How America turned poverty into a crime by Barbara Ehreneich

How America turned poverty into a crime is an essay by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch and, most recently, Bright-sided, takes a look at poverty in America in the wake of the meltdown and the changes that have occurred in the past ten years since the publication of Nickel and Dimed.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp

During her homeless year, Brianna Karp chronicled her homeless experience on the blog The Girl's Guide to Homelessness. She was young, educated and according to her own account, had worked for over a decade, even as a teenager, at a variety of jobs that left her with plenty of marketable skills. When she was suddenly laid off from a job that she loved, she was forced to move back in with her parents, though coming back into the household with her abusive mother would not make this a long stay. However, Brianna was resourceful: she was able to use the unexpected inheritance of a trailer and move onto a local Walmart parking lot, find a place to shower and soon a job--though she did remain homeless, she was able to enter a community of homeless activists.

And she also met the man she thought she would marry. A significant portion of the book is devoted to her romance with a man from Scotland who would ultimately abandon her, and in the cruelest of ironies for a homeless activist, abandon her to the elements in the middle of winter. (Yeah, asshole is not quite the word...)

Brianna is remarkably resilient, turning a string of misfortunes into a job, a blog, a book deal and finally finding a stable job, at least at the time of the epilogue, and a place in the homeless activist community.

Caveat emptor: If you have any association with the Jehovah's Witnesses, you may not be happy with Brianna's depiction of the church or their position on several issues, or how she categorizes the group as a "cult"; however, she is basing her description on her experience with the church. I would also like to give a fair warning for the brief depictions of child sexual and physical abuse. These warnings should not scare readers off from the book, especially since I think it is an important book for librarians who have no or limited experience with homelessness, to read, since many homeless people use libraries for places to job search, research and rest, and Brianna's book does put a youthful, educated, female face on homelessness after the recent recession.

4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

This came through a tweet from @wendyrlibrarian: 4 entry level jobs at University of Iowa

Malled by Caitlin Kelly

In 2007, Kelly, at that time a freelance journalist, decided to take a part time job in retail so that she would always have some dependable funds in her account for living expenses. When she heard about a new North Face store opening up in a suburban mall, she decided to apply there and despite her lack of experience in retail, but plenty of life and travel experience, as well as fluency in two other languages than English, the management at the new store decided to hire her. According to Kelly, she was a consistent top-seller at her store, and the store that she was employed at was one of the top performing stores for that company.

Kelly's account as a retail salesperson and her examination of the industry focuses on two areas: how poorly retail salespeople are paid and how poorly they are treated by the customers that they are there to help, despite how essential they are to the company and the lipservice that companies pay to the quality of their customer service. She talks about the makeup of the staff at her store: usually minorities (though, minority to who and where? I always wonder), but well educated and ambitious, some with college degrees, others are former military, some are single parents, but they all seemed to be trapped on the retail roller coaster, moving on or up only if they can escape retail. Retail sales is not a career, Kelly argues, you can barely make a living at it, the physical demands are enormous, there is no concern for perfecting a professional salesforce, and the staff just doesn't seem to care--but they would do anything to get out of their retail jobs.

Kelly describes how the corporate focus on the bottom line means that frontline sales staff will remain poorly paid--supposedly shareholders don't want to pay salespeople more, but shareholders are always the villains--and not given adequate tools to perform their jobs. Indeed, the fact that many corporations are apparently clueless about sales, ergonomics, customers and products, is a recurrent theme in the book. The corporate mindset appears as inexplicable and implacable as Kafka's Castle.

A different generation?

I think it may be a generational difference, but I am surprised that she was shocked by how retail salespeople are treated, mainly because almost every person I know has had some experience working in retail as a teenager or young adult. This was Kelly's first experience on the other side of the till (or cash wrap, as she prefers) and at times she appears a little naive at how craptastic a job in retail can be.

She is right about one thing: it is not going to get better for retail workers unless customers stop shopping at stores with crummy service, and who become know for treating their sales associates poorly, as well as for crummy products. And though I liked the book and the immersive journalism, Kelly could have gotten that response from any teenager on their first job--and I would have liked to hear more about how teenagers and young adults can be exploited by this industry, in addition to the few glimpses of mature workers who, after the economic downturn, found themselves working in retail.

