I'll see your necktie and raise you a pair of control tops

No more pantyhose, no more neckties. I actually like Ben Stein--as a comedian, not as a conservative. (I'm like most liberals: we claimed Funny Hill.) Anyway, if you can give up neckties--which get caught in file drawers, shredders, anything with a vice, clamp, flap, shut, bam, boom-- and have more to do with sumptuary laws than egalitarianism can we cease fire on the panty hose?

Money talk taboo

This is why we can't get salary information: money talk is taboo. If people won't provide information about salary--and getting ranges makes people touchy enough--it is almost impossible to get accurate salary data for surveys.

Many salary survey sites are getting around the talking with people problem by using the salary information posted in job ads. However, this is merely a range, and they don't know what number the person was offered and what she accepted for the position.

Compound this with most people don't know how much money they make, just that they have some, and you can understand why salary data is unreliable.

Sway podcast

I have put Sway on my list because of the chapter about interviewing, and because I am also reading Predictably Irrational, and I think people who are prepping for interviews should listen to this part on the podcast about interviews.

Done?

The type of interview questions they are talking about are simulations. The idea is that you give the candidate a defined task or a problem to accomplish, correctly, in a set amount of time. Make the column in this spreadsheet add up. Catalog this webpage. Roleplay a reference encounter. Deliver a presentation. These are all examples of simulation questions in a librarian interview, and you should be prepared for them.

You should also be prepared for the ways that interviewers mess them up. The interviewers may not have prepared a scoring guide so they can compare the skills of all of the candidates equally. You may not be perfect, but you should appear trainable--a 2 out of 5 on a difficult simulation with great references is better than a 4 out of 5 with an I would never hire them again reference (some people just give good interview). They may not have tested the question, just taken it from a book, and they are not prepared for the broad range of responses--ones the book didn't tell them to expect. The interviewers also don't realize that if a simulation doesn't have a scale, it needs to have a solution or a goal. Or a mix of both.

If you have claimed to be able to do something--use a program, write or speak another language--you should be prepared for a simulation question to appear on the interview script.

Ways to make money working online

OK, I'm skeptical (aren't I always?) but some people must be able to make web work pay because they don't shut up about it on their blogs...hey, did I just have an accidental sarcastic comment? Does that make it ironic?

Anyway, if you are determined to try making money working online, you might want to consider numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 and put a library spin on it. Many of these suggestions also require that you a) fork out some of your own cash for fees to set up and b) do some initial preparation, including class notes, to get started. In addition, customers won't be automatic: you will have to set up some ads on Craigslist and Kijiji to get people to your seminars, but those are free.

Moving up dates for job offers

Though librarians are not specifically mentioned in this article, there are some librarians who will be interviewing for tenure track positions and this may be a trend that will affect the whole: moving up the dates for offers (as early as the end of January).

Other trends that will affect interviews:

• More telephone and VOIP interviews to deal with the rising cost of paying to fly in candidates.
• Need a teaching demonstration? You may be asked to create one and submit it to YouTube. Another way to keep travel costs down.
• More interviews at conferences, to do double-duty of networking and recruiting, or a decrease in conference attendance, since money may have to be allocated for increased travel costs. In the latter case, expect more online conferences and less in-person conferences.
  

Can you think of something else that will, or already has, affected interviews and job offers?

They time you when you go to the bathroom?

According to this article from WSJ Online, the employee monitoring system has gone hi-tech, allowing companies to monitor the computer activity of their freelancers and telecommuters as the workers work in their home offices. If you want to use the services to score a gig, you may have to play by their monitoring rules--but I really want to know that the program isn't watching my activity when I am not "at work".

And what was cricketfan thinking?

Job-hunting Online

Job-Hunting Online is a member to the best-selling What Color is your Parachute? series--the principal book in this series is released in a new version each year--which is probably one of the most well-known career guidance series. The author, Richard Bolles, has managed to create a career management empire with materials for job seekers, including special audiences such as teenagers and the "disabled", and for career counsellors. This volume focuses on the Internet and its resources for job seekers.

This book is a general job guide, meaning it is suitable for everyone who wants to use the Internet to find work, but that doesn't mean that librarians can't get something out of it. First, the two Bolles are skeptical about the overall effectiveness of a one method, Internet-or-bust, job search strategy and they assess how effective each type of resource is for finding work. Sites that have a cost to use are identified with a dollar sign, but the majority of resources are free. There is good coverage for using major job sites to find work, finding career advice, like getting in touch with a counselor, and using the Internet for networking. Most librarians are going to be fairly technically savvy--they flog us with mouse cords in library school--but if you had to find an Internet guide for an irregular Internet user, this would be the one that I would give them to get started. I also like this one better than the Guide to Online Job Searching--though I haven't looked at this year's edition yet--since the Bolles' book is tied to an actual job seeking strategy that looks at how effective a site is, not just the resources available on the site.

