay, but, supposedly, this question is looking for leaders. You should show that you know when to lead (you know what you are doing) and when to follow (you have another role you can do better), a concept I was recently introduced to as kinetic leadership. In a kinetic team you are the leader when you have the skills and you are the follower when the current leader needs a plan executed. Show that you know your role and that you contributed what you knew, not that you were a Schrute constantly undermining your colleagues.

You should also not come across as too bullish when a lighter, china-smoothing touch was needed. It is also important to explain if the project was completed on time and if you spent all of your money without exceeding a limit. If you missed either mark, can you account for it? Explain how, in a future situation, you would not need elasticity in time or money.

This question wants to know about your management skills, both when managing and managed and if you can deliver the desired package.

Hating BDI Questions

Nick Corcodilos--author of the long-running newsletter, website and book of the same name, Ask the Headhunter--disdains Behaviour Descriptive Interview questions. In his recent foray into blogland, he has even sprung out a hate-on for BDI questions. Though I agree, somewhat, with many of his arguments, like past behaviour doesn't always express future success and that the BDI interview can be rigged in favour of the glib, there is one enormous problem with shedding BDI questions: what else are people going to ask?

Well, more intelligent questions that are trying to elicit information about skills, such as:

• Give me an example of a collection development project that you worked on: how did you plan it and what was the outcome. -Or-
• Give me an example of a time when you accepted a teaching assignment with very little time to prepare.

Wait, those are both skills-based and BDI questions. Could it be that BDI questions aren't bad but are just selected and delivered by people with little or no interview experience?

I would also beg you not to throw the BDI out with the bathwater since we have scripted interviews for very good reasons:

• for the unimaginative, scripts are good
• for the grandiose and easily distracted, scripts are better
  
• we need to measure fairly and objectively
• an unstructured conversation can also favour the glib
• structured interview questions, with rules, also allow the candidate to think logically and reflectively about her presentation and delivery

BDI is part of the proportions of a mix of interview questions, but it shouldn't make up all of the interview questions.

Interview virtuoso

I just finished reading Susan Katz's article on the disparity between mock interviews and how employers actually interview. Here's the story:

Most career service centres offer a mock interview service and the schedule of questions in mock interviews are usually based on research into the professional human resource literature or on actual employer surveys the career centre has conducted. Katz argues that though it is true that many large corporations are using BDI questions, many small organizations--where many grads, and many library school grads may actually get their first jobs--don't use BDI questions. In other words, you will probably work for a library that doesn't have an HR department and who may not use BDI questions. (Academic librarian wannabes, you can wait for the astounding enlightenment to be found in tomorrow's post; all academic libraries have HR departments and tons of BDI questions.)

Based on her action research, Katz has created a handout for her students that helps them, not with BDI questions (and she still includes some sample questions), but with how to tell employers what they should know about the candidate/student who is interviewing for a job.

If you were to do this for yourself, for this posting, your sheet would look like this:

• Library science degree
• Proof:
  
• One-two years industry experience
  
• Proof:
  
• Customer service
  
• Proof:
  
• Answered "customized" research queries
• Proof:
• Identified research needs
• Proof:
• Identified tools clients can use repeatedly and trained them in the use of the tool
• Proof:
• Shared knowledge with colleagues
  
• Proof:
  
• Explained complex concepts in plain language; these concepts may not represent your field of expertise
• Proof:
  
• Provided evidence to support initial research and suppositions
• Proof:
• Responds in a timely manner to requests
• Proof:
  
• Delegated tasks to the appropriate officer/researcher
• Proof:
  
• Worked independently and completed projects on time
• Proof:
• Worked as team member and completed portion of project on time
• Proof:
  

All I did was take the job description and describe what they wanted the person to do. You can also include any specific databases or programs (Lexis-Nexis, for example), if necessary and make your own skills sheet. They are also in past tense since when you write your statement, I would like you to give proof that you have done what you say, not, I'm sure I can do that (aye, aye, Captain Bligh).

If you are interested in Katz's original article, the NACE Journal is only open to NACE members; you may be able able to access it through ProQuest. The citation is below:

Katz, Susan, M. "The Job Interview: Is Career Services Giving Students a Realistic Picture of What to Expect?" NACE Journal. Oct 2007. Vol. 68, Iss. 1, pp. 38-44.