What if a patron doesn't like a colleague?

What if a patron doesn't like a colleague and prefers to have you help him/her, every time, even when you are not on your shift?

You have two options to answer this question:

1. This is a hypothetical question, so you can make a guess as to what you would do. You can ask about policies in effect in the library in regards to dealing with "difficult" patrons.
2. You can treat this question as a BDI question. As a BDI question, you must use a true, past experience and explain what happened in that situation and highlight your role. It is best that the experience had a positive outcome, but if it does not, you can finish your answer, hypothetically, stating what you would do differently in the future based on what you learned from the experience.
   

Don't shy away from these questions since they are asking about how you would deal with sticky situations. The interviewers want to know: do you always go running for help? and do you know when to call for help? When it comes to ethics and conflict, you have to strike a balance between the two. You also have to show that you are fair-minded.

Some interview questions are multi-layered and they may have more than one step to solve. An interviewer could take this question into several different directions:

• Collegiality and conflict: what if you don't like your colleague and find them to be abrasive and abrupt, but you know that you have to address the issue? This becomes a behavior descriptive question if the interviewer asks, have you experienced this situation in the past?
• What if your colleague is a person of color or a person who wears a prominent religious symbol and the patron always waits until you--who appears to be of the same ethic group/religious affiliation as the patron--are free? You can also change this if the interviewee is a person of color and say that this patron always waits until you are free, ignoring your colleagues that do not appear to be of the same ethnic group of the patron. This becomes an ethical question: do you say something to your colleagues, to the patron or to your supervisor?

However, I don't think that interviewers should ask this question invoking race or religion if they have not created a policy for their own library staff when dealing with these issues. I have a peeve about these questions, especially in regards to personal conflicts: why do organizations persist in asking these questions when they have no clear internal policy? Some supervisors think they are going to get a silver bullet answer when they haven't bothered to form one themselves.

This job sucks

Not my job, but maybe your job and if it does, there are places to talk about it and not when answering the interview question: why did you leave your previous position?. Thanks to Jobacle for putting together a list of job vent sites.

I think you will notice on many of the vents that it is not the job that sucks: it is the people that we work with and the clients we serve. But it is only one wrecked day (or minute): vent and move on to the better days and minutes. You will probably make someone crazy in your turn.

Getting your blog on Facebook

There are a few applications that you can use, like Live Blog and Flog Blog, to post your blog to your Facebook profile. The simplest method, however, is to get your notes to confer with your blog. Click on the Notes application and look on the right hand side of the screen.

When you click on Edit import settings, you will then be asked to add the feed that you would like your notes to pull from.

Your blog will be updated to your Notes and anyone of your friends who is subscribed to your notes, can also get regular updates from your blog.

What's in your folder?

Five minutes after you get the call for an interview and you have finished screaming for joy, you need to put your mission folder together. And you need to do it now, before you begin to worry about your unshined shoes and general hygiene.

Your folder is your kit for the day and you're going to be as well-stocked as Batman with a flat-file. You need:

• Two copies of your resume, one for you and one for the employer to make copies from if they need to.
• Two copies of your cover letter (the one you wrote 'specially for this job) for the same reason. These also help if, in your panic, you forget your name when they call it.
• A copy of your presentation and any handouts. You should also pack a USB drive with this material and, in case you ever met a man named Murphy, send them all as attachments to your browser mail address.
• Any additional work material that they might be interested in, or that you can use to finesse an interview question. These are short pieces, such as published book reviews or any press releases you have written. Do not bring in a print-out from your blog, showing your growth from former English-major refugee to captain of library industry. If they decline it, you can indicate that it is available with a simple Google search of your name.

If you are traveling to a different city or out of the country:

• Itinerary, transportation tickets and ID. Passport, driver's license, in case you need them or if you have to rent a car to get to your destination. You might as well have them together since the people at security want them all in one bunch. Collated alphabetically.
• Hotel information or where the hostel is and a Google Map that has helpful arrows on it.
  
• Map of campus and map of city. If you're going to spend a few days there, hit some other libraries or possible employers and get the maximum mileage out of your travel. Consult with this if you are interviewing in the US; if you are interviewing in Canada, use the Heritage Directory or the Canadian Library Gateway.
  
• Phone card for your cell phone, for emergencies. This is not a time to test your handheld internet navigating skills in the middle of an unfamiliar downtown.
  

This should fit in your folder. If not, you need a bigger folder. I think Batman got fatter over time, hence a bigger utility belt. Your folder should also be big enough that none of your items need to be folded or creased to fit; offering a crinkled resume that a story-time attendee could have put together better will not make a good impression. Contrary to snotty business books, it does not have to be leather, but it should be clean, opaque and close at the top so your tickets, and breath freshening strips, don't fall out.