The authors also tie the book's resources to the job seeking strategies outlined in What Color is Your Parachute?--and if you think the Internet is the best place to find a job, march straight over to your library and pick up a copy of Parachute (you need it).

Many of the links, with slightly different categorization, are available on Bolles' portal JobHuntersBible.

Courses that may help you find a library job

There are some courses that you may have taken, as part of your undergrad or just for personal interest, that you may not have thought to mention when you were applying or interviewing for a library job.

• Have you taken a budgeting or personal finance class? I'm not thinking about applying your skills to the library budget, but there may be an increase in programming in libraries toward helping people deal with tightening household budgets. You would have at least the basic vocabulary and, possibly, contacts, to assist with collection development or programming in those areas. Take a look at this article from the Consumerist and see how many ways library programming and services can help people during an economic downturn. (Yes, we do it all the time, but people notice it more during tough times.)
  
• Did you volunteer to help people fill out their taxes? Again, similar to the finance class, you may know of resources and books that could help patrons. Make sure that you are not giving advice, but that you know where to find the best advice.
  
• Done any photography or videography? Many libraries are increasing their use of YouTube (or other educational video sites) and Flickr to create innovative book talks or instructional materials for their staff and patrons. 
• Know your way around an application form? People need to get student loans, they need to take tests to get accepted into certain professions and occupations, they need to write application letters, personal statements and conduct informational interviews--kinda sounds like an application to library school. More than that, what books did you use, who did you talk to, and use your experience to help others.
• You can search the Internet. Like a fiend. Can you find job postings? Use a vertical search engine? Find out about small business loans? Find free e-books and resources on a particular topic? It's still magic to a lot of people.
  

Think of some of the "survival" skills that you have that would assist others, and I am sure you can come up with some innovative ways to help a new library employer.

Libraries, live--from India?

This article from FUMSI reiterates some of the usual advice--stay visible, save money, talk to people--but one of the things that made my heart stutter: outsourcing library or information jobs to India. It's part of the overall trend: programmer jobs, journalism and reporting, call centres, payroll and healthcare services. Why not librarians, especially in the parts of the field that are (F2F) low touch:

• collection development
• cataloging
• ask-a-question IM services
• website design and maintenance

You wouldn't think that they could pay librarians less for the work they do but some companies may have found a way.

I don't have any friends like that

Think about who's in your network.

Look into my eyes

Jobacle had a great short post on eye contact and I thought I would expand on it slightly since eye contact can have ramifications for interviews, as well as on-the-job customer service delivery.

The Jobacle post has some nice basic rules, but there are some cultural rules to be aware of: not all cultures evaluate the quality of eye contact in the same way as North Americans. There are differences between the countries that make up North America, as well as urban/rural, or native Americans or Canadians, and male to female. I have also met some North Americans (more below) who are pretty harsh when evaluating the quality of eye contact, so if you are interviewing for a North American position, but you aren't from around these parts, you might want to get some tips.

• 1000 Ventures, a business coaching company, has a good article on eye contact in the workplace that takes in culture and psychology. (Ignore the garish colors and forgive some of the typos, it's still a good article.)
• VideoJug has a whole section on multicultural manners that includes advice from Norine Dresser, the author of Multicultural Manners. When I teach a session on interviewing and conversation to my ESL students, we usually start with the section in her book about eye contact.
• Leila's House of Corrections Eye Contact video has some great explanations for women about the appropriateness of eye contact and how the gaze can occasionally be misread.
  

If you have concerns about your eye contact and the appropriateness of your gaze, you might want to have a mock interview that is video taped and see how good your eye contact is. Talking with a person from the country where you plan to interview--and, yes, there are differences between the US and Canada (we're not just cooler)--is a good idea.

As an aside, I teach ESL as a volunteer, and I have heard some disturbing stories from my students about getting hassled by law enforcement (train security and city cops) because of their lack of eye contact. Some of the officers have told these students that they look shifty and deceitful. The cops were quite belligerent with the students, when really the student's culture has told him/her to look on people in uniform with respect--not to mention that some countries have notoriously bent cops and it's a good idea to not attract their attention. I'm surprised that this was an issue, but I had a really upset student talk to me about a situation last year that made me think that people in authority--and this includes librarians and HR professionals--should stop acting like hyperactive rottweilers.

Search all of Craigslist

Though you aren't supposed to be able to, Wired How-To Wiki has come up with a method, using Google's advanced search, to search all of Craigslist at once. You could use this method to find items for sale...or you could use it to look for freelance contracts or job postings, if place is no object in your job search. Very useful if you are looking for sideline work like editing, tutoring or small writing contracts.

This search could also work for nonprofit jobs that are posted on Craigslist, or if you are looking for library jobs that are posted on Craigslist. (I'm not aware of any libraries that use Craigslist to post job ads, but what the heck, cover all of your bases).