My first job interview!
Next week I'll be experiencing my first job interview, a telephone call from Enoch Pratt Free Library in Maryland. I'm not reviving this dead horse of a journal to announce that and receive congratulations/encouragement, however. I just wanted to let the other Slizzards on my friend's list know that it took 3 months for me to hear back from this library.
Application date: mailed on 1/7/05
Telephone call to organize an interview: 3/31/05
So either the job reviewing process is snail-slow, I was on the bottom of the list, or both. Either way, I'll be interviewing on Wednesday witha panel of 3 people who will be on the phone with me. How intimidating. :P
Just some early advice:
1. Always print out the job descriptions, how you found out about the job, and when you sent your application or resume in. I received an earlier call from a library in Arlington, Virginia, but somehow I had forgotten to print the job description, they had removed the online notice, and I didn't know what position they were calling about! They didn't get a phone call back from me, which is a lost opportunity (actually, I sort of lost the number on my desk, but still, how could I call them back when I didn't know what they'd be asking me?).
2. Gather your information in one place. You'll need college transcripts (undergraduate and graduate; thankfully most places will accept a copy of the transcripts and not an authentic one that costs money). You'll need information on your past jobs (relevant and non-relevant). This means your position title; your supervisor's name, position title, and contact information; rate of pay; address of place of employment; how long you worked there; and a detailed list of jobs you performed there to demonstrate the skills you developed. Hopefully you all are more organized than I am--I've sent out so many resumes with errata that it's embarassing. >_< It's easy to do when you've been working for nearly 8 years and have held more than 10 jobs during that time. :P
3. Most likely, you're not going to hear back from 90% of the places you send a resume to. The standard practice in the field is to only call those people who they want to interview for possible candidacy. Being new recruits, we're pretty low on the experience level and thus are low priority. Seeing how long it took Enoch Pratt to call me back, it is possible that I'll start receiving call-backs from other libraries I've applied to in the past 3 months as time goes on. I'll try and keep you updated.
4. Resumes and coverletters are hard. You'll be writing a lot of them, so use it as a learning experience!
5. START SEARCHING EARLY!
That's all I can think of for now. I'm going to go eat lunch and try to be happy that I did at least one application right. ^_^;
Edit 4/1/05: Grammatical errors make English major's cry.
Application date: mailed on 1/7/05
Telephone call to organize an interview: 3/31/05
So either the job reviewing process is snail-slow, I was on the bottom of the list, or both. Either way, I'll be interviewing on Wednesday witha panel of 3 people who will be on the phone with me. How intimidating. :P
Just some early advice:
1. Always print out the job descriptions, how you found out about the job, and when you sent your application or resume in. I received an earlier call from a library in Arlington, Virginia, but somehow I had forgotten to print the job description, they had removed the online notice, and I didn't know what position they were calling about! They didn't get a phone call back from me, which is a lost opportunity (actually, I sort of lost the number on my desk, but still, how could I call them back when I didn't know what they'd be asking me?).
2. Gather your information in one place. You'll need college transcripts (undergraduate and graduate; thankfully most places will accept a copy of the transcripts and not an authentic one that costs money). You'll need information on your past jobs (relevant and non-relevant). This means your position title; your supervisor's name, position title, and contact information; rate of pay; address of place of employment; how long you worked there; and a detailed list of jobs you performed there to demonstrate the skills you developed. Hopefully you all are more organized than I am--I've sent out so many resumes with errata that it's embarassing. >_< It's easy to do when you've been working for nearly 8 years and have held more than 10 jobs during that time. :P
3. Most likely, you're not going to hear back from 90% of the places you send a resume to. The standard practice in the field is to only call those people who they want to interview for possible candidacy. Being new recruits, we're pretty low on the experience level and thus are low priority. Seeing how long it took Enoch Pratt to call me back, it is possible that I'll start receiving call-backs from other libraries I've applied to in the past 3 months as time goes on. I'll try and keep you updated.
4. Resumes and coverletters are hard. You'll be writing a lot of them, so use it as a learning experience!
5. START SEARCHING EARLY!
That's all I can think of for now. I'm going to go eat lunch and try to be happy that I did at least one application right. ^_^;
Edit 4/1/05: Grammatical errors make English major's cry.