Resistance Hat

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: me in my fancy new Norweigan Resitance hat made especially for me by Paula Rice Beiver

I promised a picture of the hat that Paula made for me at Minicon, so here it is!  As I noted, I really feel like there are some magical ways in which the resistance here in Minnesota operated. The generation and distribution of whistles--you could not walk into a place of business and not see a bowl of them (bookstores, coffee shops, car repair places, restaurants, etc.) People handed out whistles on the street, in little free libraries, etc.. I feel like there are probably people who have a story that goes with "and then I was handed/picked up my very first whistle."

Similarly, the fact that so many people were making these very historically meaningful Norweign resistance hats as a way to promote visiblile solidarity, at one point, we had a shortage of red yarn. 

Up the revolution, y'all.

As for news from today, I may have mentioned that I am currently hunting for a job. The capitalist system is not kind to writers, and especially not to ones who have stalled out on their second novel in a series. So, I drove all the way out to Blaine in Anoka County to interview for a job as circ staff at their library system. It seemed to go okay? I was, of course, stumped by one of those corporate-speak interview questions: "tell us about a time you made a mistake and what steps you took to correct it." I suppose what I should remember is that they're trying to find out if you are the sort of person who handles critique well and I should just make something up so that I can say things like, "Even though I felt ashamed that I had made the mistake, I did not get angry. I was able to listen to my supervisor and cheerfully apply their suggestion!" Because that's what they want to know. Are you the kind of person who punches someone when they tell you that you screwed up. Alas, I fumbled around and, well, NOW I HAVE A STORY ABOUT A TIME I SCREWED UP. :-P

But, that's sort of all I know. There was a lot of rigamorale around the fact that everyone in my family needed to be somewhere this morning and we only have one car. Luckily, naomikritzer was able to loan me her husband's car (he really can't use it at the moment becuase he has a broken arm) and so half my family could go off to their dental and physical appointments, and I could head off for my interview in Ed's car.

As a bonus, we got to chat a bit when she gave me a ride back to mine, after I returned the car this morning. 

I am now trying to decide how energtic I feel. As you know, because I mention it a lot, my mutual aid place, ZCC, is still hopping. Even if I can only go for a few minutes, there is almost always something that needs doing. Since it's only 12:30 as I finish writing this, I think I will wander on over there and do a little good for the resistance efforts. Might as well, since, if I get this job, I'll have a lot less time to devote to things like that.

Comments

[lcohen]

that hat is cute as hell!

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks!!

[quadong]

I have been trained in "behavioral interviewing", and so I can tell you that they are (if they are doing it right, which they probably aren't) trying to get you to tell a story about your experiences so they can tell what experience you really have, beyond lines on your resume. When you fumble around, the interviewer is not supposed to take that as a failure, but is supposed to prompt you until you assemble the whole story, and then you are supposed to be "graded" on the content what you say about yourself, not how easily you had it canned and ready to spit out. Supposed to.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, that would have been helpful (if they had prompted me into a better answer that revealed what they wanted to know.) I do think that some of what they were doing was just figuring out if they'd like to work with me?

I guess we'll see. If they pass on me, my guess isn't going to be that I failed the interview, but more that 1) they found someone younger, and/or 2) they found someone who has worked even longer or more recently at a library.

My resume has a lot of looooooooong gaps.

[dreamshark]

If you had spent more time working with recruiters they would probably have given you a list of the common "essay questions" that you should have a prepared answer for during job interviews. But since people who spend a lot of time hunting for jobs already have glib prepared answers for those questions, your surprised response may have identified you as someone who is NOT perpetually job hunting, which may send a positive message to the interviewer (who is probably tired of all the carefully prepared glib answers that they hear every day). Who knows?

In any case, I love the fact that you now have a real answer, and it is satisfyingly meta!

[lydamorehouse]

It is!

And, yeah, I was, in fact, going for "this is my authenitc self" as a selling point? I mean, this strategy can backfire as I am kind of (as all of you well know) an odd duck. But, my past experience leads me to believe that librarians and library workers tend to be also be odd ducks who are united in their love of books and often extremely radical approach to access (to books, computers, learning, warm spaces) for all.

But, I suspect that I was up against other odd ducks/aka fellow library workers, so maybe I will not stand out enough (or I will stand out in the wrong ways.) There are two positions open and there were six slots for interviews total, so I believe I have a 2 in 6 or 1 in 3 chance at this.

[sabotabby]

I love the hat.

I loathe that question. I mean I loathe job interviews in general; it just seems like a skill set that is so divorced from the actual task at hand. At least with my job I tend to know the types of questions now.

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks, and yeah.

Shawn is a semi-corporate manager type and so is in the process of interviewing people for positions right now. She has coached me about how to reply to these things in the past, but she also has told me that she once hired a guy who, when asked the question, "Why do you want to work here?" simply answered honestly. "I need the money." She loved that answer because the job was not "career track." It was just digitizing stuff day in and day out. Kind of the most rote of all of the library/archives work you could apply for. So the fact that he didn't come in saying, "In ten years, I want YOUR job" or all that other bullshit actually was the right answer.

I figure if this job is for me, they liked me as I was. If it isn't, they didn't.

[pameladean]

That's a great hat.

Capitalism absolutely hates us and so does the IRS.

And I concur with sabotabby above about the grotesque unreality of job interviews. When I was first struggling with writing book proposals, I was vividly reminded of job interviews. It's got nothing to do with any actual writing or job skills, it's just an ill-suited sorting mechanism for gatekeeping. But some editors can still see past it to reality, and I assume interviewers can too.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

What's weird is that I used to love writing book proposals because sometimes I can fully tap into marketing-speak/promotional stuff? But only for my own books! I am absolutely terrible at this kind of thing 99% of the time.

And, as I told Sabs above, I figure that they just need to see if they can work with my personality. I came in dressed EXACTLY like them. If the assignment was: dress for the job you want, I NAILED circ staff. I wore just the right amount of dressy v casual and, seriously, all three of us had on sweater vests. Second, this job isn't rocket science. I would argue that it's just as rigorous in a lot of ways, but the library backroom is small and it's almost more important that you get along with your colleague than if they're super glib in their answers to the questions you probably pulled off some interview website for all that they relate to being a library worker.

[j00j]

I genuinely recommend the "Ask a Manager" interview prep guide; it's helped me prepare for my last several rounds of interviewing. I do better if I have time to think about my "interview answer" to questions like this one. https://www.askamanager.org/how-to-guide (she asks for your email, but either I unsubscribed right away or she barely sends anything, it's not spammy).

[lydamorehouse]

I appreciate the recommendation.

I'm kind of on the fence about whether or not having a glib answer would have helped me? I guess we'll see. I do think that if I were stretching outside of an area of work that I didn't already have six years of experience doing, I might feel a greater need to be better at answering this stuff. You know what I mean? Like, if I really needed to convince these three women that I could handle the job because I had no previous experience doing it? But I already knew all the jargon. I know what the AMC is. I was able to tell them whether or not my previous work had automatic bins or not. Stuff that someone who has never worked in the backroom of a library would never know. So, if I didn't have a perfect answer to one of their questions, I hope, at least, I impressed upon them my genuine and honest nature. If they don't want someone like that working for them... well, I wouldn't have been a good fit, anyway.

I mean, I will probaby read the link! Because there are jobs I'm applying to that I have never done before. I think in those cases you do have to demonstrate more of your larger skillsets, which is what I'd guess that many of these questions are trying to tease out.