Refer a friend: Job Tonic and H3

You're looking for a job and you see some stuff for you but you also see stuff that might be good for your best friend, your squeeze's sister, that annoying person in your book club who never finishes the book before the meeting and you kindly decide to cut and paste, or forward the job to a friend, just out of the goodness of your heart. But there are services out there where you can get paid for your...goodness. (I was about to say "virtue" but, last I checked, you can only get paid for that on Ebay.)

There are new sites that are trying to tap into your ability to connect jobs with friends and give you some cash back, encouraging you to be a more active node in the network. H3 is a popular service with recruiters and Job Tonic is spreading the work-love in the UK. In these services, hard to find positions can be filled through the principle of "weak ties": you know someone slightly and you know they need work; you pass on your intel and they may pass something back to you. Usually called networking. To reward your goodness for tightening the tie, the site will give you some cash back if your connection applies and gets the job.

This might also be one way to see just how effective a network can be, so think about passing on a job posting to a deserving other.

Bellerophon's Reference Letter

If you know the myth, or read the Wikipedia entry, you know that Bellerophon got to ride Pegasus and killed some nasty creatures for fame, glory and chicks. But when he offended one rich queen, she supposedly cried foul to her husband. Since Bellerophon probably filled out his armor quite nicely, the husband sent Bellerophon off to the queen's father with a sealed letter that said, Soprano-style, "take good care of this guy". Bellerophon did not know what was in the sealed letter but the father-in-law didn't want to kill a guest, so he sent Bellerophon off to slay the Chimera. Instead of becoming a light snack, Bellerophon went on to even greater glory.

People who keep no Bulfinches' have been known to confuse Perseus and Bellerophon, and they rarely remember the letter that almost sent him to his death. A sneaky letter, where you unknowingly carry information to another about yourself that will lead to hostility, maybe death, is a "bellerophonic letter".

We are seriously out of Chimeras, but something similar can happen in the workplace. Your references aren't saying what you think they say: first, they can be mediocre; second, the reference is telling the employer that they would not hire you again, the kiss of death. You can have literally everything go right until that point, but if your reference says we wouldn't take you back and we know you, you're Chimera-chow.

What can you do about your references? First of all, don't rely on just three. People go on holidays, they get sick, move away, leave the field or they forget who the heck you were. Have at least five that you can count on.

Don't think that a reference letter is enough, or can replace a person. First, the prospective employer will still want to talk to your references. If you have lost touch with them, they aren't a reference anymore and your promises to maintain professional connections sound like empty talk. Second, does the reference letter say that "you showed up, answered questions and kept your desk in order"? If it does, where are the programs you started or maintained? Have you managed to secure any funds or grants for the library and/or the programs that you began? Did you manage any staff and did they like you? Did you write any policy? Do they still use anything you gave them? If not, it's not a reference letter, it's an attendance form, and it may not help you win a new job. Re-read your references: are you stellar or second-rate? You really just need one thing that you are good at or did well. Keeping a seat warm doesn't count.

What if your references are as cowardly as the king or as unreasonable as the queen, and they have not told you the truth about what is in the sealed letter? If you already know that your boss is a backstabber, don't include him/her as a reference. You can also ask that the prospective employer contact four references, or one extra to counteract your boss, to give a full picture of your work habits. You're probably cringing inside: won't they think I am a bad employee if my current boss has nothing nice to say about me? Possibly, but you're leaving your job for a reason, possibly a couple, and, let's not kid ourselves, the boss' office does not come with halo and a harp. And your bad boss is going to try to grind you into processed meat anyway; at least ask the prospective employer to get a detailed picture of your work habits and ability. This is why we ask for three references in the first place.

Remember the ending of our monster-slayer's story? Hubris got him later. The Greeks knew that we are our own worst enemy.

Please, thank me

Thank you notes are still used when looking for work, as well as for other professional assistance, such as an information interview, someone connecting you with a contact or getting a reference letter that lands you a job. You can turn to Liz Handlin's free e-book, Ultimate Book of Thank You Notes, to get a little succinct guidance and samples on the subject.

Thanks to Career Hub for the link to Ms. Handlin's book.

Recession-proofed industries?

The Career Hub Blog has posted a list of 72 recession proofed industries based on BLS data. The percentage refers to how much growth occurred/is anticipated in those industries. For librarians, the news is good since there appears to be modest growth at all levels of education; however the news should also be tempered with:

• Institutions may be advertising these positions but they may not be filling vacancies with professional librarians.
  
• Additionally, positions can be advertised but not filled if there are budget shortfalls or money is moved (we'd rather have a full-time math teacher than a half-time librarian).
• Where are the librarians in this tossed salad? Are they professors/instructors or are they support staff? Were librarian positions even considered in these numbers or are librarians part of the "information" or "cultural" sectors?

