Covid, Crying and Thoughts on Hiring

fiedler, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58670503

This first part is mainly for women who read this blog. This week I spoke with a colleague who, despite the fact that we work on the same campus, I see infrequently. So when we check in it's with a degree of seriousness. "How are you?" isn't just a pleasantry, but a real question. She reported crying in the doctor's office. I responded I had too, both of us in answer to that simple question, "How are you doing?" Her doctor told her she needed a vacation. She laughed. There are eight more weeks of school so vacation seems as unlikely as being hit by a meteor. Mine asked what I was doing for relaxation. My only answer was joining a wine club which didn't seem to be what he had in mind.

Let me be clear: We are the lucky ones. We are healthy. No one in our families was stolen by COVID. We are employed. We have colleagues, friends and families. We have partners who love us. But this is still hard, and it's hard in a particularly gendered way.

I know there have been about 8 million articles, essays, and news pieces on women and COVID, one or two have appeared right here. The illness, the changes in economics and home life, and the spillover at work--for those who are working--has unnecessarily burdened women. And left some of us in tears. Perhaps you're hoping I'll offer the one recipe for healing you haven't heard about yet--two shots of Brené Brown, followed by a morsel of Mary Oliver or Maya Angelou and a brisk walk on a sunny day--but I haven't found the recipe yet. I do know my colleague and I ended up laughing, a little irrationally, but honestly what else can you do? The universe demands a lot some days, and some times the best response is to laugh with a friend, even if what you're laughing at is really the pain of the pandemic.

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As some of you know, I've spent the last 10 months as interim director of a library, archives and special collections. Beyond keeping the ship on course, my primary job was to serve as point person for the search for a permanent director. I'm happy to say, it's over, and in a few days when the last of the paper work is complete, we will be able to announce our new director. In the meantime, I've thought a lot about the search process, so here are some random ideas and considerations.

1. Hiring over Zoom is unnatural. Does it privilege the extroverts and actors? Maybe. The things you've read about how to dress, how you present, are true. You should look like you're sitting down for a semi-serious conversation. You don't need a fancy living room with strategically placed books just over your shoulders, but you do need to appear as though your entrance to the Zoom room is something you actually thought about and consider important. (Hint: Not everyone does.) And while we all have bad IT days, a device that's steady, and doesn't make your interviewer feel as though they're on a tilt-a-whirl is a must.

2. Your references matter, and maybe not in the way you thought. Presumably your references believe you're brilliant or they wouldn't have agreed to speak for you, but many employers, my own included, don't want a letter extolling your virtues. They want to talk one-on-one with your references. So it's important that the people you ask are not only willing to say nice things, but are good talkers--articulate, smart, and generous over telephone or Zoom. Reporting you have soft skills, and then repeating a list of soft skills from Muse.com isn't helpful. As someone about to hire you, your new organization wants to know you, specifically how your soft skills exemplify themselves in the workplace.

3. NBC News reported this morning that there are now more jobs open than before the pandemic began. It attributes the spike not just to a rebounding economy, but to the fact that many job seekers are too fearful, hesitant, and discouraged to go through the process. My advice? Don't apply if you don't mean it. Yes, all job searches are an elaborate dance between job seeker and employer, with each one making choices based on what they discover. While the lucky and the talented may find themselves fought over by more than one employer, that's not what I'm talking about. Don't start the process without first engaging in the necessary soul searching. It's been a rough 18 months. Are you ready to move? Is your partner? Your family? You've created a pandemic routine that works for you. Are you willing to disrupt it? Not really wanting to move does not make you a bad person, but job searches are costly, not just money wise, but they are time sink holes. It feels wrong to go through three quarters of a complex process to have a job seeker tell you they really can't imagine moving during a pandemic.

4. Be clear in your own head why this job matters to you. New isn't enough. Neither is admitting you have a crush on the organization since your crush may be based on half-truths and beautiful Internet photos. It helps if you can explain why this job matters to you now, at this very moment, and how it builds on what you've done so far, and challenges you in places you need to grow. And for the love of God, a mid-life crisis is not a reason for a new job. (Yes, that really happened.)

5. If you're stepping out of your lane, for example, you have little leadership experience, but you're applying to lead a team of seven, be clear about what you know, what you done, what your skills are, and why they matter. Think like an interviewer so when they ask you, "And why should we let you run our team of museum educators, when you have next to no leadership experience?" you have an answer that lets them see you actually understand the act of leadership even if you haven't had the title.

For all of you looking for work, I wish you the best of luck. Yes, the museum world is competitive, but positions are opening up. My last two bromides: Don't write the script before anything happens. By that I mean don't create a novel's worth of reasons why you couldn't take the position when you haven't even applied. If you want a job and believe you're capable, apply. Second, do the work you need to do before applying. What do you want? Of course you want a job, but if you knew you could earn just as much at Amazon, with better benefits, as you can at a given heritage site or regional museum, why there? Why does joining their team make sense for you?

And last, and this is for the folks at AASLH and AAM, recently I heard an NPR journalist speaking about his own field. He was making the point that print journalism has changed profoundly since last March, adding that his field lost 39,000 journalists in less than a year. Does the museum world know who it has lost?

Be well. Stay safe.

Joan Baldwin