D-Day

So today is the day where my future as a librarian hangs in the balance. Two HUGE interviews for a prestigious college. It's been great to have the week off. I've had ample opportunity to prepare. But more importantly RESEARCH.

I've come to learn that it is incredibly important to research the place that you are interviewing for. Be it the position, the company, what they do there, what happened in the past, and most importantly what they are planning to do in the future. Looking at the libraries strategic plan is always a great resource, and generally by a rule, all libraries have one, or are working on one.

The questions below*, are ones that have cropped up again and again in interviews. When preparing your answers, always always have an example to back it up, to show how you demonstrated your skills etc.

1. Why did you decide to enter the field of library and information science? OR What motivated you to seek a library degree?
2. Why did you decide to apply for this position?
3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
4. What kind of work environment do you prefer?
5. What motivates you? ALSO Have you used these motivators with others?
6. How are you qualified for this job? OR What qualifications do you have that make you think you will be a success at this job?
7. The person in this position needs to be innovative and proactive. Can you describe some things you have done to demonstrate these qualities?
8. How would you rate your communication skills and what have you done to improve them?
9. What do you feel is the place of bibliographic instruction in the library? Have you ever taught in a classroom setting? Would you be comfortable teaching BI courses?
10. What else besides your school and job experience qualifies you for this job?
11. What is your experience with collection development?
12. What experience do you have dealing with academic scholars?
13. What is your experience with automated systems and with computers in general?
14. Tell us about yourself. ALSO Tell me about yourself -- why did you choose this type of work?
15. Tell us about X University's online catalog.
16. What professional groups are you a member of, and how active have you been in those groups?
17. Tell us about your experience with online searching.
18. How do you work in groups, and what experience have you had working in groups?
19. What appeals to you about this position?
20. Why do you want to move to this area?
21. What do you see yourself doing five or ten years from now? OR Where do you see yourself going from here?
22. What is your cataloging experience?
23. What do you think a reference librarian's duties should be?
24. Tell us about your subject background and about your coursework outside of library science.
25. How will your other experiences outside of librarianship aid you in this position?
26. What is your interlibrary loan experience?
27. What experience have you had using the Internet?
28. Do you have the skills necessary to create and maintain our WWW home pages?
29. What do you see as the future of the Internet as a reference tool?
30. How will libraries mesh use of print and electronic resources?
31. What do you see as the budget implications of increasing use of electronic resources in libraries?
32. Can you install software on computers and perform basic maintenance on them?
33. What courses (college/graduate school) did you find most satisfying? Least satisfying? Why?
34. Do you prefer working alone or in groups?
35. Starting with your last job, would you tell me about some of your achievements that were recognized by your superiors?
36. What are some of the things on your jobs that you feel you have done particularly well?
37. What are some of the things about your last job that you found difficult to do?
38. What are some of the problems you encounter in doing your job? Which one frustrates you the most? What do you usually do about it?
39. What traits or qualities do you feel could be strengthened or improved?
40. Tell me about a time when you had work problems or stresses that were difficult for you.
41. Customers frequently create a great deal of pressure. What has been your experience in this area?
42. What types of pressures do you experience on your current job? How do you cope with these pressures?
43. Describe a time when you were under pressure to make a decision. Did you react immediately or take time in deciding what to do?
44. How do you react when you see co-workers disagreeing? Do you become involved or hold back?
45. In your current position what types of decisions do you make without consulting your immediate supervisor?
46. What types of experiences have you had in dealing with difficult customers?
47. Describe a problem person you have had to deal with. What did you say or do?
48. What have been your experiences in dealing with the general public? When have people really tried your patience?
49. How would you describe yourself?
50. What do you know about our library? university? community? company?
51. You mentioned you enjoyed your last job. What did you enjoy most? Least?
52. How do you feel about your ability to write, spell, and communicate? What kind of feedback have you received about your writing ability?
53. Describe your experience in creating documents, proposals, research findings, or any other form of written copy.
54. Describe how you determined your priorities on your last job.

*Source of questions http://web.archive.org/web/20071013091435/http://www.geocities.com/aer_mcr/libjob/interview.html

Books I've taken out of the library include:

• Handling Tough Job Interviews by Julie-Ann Amos
• What color is your parachute by Richard N. Bolles
• Answers to Interview Questions {Perfect Series} 
• You're Hired! Interview by Judi James

I found these books to be helpful for tips and techniques. I'm sure there are other similar books out there, that are equally or even better for advice. 

Whether any of this researching will pay off on the day is another question! So fingers crossed!!!

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