RICHLAND LIBRARY BUSINESS AND JOB CENTER STAFF includes Chris Barstow, Kris Dempster, Charletta Felder, Sylvie Golod, Janet Hatch, Andrena King, Bland Lawson, Diane Luccy (Business and Job Center Manager), Megan Mathis, Debra Talton, Jennifer Thompson, and Mary Vicks. Contact Diane at dluccy@richlandlibrary.com. She is currently reading The Little Book That Still Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt.

Originally published in Mar/Apr 2016, PUBLIC  LIBRARIES,  VOLUME 55, NUMBER 2.

With the onset of the Great Recession in 2008 and the resulting surge in unemployment, public library systems throughout the United States saw increased demand for services related to job searching. The Job Center at Richland Library in Columbia (SC) was established in 2010 with a $438,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This funding made possible the acquisition of eighteen comput­ers for job search–related tasks as well as the hiring of a career specialist and a job readiness trainer to meet individually with customers for résumé review and advice on job searching

After a few months of assisting jobseekers with résumés and job searching, the Business and Job Center staff realized that they needed to include interview practice sessions as part of their career services. Customers were getting calls for interviews, which indicated that their résumés were effective, but in many cases they were not receiving job offers. It became apparent that they needed to learn how to promote themselves, during inter­views, as the best candidate for the position.

In order to demonstrate that there was more to finding employment than simply writing a résumé and uploading a job application, staff members developed a career process model involving the following steps: Discover It, Define It, Present It, and Promote It. Through the process of writing and revising a résumé (Present It), customers would learn where they had been and where they were now in their career (Discover It). Perhaps most importantly, this process would help them clarify their career aspirations (Define It). The résumé would become more than a “marketing tool” to introduce the customer to a prospective em­ployer; it would serve as the script for the interview (Promote It).

The Business and Job Center decided to begin offering weekly interview practice sessions for customers to overcome their fears, learn storytelling techniques to better promote them­selves, and gain confidence in presenting their qualities as job candidates. These practice sessions have proven to be one of the most popular services offered by the center.

Many types of job seekers have availed themselves of the interview practice service at Richland Library, as is illustrated by the remarks of a Business and Job Center librarian describing her interview practice experience in the course of one morning:

My first customer was a mature woman looking for a position in a finance office; her dream job was to work for the University of South Carolina athletic department. My second customer had twenty-eight years of experience in medical sales. She wanted lots of direct feedback about everything from the suit she was wearing to how to handle questions about a termination from several years ago and her lack of a college degree.

The next customer was a Hungarian immigrant with a Ph.D. in immunogenetics who was hoping to transfer from eighteen years in academia to a new career in pharmaceutical research. He felt that he was solid with discussing his CV and accomplishments but that he needed some practice with traditional interview questions and with pleasing an HR representative.

Finally, I interviewed a college senior who wanted to work for Barnes & Noble while pondering her application to graduate school. This young woman was the most polished interviewee of the day.

Creating an Interview Practice Service for Less

For libraries that would like to offer more employment-related services for their customers but face budget constraints, the establishment of an interview-prac­tice program is an attractive option. With a little study and training, staff can take on the role of interviewer in practice ses­sions. The only equipment requirements are a desk and a relatively private area of the library.

The first step in developing an interview practice service is to designate team lead­ers in order to ensure consistent training. The Business and Job Center’s career specialist and job readiness trainer took on the leadership roles, and soon four busi­ness librarians joined the team. Once staff members were trained, they had a greater appreciation of what the interview process involved and became more intuitive about how to advise job seekers.

The team leaders developed a staff training guide identifying topics to dis­cuss with customers regarding interview preparation, the interview itself, and follow-up. Points to consider for prepara­tion include what to bring to the interview and the proper attire to wear. For the interview, the training guide advises staff to address issues such as nonverbal com­munication (posture, eye contact, and so on), best practices for phone interviews, and the use of storytelling techniques in responses to interview questions. For the follow-up, topics include the importance of writing a thank-you letter and what to do if no response is heard from the pro­spective employer after the interview.

