Don't Panic!

Regular Twitter followers will know that I have a new job. In this uncertain world where library staff are being culled and budgets tightened I have managed to secure a relatively well paid job in a lovely area with an organisation I'm really excited about. It is not only a promotion but it is also a step up from a FE environment to a HE one. Plus the campus is REALLY REALLY pretty! (The educational resource room over looks the lake)

I previously blogged about my experiences applying for jobs. I can only hope that post helped someone else get shortlisted. I now want to share my experience of going for interviews over the last couple of months by explaining a pitfalls I have both fallen into and avoided. 

Interviewing is hard, you not only have the stress of the actual interview, you have to worry about getting there, (preferably on time) what you will wear, how you get the time off work and whether you will at some point make a total fool of yourself.

This was brought home to me while wandering around in a park in London, ridiculously early for my first interview in over two years and on the verge of what can only be described a panic attack. I was saved on that occassion by a text message from an old friend who had heard I was in the area and wanted coffee after I had finished. The practicalities of this brought me nicely back to earth and while I still made a balls of that particular interview at least I made it through the door. 

I think very few people can approach an interview without nerves. They are by nature high pressure situations. However for me the important thing is to be as prepared and to put the process into perspective. Ask yourself what is the worst that can happen? Even though there can often be a lot riding on an interview it is important to remember that not getting the job is not the end of the world. 

Obviously the latter is one about attitude and not something anyone can offer a quick fix to. However your level of preparedness is entirely in your own hands and while your approach may differ depending on the type of interview there is plenty of things you can do to get yourself ready.

Research:
You should already have done some research into the organisation while completing your application. Now that you have an interview you really have to utilise all your skills and learn everything you can about the organisation you are interviewing for. A great place to start is to conduct  a SWOT analysis, not just for the organisation but for the sector that it is part of, even if you think you are already familiar with it. 

This research is especially important if you have been asked to give a presentation. There is nothing worse than realising, upon arrival at your interview, that your presentation is totally out of kilter with the organisations aims and aspirations.

Things I looked at when preparing for interviews with HE organisations included:

• recent information from HEAP and UCAS
• recent changes to senior management, right up to Vice Chancellor level.
• any planned building work.
• involvement in any research or projects - JISC and SCONUL are good places to start, alternately find out if they have presented at any conferences recently. 
• major changes to policy in the sector, for example Open Access and the increasing importance of international students have cropped up in all my interviews. 

Rehearse:

If you have been asked to give a presentation make sure it is focused on the topic and stays within the time limit. Don't try and do to much but do be innovative and use humour. Practice giving the presentation aloud with your slides. Whatever you do not spend 10 minutes reading out information already written on your slides. You'll be lucky if your audience is awake by the end of it and no one wants a sleepy interviewer.

I made a real mess of my first interview presentation, an area I am normally confident in. With hindsight I tried to do too much and be too clever. While I doubt even a top class presentation would have got me that job (I suspect my skills set weren't up to par amongst other things) the poor performance threw me for the rest of the interview. For future interviews I kept things much simpler, shorter and practiced a lot more. 

I should also add that I used Prezi for all my presentations, first confirming that internet would be available. I know people either love or hate Prezi but I felt it would help me stand out from the crowd. It isn't for everyone and I was certainly careful not to incorporate too much whizzing about. However I know for certain that it impressed the people who eventually gave me a job. 

Read a book:

If you have access to a careers library use it, your local public library should have plenty of choice.  Even someone like me who has a healthy aversion to motivational texts and life coaches will admit that it is useful to go through a professional text on interview techniques. Many will include a list of interview questions or scenarios that you might like to consider as well as model answers. 

Following on from the first and previous points above think about some likely questions for your particular interview and then consider your responses. While it is impossible to prepare model answers for every question what you can do is think of a few situations and case studies that can be used to illustrate a number of different points.  You need to demonstrate not just what you think about a problem but how you have acted previously to resolve or challenge it. In my case the areas that came up most often were:

• handling conflict or difficult behavior
• ensuring an excellent service for ALL users
• managing change
• excellent customer service
• utilising technology

It's never too early to think about job interviews:

The library world is very small. The academic library world is even smaller. Throw social media into the mix and sooner or later you are going to get interviewed by someone you know. Or, as happened in my first interview, face a panel made up entirely of people I knew. Or, in the case of my second interview, find out that the position you are interviewing for is actually a secondment cover for the nice man you sat next to in a copyright workshop while very hungover and suffering from some serious sleep deprivation. 

