I asked to visit a school library before applying for a job there – is that wrong?
I am applying for jobs as a school librarian. I hold a master’s degree in information and library studies and have seven years’ experience working as a school librarian.
The last job I applied for, I phoned before sending in my application and asked whether it would be possible to have a look around the library and to meet the librarian. The school responded quickly and I visited the following day. I was impressed with the library space and could see by the friendly behaviour of the students that the current librarian was well liked.
I sent her a thank you card after my visit and then promptly sent in my application. I was one of seven applicants, but I did not get the job.
There were a number of things we were asked to do on the day of our interview, including being interviewed by a panel of students and another with two senior members of the school. When it was my turn for the student panel, the librarian was also in the room but she did not acknowledge me. I noticed the students looked to her at one point and I would have looked, too, only it seemed rude to turn my attention away from the students. Of the seven applicants, I was rated least liked by the student panel.
Is it no longer appropriate to ask to look around a school library prior to applying to a job being advertised? Or to do what I consider essential research? My feeling is that I do not enhance my chances of being hired by doing so and that I may actually be creating an atmosphere of mistrust. I am applying for another job in a school library and would have asked to have a look around only, and perhaps meet people involved, but I don’t want to lower my chances of being chosen.
Jeremy says
From your description of events, I find it difficult to understand how this preliminary visit to the library could have adversely affected your chances of being offered the job. You say that when you were being interviewed by the students, the librarian whom you had met before failed to acknowledge you. You seem to have interpreted this as hostility on her part but I feel certain that she was scrupulously avoiding any gesture that might have suggested to the students that, unlike the other applicants, you were already known to her. It seems to me unlikely that asking to look around a library in preparation for an interview as its librarian could create an “atmosphere of mistrust”.
I find it insensitive of them to have told you that, out of the seven applicants, the student panel rated you least liked – but this, surely, is a more likely explanation for your lack of success than your preliminary visit.
If you’ve got it into your head that looking around the library before the next interview could count against you, don’t do it.
Readers say
• I don’t work in education, but when I recruit I always think highly of people who contact us first and ask lots of sensible questions. Of course, asking silly questions puts me off, so people should remember that every contact is essentially part of the interview. IsaacNewt
• I don’t think your looking around had anything to do with it. You clearly just failed the student panel. I did at one of my applications. Personally, I don’t think they are a fair test as I am one of those teachers who is not liked initially but is popular after a few months of teaching. I get good results. But because I am not a comedian or a lad, I don’t do well with student panels. Treflesg
• You are too focused on the librarian and not enough on the students. In a role like that, interacting with students is key. You can’t come last in that category and expect the job. weeblewobbler
• The internal candidate probably got the job. I don’t think much of the main criterion being whether the students like you. What is this – a beauty contest? Steve Jones
I don’t have a future in post-Brexit Britain as a European grants manager
I work as a European grants manager. My position, although probably OK for the next couple of years, doesn’t have a future in post-Brexit Britain. To add to this, I don’t particularly enjoy the job and it isn’t a career I would have chosen. I studied an arts degree and took temping work in the public sector to pay the bills alongside the unpaid or poorly paid work I was doing for a small theatre company.
Nearly 10 years later, I feel stuck in this line of work, but my particular field is drying up fast and will probably end as our ties with the EU are severed. Along the way, I have had experience in project management, financial planning, communication, training, events and marketing. However, “transferable skills” seem to be a thing of the past, and the creative sector I long to work in seems to have a tightly guarded door.
Taking a pay cut isn’t really viable with my current mortgage payments, and although I have looked into getting some career coaching the costs are out of my reach and the results seem to be hit and miss.
Jeremy says
Although you don’t particularly enjoy your job, it sounds to be reasonably secure for the next couple of years, so if you start exploring soon you will have the luxury of job-hunting without the distracting pressure of unemployment.
My advice is this: don’t give up on the creative sector just because it seems to operate behind that tightly guarded door. Ten years as a grant manager will have equipped you with experience and skills of direct relevance to many creative enterprises. But don’t just scan the job ads: use the time that you have to identify a few potential employers within the sector – chosen because they particularly appeal to you and are located conveniently. Then find out as much as you possibly can about them. If at all possible, become acquainted with people who already work there. And then, knowing a bit about their working methods, work out in what way you believe you could be of real value to them.
Go through this process with, say, three such organisations, then write each one a detailed submission of why you would love to work with them and precisely how you could help. Say that you recognise there is probably no immediate vacancy but ask them to keep your letter on file. Send gentle reminders every six months. You have every chance of finally landing the sort of job you’ve always wanted.
Readers say
• People change jobs – and industries – all the time. If you have demonstrable skills and experience in the fields that you list I should think you will be a very attractive employee to a whole range of organisations. Quake42
• Life is too short to be stuck in a career you don’t enjoy. If you want to work in a creative field, just do it. You have to make change happen – it very rarely happens by accident. floaty_116
• Look beyond our borders while you still can. Rent out the house to cover the mortgage and get going. It’s surprising what a drastic change can do to one’s morale. gilstra