The staff guide also discusses resources to share with customers, the most im­portant of which is the evaluation form the interviewer completes at the end of the session (see image, upper right). Staff may also consider referring customers to resources such as Richland Library’s vocational databases (Career Cruising and Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center) and O*Net OnLine (an occupational informa­tion source sponsored by the US Depart­ment of Labor) if it appears they need to gain a better sense of what their career goals are and the kind of job they can realistically hope to obtain.

Richland Library’s Interview Practice

The interview practice area at Richland Library features a desk and chairs donated by a local office-supply store. Mannequins nearby provide examples of proper attire (a clothing-store donation) for the employment in­terview. Unlike one-on-one career coaching sessions, which require the scheduling of an appoint­ment in advance, the practice interviews are conducted on a first-come, first-served basis, with customers signing up at the refer­ence desk for a half-hour session. These sessions are conducted biweekly on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon.

After an introduction, the staff member conducting the interview determines whether the customer has a résumé, asks a few questions about the type of position being sought, and records the information on the evaluation form. The interviewer explains that the purpose of the evaluation is to provide constructive feedback. At the end of the interview, the evaluation is reviewed, with the customer receiving a copy.

Richland Library Job Center’s Interview Practice Evaluation Form [click to enlarge]

Situation: Describe a situation you found yourself in or a task that you needed to accomplish. This situation can come from a previous job, volunteer experience, or any relevant event.

Task: What goal were you working toward?

Action: Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail, and keep the focus on yourself.

Result: Describe the outcome of your actions, and don’t be shy about taking credit for your accomplishments

The interviewer stresses the impor­tance of showing passion and enthusiasm in an interview. Allison M. Vaillancourt of the University of Arizona notes that job candidates often unwittingly come across as aloof before search committees because they don’t wish to appear “des­perate,” or they feel that a nonchalant attitude will somehow shield them from the embarrassment of rejection, when in truth “which of the finalists seems to want the job most is often factored into the decision” the employer reaches.[2] A candidate who comes across as uncom­mitted may strike an employer as a risky hire, since the time and resources needed for training would be wasted if the new employee were to become dissatisfied and leave the position after a short time.

The staff member conducting the practice session also covers issues that prospective employees (as well as em­ployers) should watch out for, such as illegal interview questions. Any question that could come into conflict with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination in hiring based on factors such as race, gender, age, religion, or nationality, is considered illegal.[3] Ex­amples include “Are you a US citizen?” “How old are you?” and “Are you planning on starting a family soon?” The informa­tion sought in questions such as these can usually be obtained legally through rephrasing—for instance, “Are you autho­rized to work in the US?” instead of “Are you a US citizen?” Business and Job Cen­ter staff have found illegal questions to be an important concern: several customers have reported that they encountered such inappropriate questions and were caught off guard by them.

At the end of a practice session, the interviewer completes the evaluation form, highlighting positive aspects of the interviewee’s responses as well as areas needing improvement, and then reviews it with the customer. The staff member may also provide supplemental handouts for further study. These cover issues such as the “elevator speech” (or “elevator pitch”), a pithy summary of one’s experience and abilities. Like the impromptu sales pitch that a salesman delivers in the course of a brief elevator ride with a potential custom­er, the elevator speech in the context of an interview should quickly convey to the employer the qualities that would make the candidate a promising hire. As Denise Leo writes, it should “give your audience concrete and memorable ways in which you solve problems or help people.”[4]

Customers participating in interview practice are also advised to ask questions during an interview as another way of demonstrating interest in a position. Doing some research on the prospective employ­er allows the job candidate to ask informed questions, and libraries are, of course, well-positioned to provide the resources for this research. Online reference tools such as ReferenceUSA and Business Insights: Essentials, as well as print resources such as the International Directory of Company Histories, can provide useful information to help the interviewee craft thoughtful ques­tions to ask at the end of an interview.

