A few months ago a wonderful position at a small public library branch sort of fell in my lap. It was a great opportunity, a position as a branch manager in a small library, nice little town, forward-thinking administration. It would have been a step up. A move forward. Everything about this position felt good. But, I turned it down. My decision was based on family needs at the time. Family comes first. I still dwell on this decision though, wondering whether I might have missed something really good.

I started sending out applications again a few weeks ago. I've noticed that I'm becoming really picky about the positions I choose to apply for. I'm not talking pay or location here, more like hours, what the job entails, keywords in the job description like "team", "innovative", "forward-thinking", etc.

Most of the job descriptions almost always include customer service skills as one of the job requirements. Customer service is important to me, but I also know that it's a very difficult skill to master. Being nice to people who are rude to you is very difficult. Helping people sufficiently who require more attention from you than you are able to give them at that very minute is difficult. Doing this consistently, day in and day out, is very difficult. Nevertheless, it's crucial to any help service so I'd like to think that the next place I work carries with it a very strong customer service ethic. I think one of the best ways to ensure the best customer service is not only through staff training, but by lending a helping hand to co-workers even when they don't ask. Looking for that moment when the check-out desk is flooded. Asking whether the reference librarian has had their break today and offering to cover the fifteen minutes while they do. Staff members working the front lines need a chance to step away so they can come back refreshed and ready to help people again.

I'm learning, slowly, to be a little more intuitive when it comes to job prospects. I look at their websites to see what services they offer their customers. I've also found that you can get a good feel for how things operate at an institution if you email the person who's advertising the position, HR person, director, whoever. This is easy when the position asks you to email your resume and cover letter since you'll most often get a response back telling you that your stuff has been received. I know it's usually just one sentence, but there's always something in the way a person responds. For instance, many will use my first name. "Carleen, Thank you for your interest in __ position. The review process will begin __ and we will notify you if we require an interview", etc. Other times it's just "Attachments received", and that's it. I'm not saying one is better than the other. The second person might just be super busy. I just know which one I prefer. I realize I might be one in fifty applicants for a job, but I still prefer being treated like an individual with a name, not a customer at JC Penny's.

For instance, I accidentally emailed an old resume to an HR representative at a community college once. So I emailed her again, apologized, trying to sound all formal and professional about it but, I guess I was so focused on what I was writing in the email that I completely forgot to attach the document. I felt like a complete dope. So, I emailed her again and double, triple checked everything, then cracked a joke about it in the email. She responded, cracked a joke back and added a smiley face to top it off. Now, to some people this may seem informal and trivial and "jeeze, I have way more important things to do than to crack jokes with potential applicants" but that little exchange was a my first impression of that institution and how many times are we told as applicants how important first impressions are. I think the same saying goes for potential employers.

Compare this with an exchange I recently had with another HR representative. I've never had such a hard time getting information from people. The application called for "unofficial transcripts". Curious, I had read application requirements that had asked for official transcripts but not unofficial, and being that "transcripts" was plural, did they want all four (I attended three different colleges before finally getting my undergraduate degree)? So I emailed the person who sent out the job description to the listserve who then forwarded my question to the HR representative. She replied that "all transcripts were required as stated in the job description". This still didn't entirely answer my question. I was about to email her back and ask her if she really wanted transcripts from the colleges that I didn't get a degree from but I decided not to so I just sent her a "thank you for your time" kind of email and went on my merry way trying to hunt down an unofficial transcript for my undergrad and grad degree which cost a pretty penny since the school charged for the transcripts and I had them faxed back to me. They also asked for three written references which also took some work but frankly, I think this is a great idea. More libraries should ask for this. I imagine it cuts the job review process in half by having all the reference there in front of you in written form as opposed to having to call each individual one and waiting for a response. At any rate, a lot went into applying for this job and to make this long story a little shorter, I emailed the same HR person at the beginning of this week to ask whether they had received my stuff and she later replied telling me to call a receptionist number to find out and ended her sentence with an exclamation mark. An exclamation mark. I wondered if I had annoyed her. It seemed like I had. I showed the email to my husband and he said "well, maybe she's just excited". Perhaps, but I couldn't help but feel as though I was bothering this person. If it were me, I would have called the receptionist myself and asked, then replied to my email instead of asking the applicant to call a long distance number to get her answer, but I'm not a busy HR person. Maybe this is the norm, I don't know. All I know is that I'm not nearly as interested in this position as I was last week. The whole exchange got me thinking about the stuff we were taught in class about doing virtual reference. I can't remember it word for word but it went something like this Rule #1 Don't ever type in all caps. Rule #2 Don't use exclamation marks, there interpretation can be confusing Rule #3 Use emoticons as you would smile at a customer at your desk in real life.

Now, I know someone will read this and think "what right do you have to be so picky that you judge potential employers by some first few email exchanges". I really don't mean to be picky, I just know that the next job I have is not going to be just any job. I'll be looking to be impressed by them, just as they're looking to be impressed by me. Yeah, I know the market isn't that great, that the pickings are slim. I don't care. I have a family that I'm going to have to uproot for this next job. I have self-respect that I intend to hold on to for the rest of my life. I have a passion for top-notch library services. I'm not looking for perfection. I'm not looking for a place where everyone thinks the same and agrees all the time. Where's the fun in that? I simply want to work somewhere where people are respectful to one another, where they haven't lost those basic ideals fundamental to library/information science and who aren't afraid to listen to ideas that may challenge them. Now, I can't get all that from a few emails. But I can get some sort of idea.