Yeah, THAT’s gonna help those tension headaches I’m asking about in GQ.
I want it so bad. It’s manager of the branch library that’s in my very own neighborhood. I could walk to work. I could fix it. Seriously, man, I read their monthly reports and they’re like “We held Storytime and nobody came. Again.” I could fix that like you don’t know what.
But I just feel sick, because I applied for a job that isn’t even that much of a jump and they didn’t even interview me. I feel like I have practically no chance, because I think there are going to be a ton of people applying for the wrong reasons - it’s a sleepy, small branch. Well, I want to wake it up, but not everybody would! If I could just get an interview, I think I could convey that. But the interview… oh, the interview! I’ve been applying for internal jobs for months and not gotten an interview!!
And the application. I know from talking to the people in that department that they totally look at the application first and then if they feel like it they look at your resume. One imagines they just throw any cover letter away - I don’t even bother to do one anymore, because there’s not much point. But the application is stupid! There’s tiny, itty bitty lines with no space to tell them what you really do, like run a department with 19 patron computers in it on a crazy-ass Sunday.
And none of that matters anyway, because you can’t really convey your qualities in the application or the resume the way you want to. Arrrrgh!
I feel better now, thanks. I will try not to be negative about it.
Could you create a word document that answers the questions in the application, i.e. recreate a soft copy of the application form? That would solve the space problem.
Oh hell no. I was there when one of the people who reads these applications was complaining bitterly about people who put “see resume” in some of those blanks - she’s reading stuff in a certain format and she wants everything to be in that, which I do understand when you’re reading a bunch of applications. I was very quiet during that conversation and mentally begging her to keep talking, keep talking!
Well I could see that ‘see resume’ is a cop-out, that’s basically saying ‘I can’t be bothered answering this question and demand that you comb through my resume looking for evidence that might provide the answer’.
But that’s different to recreating the application form (but using the exact application form layout, just with bigger boxes for answers).
Still, I’ll take it that you know best.
Is it possible that you could take the decision maker out to lunch and ask for “mentoring advice.” i.e. you aren’t asking about this job in particular, you just want to know how to move and meet your goals. IF the topic of this job were to come up in a discussion of goals, you could show your enthusiasm - but do respect his/her ‘you don’t have enough experience’ or whatever. Its possible - not likely - but possible, that you’d win him/her over. If not, you’d at least get a chance to have the person who makes the decisions tell you want your career path to that job should look like.
Ask intellegent questions - what talents make for a good branch manager? what skills and experience do you look for? What sort of projects and outcomes should I look to undertake in my current job to position me for this?
The job opening process is extremely rigid here. I once got into trouble involving a chastising department e-mail because, when my own department had a vacancy, I innocently asked if we were interviewing, and if so why didn’t anybody tell me. It’s all a big secret. I did, when I started trying to move out to the branches and up, contact an old manager of mine who’s at a completely separate branch and not involved in any of this for advice, and she was as helpful as she’s allowed to be. Unfortunately, the big thing is, you gotta get the interview before you can impress anybody.
The advice I’ve been given from people who are involved in the hiring process at the branches is, apply for everything. Everything. (Well, fine, but interview my shapely ass!)
Zsofia: I don’t have any useful advice about how to get the library job, because sadly I’m not too good at actualizing my ambitions, but I hope, against whatever the odds are, that you get it. Because someone who talks about a library job the way you do deserves to have it!
If I remember correctly the library policeman anally raped a little boy who grew up and fought off a space alien with a big ball of licorice. You would want to be chief of the library police why?
Good luck, Zsofia. Go for it, but don’t put so much into it that if you don’t get it it is too much of a comedown.
A year ago a job opened up that I wanted and was incredibly qualified for. In short, I applied, and was told I wasn’t even minimally qualified to complete the application process (test and interview). It really is a bit of a shocker to be told that your 20-year career is essentially worth shit. Kinda hard to turn that around in a way to make it good for the ego!
Unfortunately, I think it is all too common - especially in government - for folks making hiring decisions to care little about getting the best qualified person to fill a position. All to often their main concern is getting a body to fill a slot. They are generally more interested in how good their decision looks on paper, that in choosing the best person in any realworld terms.