Customers who have participated in an interview practice session are encouraged to return for further sessions in order to reduce anxiety and gain the perspective of a different interviewer. Staff members have found that interviewees who attend multiple practice sessions generally have greater success in gaining employment. One customer summarized the benefits of taking part in two practice sessions, noting the constructive criticism provided by the interviewer in each case:

Interviewer 1:

1. Provided positive feedback that helped reinforce the things I did well, such as smiling, making eye contact, and answering questions by describing a problem, identifying the actions taken, and stating the results.

2. Advised me to end on a positive note when discussing the reasons I left my previous job.

3. Provided general feedback after every question, so that I knew what I did well and what I needed to improve.

4. Interview practice helped me regain the confidence I had lost.

Interviewer 2:

1.Advised that I state the facts surrounding why I left my previous job.

2. Summarized my main strengths; also advised me to incorporate them in my answers.

3. Advised me to review the bullet points in my résumé prior to the interview, so that I would know how to present myself well.

The six interview practice team mem­bers of Richland Library’s Business and Job Center have conducted more than 535 sessions since the opening of the center in 2010. The number of custom­ers served represents a rich return on an investment that chiefly involved only the time required for training. Customers who take advantage of every aspect of the career process model (including interview practice) have a greater chance of find­ing employment. Libraries interested in establishing an interview practice service are encouraged to contact the Richland Library Business and Job Center at (803) 929-3401.

References

[1] Deborah Walker, “Behavioral Interviews: 3 Steps to Great Answers,” PA Times 30, no. 9 (Sept. 2007): 22.

[2] Allison M. Vaillancourt, “Job Seekers, Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Chronicle of Higher Education 60, no. 42 (July 25, 2014): 21A.

[3] Jane Thomas, “Beware of Illegal Interview Questions,” Women in Business 51, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1999): 14.

[4] Denise Leo, “Finding the Right Words,” California Job Journal 26, no. 1122 (Feb. 17, 2008): 11.

The post FEATURE|Interview Practice Service at Richland Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Yes, these titles have always been in play, but what they signify has changed. The above library specialist, for example, once implied doing specialized work but now typically signifies a librarian I position made “special” because it doesn’t confer hours, benefits, or job security. A quick look through the LinkedIn pages of your part-time coworkers will make the context for all this clear and tell you the truth of their lives: They have these titles at more than one location or work for more than one branch, and they aren’t part-time because they want to be.

Libraries as an Industry

Aleksandra Sagen’s article “Librarians fight precarious work’s creep into white collar jobs” discusses what is, to many, the biggest issue facing new librarians: They’re simply not likely to get full-time jobs. From Sagen’s article:

“They’re basically trapped in entry-level jobs,” said Maureen O’Reilly, a librarian and president of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union. “They’re still waiting many, many, many, many, many years to get a full-time job.” The average wait time for someone to be hired as a full-time librarian with the Toronto Public Library is a decade — and that’s for applicants who already have a foot in the door working other jobs at the library.[1]

Full-Time Jobs Have Been Outsourced to Part-Time Employees

Sagen connects the employment problem in libraries to its corollary in the private sector, and she’s right to, since both issues boil down to the sobering fact that it’s cheaper to periodically hire and replace a phalanx of part-time employees than to hire one or two full-time ones. Dan Lyons discusses this same issue in his New York Times article, “Congratulations! You’ve been fired.” He describes how his fellow employees in the tech company HubSpot were called “rock stars” and told they “were changing the world” but were disposable. Their firings were called “graduations.” Lyons talks about how cruel it is to fire people with no warning and little explanation, all the while talking about how great they are. He also talks about how normal it started to seem to employees.[2]

Lyons goes on to describe how, fun language and false compliments aside, this “‘new’ way of working was actually the oldest game in the world: the exploitation of labor by capital.”*[3] Dharmesh Shah, founder and CTO at HubSpot, has responded to the book with his own article.[4]

My library, although next door to several tech companies, is worlds apart in terms of culture and environment, but Lyons’s words struck a chord. They matched the theme in Sagen’s article, and a theme running through the lives of many of my contemporaries. Supervisors will increase the responsibility of qualified part-time librarians, talk about the amazing jobs they’re doing, and tell them how great it is to have them around, but hiring them full-time won’t be an option. Like Lyons’s tech contemporaries, library staff and culture are becoming so inured to this that it seems normal.

