More job-search follies
First bit of advice: If you’re applying to a school with “Saint” or the name of a famous theologian in its name, do check the school’s website for orthodoxy requirements. I applied last week for something I shouldn’t have. (By the same token, I wish schools with orthodoxy requirements would put them in the job descriptions exported to job websites. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have wasted everyone’s time applying.)
Second bit of advice: This one’s for HR. If you’re putting out a job ad that requires a master’s degree, kindly don’t include “Able to read, write, spell, do basic math, speak and understand English” in the requirements section. That’s just insulting. Your best candidates will roll their eyes and move on. (As I have, though I don’t mean to imply that I’m necessarily their best candidate. The point is, they don’t get to find out.)
Third bit of advice: Another one for HR. I have to send a résumé and references, and then I’ll get an application? That had better be one heck of a job, boys and girls.
And by way of helping my fellow librarians, a list of my job sources:
- The Association for Research Libraries job page. (Just click on the “All Announcements” button to see the most recent ads.)
- The Chronicle of Higher Ed’s library jobs feed. (Job-hunt with Bloglines! Yes, it is cool.)
- The RSS feed from LISjobs.com.
- An ongoing email search for “libraries” on HigherEdJobs. (You make a “job agent” and it emails you. Annoying to set up, but nice to have. Subscribing through Bloglines is a fine idea.)
- IFLANET’s libjobs mailing list. (Subscribe through Bloglines, again. Makes life simpler.)
This net is pretty wide; I haven’t missed much, as far as I can tell from talking to people and watching the job ads that SLIS forwards. The nice thing about it, too, is that except for the ARL database it’s entirely passive; the jobs march right past me via Bloglines, and I apply for the ones that look interesting and pass on the ones that don’t.
Hope this helps someone else.