When I'm new in a position, I want expectations to be clearly defined. I want to have a specific person I can go to when I have questions. Once I know what is expected and where I can get answers, then I like to be left alone to get down to work. Once I have a way to get information when I have questions, I learn best by being left alone to figure things out in a "what does this button do?" kind of way.

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This is the last question for now. 

Some of these questions are ones I have encountered more than once or that struck me as difficult to answer, but I used this article by Alison Green of Ask a Manager to help me narrow down to most of the questions I posted here.

Again, when I was at Camp Walden, one morning a few hours after a trip left, I got a radio call from the office saying that that trip was short one breakfast. Now, my one goal for the summer was that everyone had enough food, so this was the worst news I could expect to get. As I was thinking about how to fix things, my supervisor told me that another trip was headed past that same campground and could bring the first trip extra food. I quickly gathered together a breakfast, making sure to accommodate any allergies, and sent it out with the next trip. I was mortified that I had made this mistake, but my supervisor didn't seem bothered. "You're doing a great job, don't worry about it," she told me.

As it turned out, the trip brought back all the extra food I sent them, but the truth is, I did miss sending them that meal. I checked my records to be sure. After that incident, I kept more careful records and besides double-checking my work, which I had been doing, I became more adamant that trip leaders check over the menu with me before they left. The rest of the summer went smoothly with no more missed meals.

Option A: 

At Camp Walden, in Maine, I was the Head of Camp Craft. When I arrived, I essentially was told, "Make sure everyone has enough food and equipment. It'll get crazy. Good luck," and then was left to do whatever I wanted. I had an idea of what my job was supposed to do, but didn't know the details. I kept asking questions and with as much information as I was able to get, I created a plan for the summer. Except for one hitch, I think things worked out well, my supervisors seemed pleased, and I left detailed notes so that the next person won't have to repeat my same experiments.

Option B:
I want to teach information literacy, even the basic things like how to use a computer. I think it's important for people to know how to get the information they want and to understand how to evaluate it. While I've been applying to jobs, I've accepted any opportunities to teach, but there weren't enough to satisfy me. So, I went looking for a way to teach more often.

I contacted the local senior center and asked about teaching either "how to use a computer" classes or more advanced classes focusing on specific tools such as Facebook or blogging. They already had someone teaching the basics, but wanted me to teach the specifics. I'm now on the calendar to teach several classes, depending on what people sign up for.

When I first contacted the center, I didn't have a specific plan because I wasn't sure what they already offered, but I did have general ideas. Walking in and talking to a stranger when I don't have all the details ready to answer questions is hard for me, but I'm glad I took the chance because now I am able to what I want to spend my time doing.

Once when I worked at Dairy Queen a customer walked in and you could tell that she was looking for a reason to be unhappy. She ordered a caramel sunday. The way they are made is to put ice cream, caramel, and whipped topping in the bowl, in that order. The caramel is between the whipped topping and ice cream, so you can't see it until you eat the whipped topping.

When I gave her the sunday, she walked away, took one bite from the top, made a face, and came back. "There's no caramel in here," she complained while scooping the ice cream to the top and pushing the whipped topping to the bottom. I could see the caramel moving around, but she insisted there wasn't any there.

I tried to explain to her that the caramel was between the ice cream and the whipped topping, but that only caused her to more furiously move around the ice cream, pushing the caramel to the bottom. It was obvious that reasoning with her wasn't going to help things, so I took her sunday back and put caramel on the top where she could see it. She was satisfied enough with that to accept the ice cream without further complaint to us.

I do not like to use the telephone. I will do whatever I can to use another form of communication. But, the telephone is an essential part of business, so I can use it. I won't neglect calls because I'm uncomfortable, but I do rehearse what I will say, including voice messages, before I make the call. I also try to make calls as early in the day as possible while I'm fresh and so that they won't be looming over me all day.

If I see that I need to know something in order to do my job well, I take the time to learn it. For example,

Option A:

When I started volunteering at CV Community College, I felt confident in my searching skills, but I wanted to make sure I could easily navigate that library's particular catalogue and databases. So, for the first several days, I spent my free time running searches and reading the Help sections of various databases. It turns out, I was doing the right things and little had changed since I was in library school, but I think that by spending concentrated becoming familiar with the particular resources, I am able to more efficiently help patrons.

Option B:

When I was a field teacher at Bryant Pond 4-H Camp, we had a week of training and then were told to take the information and make it our own. After teaching my first couple of classes, I realized that my lessons were boring. I wouldn't want to learn from me. So, I went online and found additional information that I was able to include in my lessons. By finding something personally interesting to include in my classes, I think I became a more interesting teacher and that my classes were more effective. Also, as the season went on, if it seemed that I needed to review some information, I took the time to do it so that each group of students would get the best lesson I could provide.

(Obviously, this answer would vary based on wherever "here" would be. This question seems to be an acceptable way of saying "flatter us," so I'm never sure how to answer it. "I want to work here because it is a library and not in a large city" doesn't seem to be the best answer, although it might be the most honest.)

For a Reference/Information Literacy position at a community college, I might answer like this:

As I said, I want to teach information literacy, so first off, the job title attracted my attention. I also want to work at a community college, and after looking at this college's, and library's, website, it seems that staying current with technology is important, so that's why I wanted to come here specifically.