Adding Up Underemployment

Sagen and Lyons’s articles present a story close to my own heart—and, to be honest, close to my own bank account. When I graduated with my MLIS, I had a teaching credential, experience teaching both ESL and Special Education, and I had finished two really good library internships. It never occurred to me that the best job I’d get would be working as an aide, shelving and running paging lists for barely above minimum wage. Kids in high school worked in this position alongside people who’d had the MLIS degree for years. The supervisors at the top of the food chain were thrilled to have librarians doing their shelving because, why wouldn’t they be? Those books were never shelved so well. Even better, we were hungry to go above and beyond our job description—to do librarian level work for library aide wages.

It took six months to get a librarian position in a city over (as a library specialist, which was technically a librarian I position but paid less and had no benefits). I was hired to work on-call but immediately asked to work a regular position every other Saturday. As I got to know my coworkers, I learned that this was a thing our library system did, and that my Saturday position was something of a revolving door. No one wants to work one day every two weeks with no chance of moving up or getting more hours.

It took another eight months to get a librarian I per diem position (this one genuinely is on-call) steady enough that I could give up the “aide” title from the first county. My replacement was, of course, a recently graduated MLIS student. When I landed a job as an adjunct faculty librarian at a local college I was able to give up the specialist job. Still, I was (and am) working an average of two jobs at a time at three locations, and I’m still not getting forty hours a week.

The bigger problem is that part-time jobs, even jobs at libraries with good reputations and traditionally strong unions, don’t accrue much in the way of retirement or sick leave. They often don’t have other benefits, like vacation days or healthcare, at all. Library unions, it seems, only really benefit full-time staff.

Wait! There’s more!

In library school, I was really excited go to ALA conventions. Public libraries, I quickly learned, don’t pay for part-timers to go to those. To be fair, they have offered to pay for my registration; however, with limited hours and paying for my own medical benefits, I can’t afford lodging, food, and transportation, and I certainly can’t afford to take the day off work. Besides, my library will generally expect me to fill in for full-time staff who are attending. This is only one example of my catch-22: because I’m not a full-time employee, I don’t have access to things that would make me a stronger candidate in order to become a full-time employee.

Things Are Rough All Over, but It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

Originally, I thought this was a San Francisco Bay Area problem. With the library and information program at SJSU producing two to three hundred graduates a semester (though not all living in the area), I assumed there were just too many of us vying for a finite number of jobs in this region. But I’ve learned that it’s like this all over. New York City has the same story, as does Colorado, and, according to Sagen, so does Toronto.[5]

The pattern new librarians face has become both obvious and significant, and while a lucky few have landed full-time positions, many more have become disheartened with the industry and quit. Meanwhile, part-time librarians, whatever their title, bounce between branches and systems hoping to one day become full-time. As Sagen points out, that can take “many, many, many, many, many years.”

Like Lyon’s HubSpot friends, these newer librarians are told they’re doing great and that they’re assets. As much as that’s probably true, it’s also true that they’re disposable assets, and that libraries—like Walmart, McDonald’s, or any other business—have learned that it’s cheaper to hire ten desperate part-time employees than two full-time ones who would cover the same hours. One simple solution to all this is to drastically shrink library program admittance. Another is to present MLIS programs more as “information science” programs, which is a growing, if controversial, trend.