My point is this, go to enough conferences, spend enough time on Twitter and sooner or later you will meet an acquaintance. And if you behaved dreadfully or have a Twitter stream littered with swearing and complaints about your current employer, they will remember and they will judge you by it.  So think about your professional profile both on and off line at all times. It's a sensible precaution for anyone but the reality of it really hits home when you are interviewing, a stage when often it will be too late to put right your past sins. The last thing you want to be doing when you are sat in an interview is trying to remember whether you said anything bad about your boss on Twitter the night before. 

Don't get to comfortable: 
This leads nicely on from the point above. If you know the people interviewing you it is very easy to slip into conversation mode. However tempting it might be don't forget why you are there. Stick to the point of the questions, don't get side tracked and don't relax too much. Stay focused on the impression you want to give to the interview panel.

And finally:
The above information is of course not comprehensive and is purely my own opinion. There have been much more professional takes on job seeking for LIS professionals that are easy enough to find through Google. 
I by no means have 100% record when it comes to interviews but what I have done is make sure that I have learnt from my mistakes and experiences, reflecting on the process after each one.  I hope in some way I will have helped someone else going through the process and if not I'm sure I will certainly have helped my future self with these posts. 

On Chartership and Job Seeking

At the end of January I'll have been registered to Charter for a year. I've made steady progress throughout the 12 months with some notable highlights including my two day shadowing at Bolton Health Library, the ARLG Conference in Newcastle and organising a mini meet up for other Chartership candidates in the local area. I think I've developed both personally and professionally and I've made some lovely friends due to the process. 

I'd set myself January as my deadline and at the end of October I was well on track to meet this. I'd gathered most of the extra information I needed, finalised my CV and PPDP, listed my evidence and done a draft of my personal statement that my mentor later approved.  A January submission seemed a sure thing yet I find myself in 2013 and very little further on than I was back in October. (I should add at this point that, personal disasters aside, Chartering from scratch is easily possible within a 12 month period)

The fact is, that due to a rather drastic change in personal circumstances, I have spent the  months since October sleeping in friends spare rooms, staying in hotels and juggling my friends and family in Manchester with my work in Preston. This change was of course the big D, (divorce) or at least for the moment separation.

Since my husband dropped the D bomb I've known that I would have to get a new job. I was made redundant from my previous post, a very early victim of the public library cuts.  My personal circumstances at the time, mainly the nature of my husband's job, meant that while I was limited geographically I was able to accept a post that paid considerably less than I was used to. This has now changed and although I love my job (honestly, I really do) I cannot continue to work a 40 week contract.

A lot of people will claim that getting a job when you are employed is a lot harder than getting a job while you are currently working. They may be right. But I can only speak from recent  experience which has taught me that searching for and applying to jobs while also working full time is exhausting. Couple that with living out of a suitcase and you'll quickly realise why I have made little progress with Chartership. 

I realise that I am luckier than some. I have a job and don't, for the time being at least, have to worry about paying the bills. However I do need to make a fresh start and for me a major part of this is finding a new job I will enjoy and find challenging. The advantage I have now is that rather than being limited geographically I am free to move anywhere and can therefore seek jobs that that I would love.

I have yet to secure a new job so I'm not going to comment on my interview process. The one which I have attended so far was a total car crash which is a pity because the job was genuinely interesting and one I would have loved to do. What I can do is share my experiences of searching and applying for jobs in the very difficult information and library world. For me it's been just a valuable learning experience as a training course or workshop and while I may run the risk of strengthening the competition I don't think I've said anything here that wouldn't be obvious to anyone with a bit of experience. 

First establish what you are looking for.

Due to large scale redundancies in both public and academic libraries competition for jobs is very high. Something which put this into perspective for me was finding out that my Chartership mentor was interviewed for a post I applied for but didn't get short listed for. 

In this environment and given my circumstances it would be easy to panic apply for everything available regardless of it's suitability. Not wishing to fall into this trap one of the first things I did was to draw up a list of criteria that any job would have to meet before I would apply for it. 