I want you to look at the numbers in another way, not as educational support staff, but as information professionals in other industries. If librarians are part of the "information" sector, the news is good: summarized in another post in the Career Hub Blog, the BLS predicts a 5.8% growth in the information industry. Though it is below the average growth rate, there are positions available. I like my industries to be steady and not in decline. I want you to think about working in environmental consulting, health care and social assistance and in professional associations, special, rather than academic or school librarianship.

Now, I am not knocking either of those specialties and if you want to be an educator, that is one of the highest callings (IMHO). However, I don't want you to focus on only the educational market for librarians. There is a huge market for information and knowledge workers outside of education and the numbers seem to assert that growth is steady in those areas, leading to greater career stability over the long term. This means you need to think outside of the library job boards for your positions and look at professional associations in different sectors (the environment, engineering, law, health services, etc.) and swim in a different pond.

Begin by looking at your undergraduate degree: if you have an undergraduate degree in biology, why aren't you looking at consulting, health care and financial services that need knowledge workers with scientific literacy? Why aren't you tapping some of your undergraduate alumni who have worked in the industry for a few years and who can give you some information on where to look, if the industry is viable? If you worked in the industry, why don't you return to some of your older job board haunts and harvest some information jobs that you are now qualified to pursue? Heck, search on a vertical search engine, by industry or a company that you recognize, and see if they hire librarians. And yes, obviously, SLA can be of service in this type of search.

Update: I spoke too soon about the stability of knowledge workers: Tech Crunch has reported that Yahoo! is letting go of some of the employees in Yahoo! Answers. I never said the search engine industry was stable.

Resume Hell

There is nothing like seeing the stupid stuff other people do to make you feel that you aren't do so bad. Visit Resume Hell for a sample of some of the silly stuff people submit to a recruiter. You'll stop rolling your eyes when someone reminds you to check your spelling, thinking, everybody checks their spelling. No, no, they do not. Walking, chewing bubble gum and breathing through your nose all at the same time could be beyond these applicants, but you, at least, can do all that and use a spell checker.

My hero.

London Calling

If you're looking for a job in the UK, you should be checking the listings from Jinfo. Jinfo is associated with FreePint and ResourceShelf and if you are not subscribing to them to do your job better in general (or get ahead in a reference class) you should fix this problem and visit their sites regularly or subscribe to one of their newsletters. If your target is a (UK) job, subscribe to the Jinfo newsletter.

Tell me about yourself

Tell me about yourself. Almost the first question asked in every interview and the question that nervous people always fumble. "What do they need to know about me?" the fumbler thinks, "Isn't it in my resume?"

Well, yes it is, but starting out your interview with If you had only read my cover letter is not a great opening strategy. Here is what the interviewer wants from this question:

• Can you describe your career history quickly and succinctly?
• Does your past career or education history have anything to do with the position that they are interviewing you for? If you can't make the connection, even a brief one, you failed to score a point for the home team.
  
• Can you speak briefly and relevantly on a topic that you should know thoroughly: yourself?

I like Ron Fry's strategy in 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions: come up with a 250 word, approximately 2 minute long, blurb about yourself and how it relates to the job you are interviewing for. You don't have to vary it too much--some librarian jobs will require similar skills, and you can make a good tie-in--but it does help you to reflect about the job and the type of work offered by this gig. If you can make a match in your mind, you should be able to connect the dots for your interviewers.

Discomfort level

Tell me about a time when you worked with a colleague that you were not comfortable with.

This is a variation on  tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker. This question can be useful to an interviewer in a diverse workplace since "discomforts" may end up revealing a candidate's biases and prejudices.

 

Dealing with conflict amongst co-workers can happen in any workplace, and since this is a BDI question, you need to think about one of your co-workers who was oil to your water, but not matches to your gasoline. Explain, without naming names, how this colleague made you uncomfortable, and the steps you took, beyond suffering silence, to deal constructively with the issue. Make sure the fault was on their side, so a colleague who always arrived late to relieve you from your shift so you could get to class, is a better example, than how you always arrived late to work so you could avoid shift overlaps with this person.



What if you have never had a conflict with a co-worker? Well, you have to tell the truth, I have never had conflict with a co-worker. But I suspect that this is not true, and it has more to do with our perception of the word conflict, which tends to make people thinking of putting up their dukes. Conflict does not have to do with fisticuffs, it has to do with a coworker frustrating us professionally, and how we deal with those frustrations as a professional.

Avoiding this question may also have to do with your truthfulness: you did have a conflict with a co-worker in the past, but you now feel like you acted like a dork and have repented your bad behavior. If this is the case, and you don't look like an immature jerk or a prejudiced idiot, lay out the particulars of the conflict, the outcome of the situation, and how the situation changed your professional--or personal--behavior for the better.