If libraries don’t want to be viewed as big businesses by their librarians, they need to treat them like valued staff instead of part-time wage earners. That means hiring more full-time positions instead of lots of part-time ones and insuring that staff have enough benefits to make them want to stay put. It also means paying to send part-time employees to conferences (it should be easy with their flexible schedules!) and allowing them access to the same training as other staff so they can stay on the cutting edge of technology and keep up with new materials. These opportunities are all impossible for someone who’s juggling two or three jobs. True, none of this will do a thing for many of the newest library school graduates, but in the long term, neither does yoking them to inconsistent and unstable work forever.

References

[1] Aleksandra Sagen, “Librarians Fight Precarious Work’s Creep into White Collar Jobs,” Canadian Press, March 27, 2016.

[2] Dan Lyons, “Congratulations! You’ve Been Fired,” New York Times, April 9, 2016.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Dharmesh Shah, “Undisrupted: HubSpot’s Reflections on “Disrupted,” LinkedIn, April 12, 2016.

[5] Aleksandra Sagen, “Librarians Fight Precarious Work’s Creep into White Collar Jobs,” Canadian Press, March 27, 2016.

The post Remember When This Was Full-Time? Your Newest Coworkers Don’t. first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

During my two decades in public libraries, I’ve had a few dark valleys—failures, rejections, malaise—in the midst of many more soaring triumphs. I experienced a particularly dark valley some years ago. I found myself worn down and not sure of the next path to take in my career.

Barrientos’ advice mirrored my journey back from that valley to my personal peak:

1. Take some time for yourself and let it sink in.
   Once I recognized I’d slipped deeply into a valley, I called my mother and my mentor, in that order. Then I knitted an infinity scarf for my mentor. I gave that scarf all I had—all my thoughts, pain, and worries. When I cast off, the scarf dragged the floor! I had to knit her another.
2. Read Brianna Marshall’s blog post “We need to share our rejections.”[3]
   I’d read inspirational works like Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly. I had not read Brianna Marshall’s blog before this assignment; her rejection was for a dream job. Like Barrientos and me, Marshall experienced a low point but is now back on top. I like the way she described her peak: “I love my challenging, bewildering, and slightly mysterious job.”[4]
3. Once you feel a little better, make a list of goals, both short and long term. What do you want to accomplish this period? Who can help you? How can you do it?
   My goals: recharge, refresh, and roar back to the top!

My first goal was to recharge in the profession. First I accompanied a colleague to an ALA Midwinter Meeting. Although I was not on a single committee, I shook a lot of hands and met new people, learned a great deal of new practices, and had an absolute blast.

Next, I wanted to get more involved, grow my professional network, and refresh my knowledge. I got on committees with ALA and PLA, attended the ALA Leadership Institute and the PLA Results Boot Camp, blogged for PL Online, got elected to the board of the DC Library Association, got more involved with the Virginia Library Association, and so much more.

I looked beyond my personal valley to help others. I mentored and coached staff, friends, and new librarians. After I won a board election against an opponent, I invited her to join the committee. I have given others challenging work on committees followed by ample praise, a reference on LinkedIn, and opportunities to shine. I’m leading an upcoming webinar on tips for new managers.

One day during my journey, a kind, funny librarian I’d met in a preconference and talked with briefly at a state conference mixer said, “You! I want you on the _____ Committee!” I didn’t know then that she was the incoming president of the association, and she didn’t know that the offer she extended was just the hand I needed to pull me that last few steps out of that dark valley. I love it up here on this peak in the clouds. Like Barrientos and Marshall, I’ve found acceptance, opportunities, learning, and exciting challenges at work, through professional associations, and in life—a way out of a valley.

Finally, I haven’t knitted any extra-long infinity scarves in a long, long while!

References:

[1] Quetzalli Barrientos, “Getting rejected in the library world. What now?” ACRLog, February 15, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Brianna Marshall, “We need to share our rejections,” Brianna Marshall [blog], October 13, 2014.

[4] Ibid.

Further Reading:

Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, New York: Avery, 2012.

The post Roaring Back from Rejection: Managing the Peaks and Valleys of Your Library Career first appeared on Public Libraries Online.