• it had to progress my career. 
• it had to be a full time / full year contract. 
• it had to pay more than more current salary. 
• it wouldn't be in public libraries and it definitely wouldn't be with a certain NW council.*
• if academic it would be a HE library or at least include elements of HE provision. 
• it had to be a job that I would find interesting and/or challenging.
• I had to meet all of the essential and desirable criteria on the job spec. Realistically with competition so high there is little point applying otherwise. 

Some people might not bother with this step and just apply for everything available. I do not have this luxury. The fact is that applying for jobs is time intensive and, if you have to travel, expensive. I've found that I need at least a full day to complete an online application form/write a covering letter. Then if you get an interview you will probably have to prepare a presentation, do further research on the organisation and travel on the day. To commit this amount of time and then realise that you don't really want the job anyway is a waste of time for both parties. So, before you even start looking, make sure you know what you want. 

* it's nothing personal against public libraries, I really enjoyed working in this environment previously. I just feel it currently offers no job security. 

Prepare your CV

While most jobs I've come across require the use of an online application form and explicitly say that they will not accept CVs it does no harm to get yours into shape. 

I was lucky in that I had recently prepared my CV for my Chartership portfolio so it needed little up dating. This Chartership CV is four pages long but I actually added to it when preparing it for job applications. It includes everything I have achieved since qualifying  including every training course and workshop I have been on. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Of course I don't submit this five page monstrosity but use it as a template for applications, using only the parts which are most relevant to the particular role. Being able to C+P from this master copy speeds up the input of standard information such as qualifications and means that I don't forget about any relevant training or experiences when writing personal statements. If you're applying for a number of jobs it's a really useful tool to have. 

Find the jobs. 

Update and the Job Centre are pretty much useless on this front but in the main you can automate the process using feeds from websites such as LIS Jobs and Jobs.ac.uk.  I have also found Twitter an invaluable source of information and have made a point of looking at suppliers and publishers websites for non traditional jobs. I also check in periodically with the Sue Hill site although I have yet to find anything suitable through it. 

If you are interested in a particular location it is worth making a list of all the relevant potential employers, for example universities and FE colleges, and either visiting their sites regularly or creating email notifications for jobs matching your criteria. 

Remember to check websites and feeds regularly. Most sites charge to advertise jobs and I've found that some organisations will pay for just a few days before the job is taken down, way before the actual closing date. 

Apply!

Once you've found a job and established that you to want to apply for it you need to get your application in. 

• First read the application information paying attention to any information about the provision of CV's and deadline dates and times.
• Make sure you follow any instructions. Sounds obvious but failure to do so is at best going to make you look stupid and at worse will result in your application being rejected automatically.
• Research the organisation - this will help you personalise the application. 
• If asked to submit a CV keep it to within 2 pages. Always include a covering letter addressing why you meet each criteria on the person specification if it is not obvious on your CV.
• If using an online application form with space for additional information or a personal statement address each criteria in the job specification individually. Remember that the initial applications may be sifted by HR and/or be one of hundreds of applications. You need to make it obvious that you meet each point. 
• Don't just say that you meet the criteria. Use evidence to say why. 
• Make your application relevant to the job description, not just the person specification.
• Remember to sell yourself and your abilities and knowledge. 
• Don't lie. You will be found out at the interview. (This isn't from experience, it's just a bit of sound advice)
• In all cases check your spelling and grammar carefully.

Of course professional recruiters may disagree with the above, this is just how I do it. However so far I have a 50% success rate for applications leading to interviews which I don't think is bad in the current climate. Strangely I am yet to get a interview for a FE environment (in which I currently work) but have had a number of interview offers for universities. 

Once you've applied

Some job application sites allow you to log back in and retrieve submitted applications but this isn't always the case so if you have the option print or save a copy of the complete application first. This will be useful for future applications and be invaluable if you get an interview.

If emailing a CV and covering letter make sure your email copy is professional and that you request confirmation that it has been received. 

And finally for now..

I challenge anyone to job seek, Charter and work full time. I've had to recognise that I can't do all three successfully which is why, even though I am within touching distance of having a completed portfolio, my Chartership has had to be put on hold, at least for a few months. 

Once I've got a job I'll follow this post up with my interview experiences - you'll just have to wait and see for that stage. Here's hoping it happens sooner rather than later, if only so that I can stop submitting applications and refocus on submitting my  portfolio.