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Created and Maintained by: A.B. Credaro
Updated October 7, 2001
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CAREER ADVICE
Graphic by Peter Lewis
EXTRA TIPS FROM BIBLIA
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Prepare your resume in advance.
Include your name, date of birth (no cheating here), educational background, experience, goals and ambitions. Make sure that your resume highlights your strengths in whatever area you are applying for. Operations Librarians should mention the long hours they spend each night on the Internet; catalogue-wanna-bees should include facts like their passion for Dewey, and spending every vacation cutting up the New York/London/Sydney Times (or their metric equivalents) and filing the clippings by an appropriate subject heading system.
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Study the library before the interview.
Make certain that you actually WANT to work in that particular library. Study an appropriate text on body language before you make your reconnaissance visit - and watch the existing employees carefully. Sagging shoulders may indicate an extreme workload; a shuffling gait may indicate long hours; extremely thick glasses may indicate poor lighting conditions. Of course, these things might also indicate you are not in a library at all, you may be in a Home for the Aged. Make sure you can see a lot of books, and read the sign on the front door.
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Be on time.
Any previous battle engagements should be postponed until after the interview. Your advice that you were delayed by the Aegean Wars will not be considered favourably. Similarly, your parking problems will not produce any brownie points - they don't really care about the lack of facilities for parking chariots in the municipal carparks. Yeah, sure, they may offer creche facilities, employee benefits, work bonuses, but what about the really important stuff?
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Dress conservatively.
Leave all your weapons at home. Library Administrators are generally disinclined to appreciate the finer points of warfare, even in relation to exit control. (And they wonder why people steal library books!!!)
Whenever possible, comb your hair before the interview has started, and remove any body-parts that were not grown by yourself (eg nose-bones, shrunken heads, etc).
If you are going to borrow spectacles, ensure that they at least have some glass in them; experienced interviewers are always on the look-out for signs of deception.
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Give yourself that extra edge!!
Refrain from biting, punching or otherwise injuring your interviewer, at least until after you've been appointed to the position.
Similarly, agree with all personal opinions expressed by the interviewer - regardless of how inane they might be. A word of caution here: sometimes the interviewer will try to deliberately provoke an inappropriate response - and also throw in a casual comment that is meant to elicit a rebuttal from you. Also, sometimes library administrators are just dolts.
If you have trouble deciding what game the interviewer is playing, it may be best to just ignore the advice above re biting, punching, etc. Just ask yourself first: "Do I really want this job?".
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