I might have enjoyed Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed more, but I still think that Malled is an important part of the immersive journalism literature on workplaces.

Intern Nation by Ross Perlin

In Intern Nation, Ross Perlin tracks the development of the internship and its implications for labor, especially when unpaid interns replace paid workers, usually engaged in administrative tasks. Perlin begins his discussion by describing the internships offered by Disney--and finds them sadly lacking, if not exploitative, though a typical example of how fall the internship has fallen. He describes the development of the internship, possibly from early guild apprenticeships into their current modern form. Perlin examines the internship labor market in the United States, what makes a quality internship, and some of the characteristics of a demeaning and time-wasting work experience, and the potential rise, and resistance, to the spread of American style internships in the rest of the world.

Perlin also argues that without an internship it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue the career that a person has gone to college for, such as in journalism, fashion and design, and if you can't work for free for a long period. Parents and loans are increasingly subsidizing students to take on unpaid internships and the cost can be high, considering that some internships can last for a year, could be undertaken in series and offered in places, such as Washington DC, where the cost of living is quite high. And, as others have asked, just who can afford these internships and pay for their children while engaged in these experiences? If it comes down to cost, what about the quality of the interns, if they are not selected based on merit? What does it mean for workplace diversity? And finally, is a college student shut out of their chosen career because they cannot afford to work for free for a long period of time? Perlin's answers are that if internships continues on the path they are on, qualified candidates will be shut out and homogeneity will be a significant issue in the culture and media industries which are currently permeated by free and serial internships.

Perlin sees the internship as part of the increase on the reliance of contingent labor by employers, which others might argue is part of the freedom seeking "free agent nation", and identifies a European term, precarity, to show that internships, and other contingent labor, devalue work and extinguish hope in career security, or the freedom to enter and pursue a career based on the education the person has attained. Internships affect a significant proportion of the population that are pursuing a college education and who believe that a college education will allow them to further their career plans--though many of the signs are showing, as Perlin argues, that without an internship, or three, the value of a college education is diminished, unless the student is in a legally protected profession, from pursuing a white collar career.

There are some minor editing and proofreading issues in the book, but they do not diminish the importance of the argument. Personally, I feel this is an important landmark book on the study of internships.


Authors@Google


From the Advisory: Training and Employment Guidance Letter NO. 12-09

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has developed the six factors below to evaluate whether a worker is a trainee or an employee for purposes of the FLSA:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic
educational instruction;
2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;
5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

Further Reading

Employment Law Rights of Student Interns (Abstract).
Intern Nation Author Ross Perlin: Interns Need A Bill Of Rights. The Gothamist
Trickle down unemployment and corporate sleight of hand by James Marshall Reilly, about how  low pay or no pay internships are replacing entry-level employment.
Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not. NYT April 2, 2010

Other Coverage:

Book challenges rise of the Intern Nation. Careers on MSNBC.com (from Associated Press). April 20, 2011.
Canada Turning Into Intern Nation. National Post. June 11, 2011.
Intern Nation. Inside Higher Ed. April 15, 2011.
"Intern Nation": Are we exploiting a generation of workers?. Salon.com. May 29, 2011.
Intern Nation: Overdue And Under-Delivered. Business Insider. May 4, 2011. (Not a favorable review of the book, but left me wondering if the review's author had read more than the first chapter.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Guardian. May 7, 2011. (Includes a story about an auction of  prestigious internships at a political event in the UK.)
Intern Nation- Review. The Observer. May 15, 2011.
Intern Nation - Review. The Telegraph (UK). June 5, 2011.

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

Apply with LinkedIn button

Since LinkedIn had it's IPO, the company has been rolling out several new tools. One of those tools is the Apply with LinkedIn button, which allows job applicants to for a position by submitting their LinkedIn profile

Follow Companies on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has had a Follow Companies feature for a while, and it means exactly that: follow companies and their updates within LinkedIn, without being connected to anyone in the company. Once you follow a company, you can see who in your network is employed at that company, and how distant your relationship is.

The image above shows a snapshot of the Harlequin company profile on LinkedIn. You can see a blurb about the company, information about anyone in your alumni group that is employed at the organization, as well as your LinkedIn connections to people in that company. Clicking on the Careers tab will also show any available jobs, as posted on Linkedin (though you are usually redirected to the company website for an application). If you explored the New Hires tab, you could see the profiles of new hires, as much as that user allows according to their privacy settings.

