Sarah the Librarian

Last week Jacob Berg wrote a very candid post about the hiring process and it dovetails nicely with something I had wanted to write about. After 2 1/2 years of searching, I finally landed a full-time job. Because of the length of the process and the number of jobs I thought I was getting, but then didn't, I still don't completely comprehend why this is the one that worked out, so I don't have much to say about that, but I do have some thoughts on how to not go crazy during the job search process. It essentially boils down to: Don't take rejection personally.   The nature of the job market in this field means that there are often many more librarians looking for jobs than there are openings, so employers get the luxury of being a little picky. There were multiple positions where I was told very sincerely, "You were great, but so was everyone else, and we had to pick someone, which, unfortunately wasn't you." This is often followed by a well-meani...

A little while ago I put up a few links about issues of gender in the workplace but didn't really have time to elaborate, so I've come back to the topic with some thoughts. Of the posts I linked a while ago, the one that's really stuck with is the way women limit themselves by  being nice . Trying to be anything besides accommodating has always been a challenge for me, especially professionally. I'm a small town Midwestern girl who was raised to, above all other things, "be nice", so in situations where there's any question about how I should act, I take the nice route. But I've seen how this has limited me over the years by not standing up for projects I believe in or pointing out issues I think are being ignored. Lately it's really been sticking with me because I've been job hunting. While the details will stay private, the fact that I'm job searching is no big secret. I love what I do in my current position, but it's only part-ti...

I originally planned to post this on Friday as an extended #FridayReads, but I got too into what I had to say and was interrupted before I could finish it. I still think it was a worthwhile train of thought, though, so I took the time to finish up recording my thoughts and polishing the whole thing up a little. A lot of the non-fiction I've been reading lately has been parenting related, but currently I'm finally finishing an LIS career book I bought a couple years ago when I was going through a difficult time career-wise.  Rethinking Information Work  by G. Kim Dority is more aimed at LIS students and would make a good textbook for an intro class focused on planning your career (which, I think, is really under-emphasized in library school). Some of the suggested resources listed at the end of each chapter have me rolling my eyes, but if I were new to Libraryland, I would need to have them pointed out to me and would probably learn a lot from them. Published in 2006, ma...

While cleaning out my drafts folder I found this piece from when my job search wasn't going so well. While it seemed too self-defeating to post at the time, I think there's a little truth in this nugget. The longer you search for a job, the more you think the problem has to be you, even if you've landed wonderful jobs in the past and done amazing things in your previous jobs that would make anyone lucky to hire you. Thing #1001 That Sucks About Job Hunting: You tend to focus on everything you need to fix: "I didn't get this job because of X, so I need to fix X." This is instead of focusing on the things that already make you a strong candidate: "I've done all these wonderful things in my career and I can't wait to join another organization to do even more wonderful things."

I've alluded to the fact that I've been interviewing for librarian positions near my new home and someday when I'm not feeling so discouraged maybe I'll write more about the challenges of searching for a job in my particular area in this economy, etc., but for now I have to tell you all about my least favorite interview question. I realize that I'm probably being a little oversensitive here and I fully admit that this is my particular pet peeve and probably not shared by the general population. Still, I just have to get it off my chest. What makes you the best candidate for this position? I know this is a pretty standard question and as easy to prepare for as "What's your biggest weakness?", so I always have a prepared answer for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I often bomb it because it's so hard to keep my hatred of this question under wraps. My hatred of this question is very specific to librarianship. I got into this field in ...