“I’m not a fan of those “I’m different from everyone else”resumes when you begin to write a short novel on how awesome you are and then don’t provide any previous work experience to back that up.”
Please note: This is an anonymous response to an online survey; I do not have any way of contacting the respondent or verifying responses. Their answers may reflect good, bad, or middling hiring practices. I invite you to take what’s useful and leave the rest. If you are someone who hires Library, Archives or other LIS workers, please consider giving your own opinion by filling out the survey here.
Current Hiring Practices and Organizational Needs
These questions are about your current hiring practices in general – the way things have been run the last year or two (or three).
Where do you advertise your job listings?
City HR posts on City website and Indeed
Do you notice a difference in application quality based on where the applicant saw the job ad?
No
Do you include salary in the job ad?
√ Yes
Do you use keyword matching or any automation tools to reduce the number of applications a human reads while considering candidates?
√ No
Do you consider candidates who don’t meet all the requirements listed in the job ad?
√ Other: Depends on the type of job
Does your workplace require experience for entry-level librarian positions? (Officially or unofficially…)
√ Other: Not sure.
What is the current most common reason for disqualifying an applicant without an interview?
No skills or experience similar to the job requirements and duties.
Does your organization use one-way interviews? (Sometimes also called asynchronous or recorded interviews)
√ No
Do you provide interview questions before the interview?
√ No
Does your interview process include taking the candidate out for a meal?
√ No, and I don’t think we ever have
How much of your interview process is virtual?
√ None
Do you (or does your organization) give candidates feedback about applications or interview performance?
√ Other: I’m the only direct hiring authority for the library department and I do not have the time to do so.
What is the most important thing for a job hunter to do in order to improve their hirability?
Gain experience in the field or have worked in a similar environment in which the skills can be easily transferable.
I want to hire someone who is:
Flexible
Is there anything else you’d like to say about hiring practices at your organization or in current trends?
The city has one person in HR and I’m the only one in our department that has to set up interviews, conduct interviews, provide training and set up the new employee. I’m also the director, so on top of that I lose time from my own duties such as management, budgeting, facility upkeep etc.
Your Last Recruitment
These are questions about the last person you hired (or the last position you attempted to fill). This person may not have been a librarian, and that’s ok.
Think about the most recent time you participated in hiring someone (or an attempt to hire someone) at your organization. What was the title of the position you were trying to fill?
We lost half the staff in a month, so two Library Clerks and one library assistant
When was this position hired?
√ Within the last three months
Approximately how many people applied for this position?
√ 75-100
Approximately what percentage of those would you say were hirable?
√ 25% or less
And how would you define “hirable”?
Someone that can actually write a resume, has had work experience, shows that they are not a job jumper, demonstrates flexibility and the ability to learn tasks on their own without being micromanaged.
How did the recruitment for this position compare with recruitments in previous years?
More applications than a year before, but fewer qualified.
Your Workplace
This section asks for information about your workplace, including if you have lost positions in the last decade.
How many staff members are at your library/organization?
√ 0-10
Are you unionized?
√ No
How many permanent, full time job openings has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ None!
How many permanent, full time librarian (or other “professional” level) jobs has your workplace posted in the last year?
√ None!
Can you tell us how the number of permanent, full-time positions at your workplace has changed over the past decade?
√ There are the same number of positions
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with part-time or hourly workers over the past decade?
√ I don’t know
Have any full-time librarian positions been replaced with non-librarian, lower paid staff positions over the past decade?
√ I don’t know
Is librarianship a dying profession?
√ Other: Yes and No, depends on what part of the country you’re in.
Why or why not?
It will be if people continue to bar Librarians from doing their job and if tax payers don’t pay enough in taxes to sustain Libraries.
Demographics
This section asks for information about you specifically.
What part of the world are you in?
√ Southwestern US
What’s your region like?
√ Suburban area
What type of institution do you hire for (check all that apply):
√ Public Library
What type(s) of LIS professionals do you hire?
Besides the Director, 1 Youth Librarian.
Are you a librarian?
√ Yes
Are you now or have you ever been:
√ A hiring manager (you are hiring people that you will directly or indirectly supervise),
√ A member of a hiring or search committee
Do you have any other comments, for job hunters, other people who hire, about the survey, or for Emily (the survey author)?
My comment is for the job hunters: For me, the hiring process starts with your resume. I look for clean and detailed information about your previous work experience, especially if you have never worked in a library before. Please spell check your resume too. It’s a “no” for me if you can’t take the time to check your work, especially being that library workers have to take the time to check the little details to find things and problem solve! You need to sell me on how those skills would translate to the library. Also do a cover letter to explain any gaps in your employment and tell me why you want to work for my library and what you can bring to the team and the community to make it better. Im not a fan of those “I’m different from everyone else”resumes when you begin to write a short novel on how awesome you are and then don’t provide any previous work experience to back that up.
I’m always looking for people who want to contribute something, are a team player, can be flexible, and want to learn through making mistakes. Even if you don’t have experience yet, people with integrity will get a place in the library over someone who may have the desired skill set. Certain qualities just can’t be trained into someone, while learning a new skill set can.
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