You can also see any employee traffic, such as position changes or promotions, that the user has recorded on LinkedIn, as well as links to mentions about the company in the news, as shown below.

For librarians, there are many libraries listed on LinkedIn, as well as publishing, software and tech companies, in addition to the universities and colleges, not to mention the many companies who may have a special library in your preferred industry, such as law, finance, manufacturing, or healthcare, just to name a few. It can't hurt to start monitoring their activity on LinkedIn.

However this is only the activity recorded within LinkedIn. For example, if a person does not update their profile when they move to a new company, you may not know if a company has made a new hire. The Follow Company feature still provides very useful information about organizations, their employee turnover, the number of hires that they are making, and indicates if you have anyone in your online network who could get you closer to a permanent or contract position or offer a recommendation.

The Unemployed Need Not Apply

Catherine Rampell's piece in the NYTs The Help-Wanted Sign Comes With a Frustrating Asterisk exposes how some employers are discriminating against applicants that are unemployed, while pointing out that "the average duration of unemployment today is nine months". However, discrimination on this point is not really discrimination since unemployment is not a "protected ground", though the article does list some states that are prohibiting this practice in job ads.

I really liked The Cynical Girl's response when she pointed out that HR should not participate in this practice and that there is probably a method that the major job boards could use to remove job postings with an "unemployed candidates need not apply" caveat.

Chronicle releases Great Colleges to Work for

The third edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education's Great Colleges to Work For survey was released in late July 2011. This is a useful resource for any librarian that is researching positions in an academic setting in the US.

According to the methodology over 43000 people were surveyed at 275 institutions, with approximately 14000 "professional staff members" responding to the survey--it is possible that librarians were categorized as either faculty members or professional staff members, which would probably depend on how the institution categorizes them.

The summary of the results can be sorted by institution size, 2 year and 4 year institution, as well as by the category to see which institutions were recognized in that area.

Subscribers will probably receive a print edition of the survey as an insert; if you are not a subscriber, but you are determinedly researching academic librarian positions, you may want to consider purchasing your own copy.

Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian Cornell University

This job came via an alert on TweetDeck, through Indeed, scraped from Diverse Jobs, pulled from Cornell University postings. I think this would be a great job for person with an undergraduate degree in fine (visual) arts, or a person who has experience working in a fine arts or civil engineering/architecture library.

Description

Cornell University Library seeks an experienced and innovative public services professional to serve in a new position: the Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian. Working under the direction of the Director of the Music and Fine Arts Libraries, the VR&PS Librarian will serve as the primary point of contact for students, faculty and staff in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning on topics related to finding and using digital image resources; the person in the position will also serve as a visual resources contact person for library staff and other members of the Cornell community. In addition, the individual will oversee outreach and instruction in the Fine Arts Library, as well as providing one-on-one assistance through consultations and reference. The individual in this position should have a deep working knowledge of current visual resources and their associated digital technologies for research, teaching and presentation purposes. She/he should also demonstrate a commitment to understanding, evaluating, and implementing emerging technologies based on their pedagogical uses within the fields of architecture, art, planning, design, and landscape architecture and be able to facilitate the transition from traditional visual media to digital media. A record of and commitment to effective and dynamic service to all patron groups, and demonstrated successful interpersonal skills are required to succeed in this position.

The VR Librarian will work closely with faculty and students to ascertain their needs and how to effectively integrate new resources into the evolving curricula of the departments. The individual must take a pro-active role in helping faculty and students navigate the wide range of services available through CUL and various campus entities. He/she will take an active role in CUL’s Visual Resources Working Group, and will work synergistically with librarians and digital consultants throughout the library system and campus community to inform and coordinate the support of visual and digital image resources on a campus-wide basis.

