Daniel writes “Today a coworker posted some excerpts from Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette and I was immediately seized by giggles. In hopes that you will be too, here are a few quotes:
- “If you are a candidate for a librarian position and someone from the search committee asks, “If you were a garden tool, what kind of garden tool would you be? And why?”… it is perfectly acceptable for you get up and walk out of the interview without saying another word.”
- “You can never be too careful when you suspect the caller is pranking you at the Reference Desk. It is especially risky to mock the person’s voice when responding to a suspected pranker. Don’t learn this lesson the hard way.”
Congratulations to Sal and J for lightening the moods of librarians everywhere. At least for those of us whose humor trends snarky.“
Nonsense interview questions
I applied for a library assistant position at a nearby community college during my last semeseter of library school. The position was never going to lead to a librarian job there as that was not the career path, but I figured it would look good on the old CV.
Remember that this was a ten dollar an hour LA position providing computer support and setting up the multimedia labs (whatever the heck those are) and I did send my CV (showing only undergraduate degrees but I think it is OK to omit some earned degrees on my resume) and it was a panel interview.
Some of the questions were OK such as what is your philosophy of the community college, what are your strengths, the absurd what is your greatest weakness question (gin I think), but then they got even stranger. “Assume you were an african american student and you felt discriminated against, with whom would you discuss your feelings?” WTF?
“What kind of car are you?” Um, I drive a Honda
How does ROYGBIV represent inclusivity?
I asked if they had any questions about my knowledge, skills or abilities and the panel had none so I thanked them and left. I think they would have continued with BS like that for another half hour as it was scheduled from 2-3:30.
I put on a suit and tie for that. Needless to say I didn’t get the job.
Soon after I graduated I was offered a $20/hr part time adjunct librarian position which I turned down as the closer Junior College pays $25.