Interviews

I spent the last several weeks interviewing potential nannies for my child so I thought I'd discuss that experience as part of this assignment.

I prepared a list of fairly generic questions gleaned from various parenting books and websites. Some of the questions included if the person had ever been in an emergency situation and what they did, what their philosophy of discipline was, what they would do if the baby wouldn't stop crying etc. I specifically tried to gather open ended questions that would allow the candidate to talk about themselves because, in this situation, I felt like getting to know the candidate as a person and feeling comfortable with their personality was more actually important than hearing about their nanny experiences. However, I found that even though the question was open ended there was usually a right or wrong answer (I think very few nannies would say their philosophy of discipline is spanking or that they would shake the baby if it was crying.) So the questions I asked were answered very quickly, were rather formulaic and didn't actually help me figure out if the person was a good fit for me or my baby. The women that I interviewed were also very young (1st or 2nd year college students) and seemed reluctant to tell me about themselves, so even the polite conversation felt strained.

After a few of these interviews I realized that it was better to start out asking them questions about their major and what they wanted to do when they graduated before I asked them any questions related to childcare. The person I hired also asked me quite a few questions which made it easier to have a conversation that was interspersed with baby-related questions rather than directed by the baby questions.

For the second part of the assignment, I asked my husband to interview me using some of the questions he often uses in the fitness industry. Those questions often have to do with assessing personality traits - particularly your ability to motivate someone or be a team player. These questions are really hard for me and even though I knew they were coming, I still found it difficult to come up with good (and true!) examples on the spot. It seemed like there were a lot of pauses while I tried to rack my brain without getting nervous. However, since I knew he would ask scenario based questions (What would you do in this situation? or Have you ever been in a situation when...) I felt more comfortable pausing and thinking about my answer rather than making a joke or trying to fill the dead air with comments like, "That's a really good question, hmmmm, what would I do."

One thing that I learned through this process was that it is better when the interviewee is proactive and not reactive in the interview. By this I mean that the interviewee does not just sit and wait for questions but treats the interview like a conversation. This helps the interviewer to ask better questions as well as allowing the interviewee some agency in directing the interview toward the things that they want to reveal about themselves.

Description of my company: a women's resource center

I am the director of a not for profit organization that provides resource referrals for women in the community.

The resource center partners with other organizations, institutions, and businesses in the community to increase awareness of women's issues and to make sure that women are provided with information that pertains to them - including health and legal concerns, cultural events, activism opportunities or other social services. The resource center seeks to aggregate these information sources and provide an affirming learning environment.

As part of our services, the resource center provides both a reference and circulating library and acts as an informal repository for information provided or published by our community partners.

Our services are available to and intended for women of all ages, incomes and ethnicities. However, due to our proximity to a university campus and our intentional community outreach events, our services are primarily utilized by college age women, low-income women, and minority women.

We have two full-time staff positions: an office administrator and library manager, and a community event coordinator. We also employ 3-5 student volunteers who generally work on a part time basis.

The basics.

Greetings INLS 585 classmates. By way of introduction let me tell you a few things about myself.

I'm in the MLS program in Chapel Hill, hoping to get that "real" job in an academic library one day. In the meantime, I work as an editor for a history publishing company. My MA in modern European history from the University of Colorado where I studied mainly Soviet and women's history should come in handy in the aforementioned "real" job.

Looking forward to our future discussions/ramblings/musings on all things library.

S.