The VR Librarian will be responsible for the purchase and promotion of new discipline-specific image resources at both the local and institutional levels. Other responsibilities include: visual and information literacy instruction, research consultations, workshop development and presentation. Promotional activities include: curatorial responsibility for digital displays of new materials in public areas; keeping the library website up-to-date with information on resources and technological tools and applications; and use of social media technologies to connect users with both subscription-based and freely available image content. This individual will also serve as a liaison to appropriate information technology personnel. She/he will work closely with the Architecture Librarian & Coordinator of Collections to provide a wide range of outstanding services to the user community.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to work successfully with a team of staff within an art, architecture, fine arts, or design library setting.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to foster effective working relationships with faculty, students, staff, and library colleagues.
• The successful candidate should have at least two years of academic library experience, and an understanding of and enthusiasm for new technologies and their application in the evolving academic/information environment. Involvement in, or interest in becoming involved in appropriate professional associations. A
• graduate degree or equivalent experience in an art or design field and an M.L.S. or equivalent degree from an accredited institution are required.

Background:

Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning is one of the university's seven endowed colleges, and the departments of architecture and planning are consistently ranked near the top of their fields nationally. AAP is committed to the belief that art and design are simultaneously intellectual and material practices, and that leadership in cultural production demands deep expertise both in a specific discipline and in the liberal arts. Students and faculty in the College make extensive use of visual materials in their teaching and research.
With the completion of the College’s new studio addition Milstein Hall, AAP is reprogramming portions of the existing buildings, including the existing FAL. The FAL is scheduled to move from Sibley Hall into Rand Hall in the near future, triggering both a spatial and programmatic reconceptualization of the library to fully integrate new technologies and innovative space usage. The College recently moved away from slides as the principle medium of visual images, and the VR Librarian will need to provide to a high level of service in assisting with this transition. The faculty, students and administration of the college will turn to the VR Librarian for leadership and vision in realizing a world-class, contemporary art and design library.

Cornell University is an Ivy League comprehensive research university located in Ithaca in the scenic Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The town and university offer a unique cosmopolitan and international atmosphere in a beautiful natural setting of waterfalls, gorges, and lakes. The university comprises 14 schools with over 2,700 faculty members and nearly 21,600 students enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. The Cornell University Library is a vigorous professional organization with a strong track record in innovation and service quality. It contains nearly 8 million printed volumes, 99,000 current serials in print or online, over 650,000 additional networked electronic resources, and rich materials in other formats. The Library was a recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in 2002.

Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package including 22 vacation days, 11 paid holidays, health insurance, life insurance, and university retirement contributions (TIAA-CREF and other options). Professional travel funding available.

Application Procedure: Review of applications will begin on August 15, 2011. Please include a cover letter, resume, and the names, phone numbers, and addresses for three references. Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Contact information on original posting at Cornell University.

Cornell University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer strongly committed to diversity. We value qualified candidates who can bring to our community a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, is an inclusive, dynamic, and innovative Ivy League university and New York's land-grant institution. Its staff, faculty, and students impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas and best practices to further the university's mission of teaching, research, and outreach.

Interview Questions in a Flash

Interview Questions in a Flash is a book of interview flash cards, separable by perforated pages close to the fold of each page, meant to help a person study for their interview. The cards have a question on the front, suggestions for an answer below the question and the flip side has a very short sample answer and lined space for the reader to insert their own notes for an answer. The answers are grouped topically, such as 37 questions on work background, or 27 sample behavioral-situational questions. There is a summary, or index of questions, at the beginning of the book for ready reference.

The front section of the book includes preparation checklists which the person can use to make sure they have all their supplies, or additional items, such as a map of the interview location, which would be very helpful if the candidate needs some help getting organized.

I think this book would be useful for someone who is preparing for an interview and who may also want to reuse answers to questions in an interview. It would also be useful for interview prep, since like regular flashcards, the candidate can give the cards to a partner and the partner can ask a question and evaluate the candidates response. However, the book is not very tough: just rip the perforations apart and keep them in an envelope upon the first use of the book.

Note to librarians: If you are buying this book for your collection, the perforated pages are very sensitive and even a cautious page turning on the first review of this book made at least two pages fall out. This book may be better suited to a kit or as a tool for a seminar on job seeking.

Time sheet app

The DOL released a Timesheet app (available on iTunes) meant specifically for employees to keep track of their hours, including breaks and overtime. The app is available in English and in Spanish.

The hourly rate appears to be set by the user, so it can be adjusted for overtime, for raises, or for the payments accepted from various contracts. This app may be particularly useful for librarians who are teaching job seeking or money management classes, or if they have questions from clients about wages--especially from teenagers who may not have tracked their own wages before.