Search Results for: ellen mehling
Checking out Coaching and Career Services: Ellen Mehling
“A large, robust, healthy network is crucial to job search success, and it takes time to develop and requires care and effort to nurture. Dig your well before you are thirsty!” Continue reading
Coaching and Career Services
What is it like to work with someone who provides career services or coaching? How can you tell if it’s right for you? How much does it cost? In this feature, I interview different folks about the career services they … Continue reading
Comments Off on Coaching and Career Services
Filed under
Further Questions: If a candidate has an interview, is it gauche to reach out to current or former employees that they do not know to ask them about the institution?
If you don’t know the employees, that seems odd. In our faculty librarian searches, we give the candidate a lot of opportunities to meet with different groups of employees, to get a sense of what it’s like to work here and to ask questions about different aspects of the job and the workplace. Former employees may be former for a reason, so you may be looking for negativity. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: When is the salary negotiation stage of the process (generally), and what is an acceptable range to negotiate to?
When you have been offered the position, that is usually the time to start salary negotiations. Depending on the type of organization, they will let you know if there is a top number for the salary range. Most of the time, they can’t go above that amount. If you want to negotiate, have data to back up your reasoning – industry salary data, years of experience, etc.
If you really want the job, let them know! That might go a long way towards negotiations. If they can’t budge on salary, ask about non-salary perks, such as a number of paid conferences, moving assistance, job for spouse or partner, etc. Think creatively. If they want you, they should be willing to try alternate options, especially since salary often comes out of a different fund than other expenses. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: Do you think it is possible for applicants to be too qualified to succeed in a position?
Each week (or every other week) I ask a question to a group of people who hire library and LIS workers. If you have a question to ask or if you’d like to be part of the group that answers, … Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: When Should Library Students Start Applying?
Each week (or thereabouts) I ask a question to a group of people who hire library and LIS workers. If you have a question to ask or if you’d like to be part of the group that answers, shoot me … Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: How do you cope with hiring decisions you might not agree with?
I have pretty good instincts about hires and I should have known that this particular one was a mistake. We interviewed three people for a librarian position. Both had worked at the library at the university in close proximity to our campus. One had been a librarian who, for whatever reason, had not been offered a continuing contract. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: All About Cover Letters
I promise you that employers spend less time reading the cover letter than you spent writing it. Stick to the facts and speak to the job ad. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: In addition to the MLIS, what post-secondary certificates, degrees, or coursework is most useful for new hires trying to get into the field?
These days a lot of jobs require some experience so that’s worth keeping in mind. And many libraries will strongly recommend a second Master’s which could be earned while working and is not necessarily a required qualification for hiring. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Further Questions: Do you hire for hustle?
It’s so funny/not funny that “doing your job” is being framed as “quitting.” I think we all know that’s bullshit, and part of a concerted effort by capital to claw back the little bit of power that labor has been able to gain in the last couple years. Continue reading
Filed under Further Questions
Hiring Librarians 