It’s a real pleasure to share the blog with good people who understand the highs and lows of being middle-aged, mid-career librarians, job searching in a highly competitive environment. I was thrilled when Catherine Finch, a fellow information professional, accepted my invitation to share their feelings about their job search with libraryreturners.com readers. I know you will too.

Rejection hurts: the difficulty of finding high-quality, professional, part-time librarian jobs

I had a rejection email this morning for a job interview I had last week.

It was one of those rare jobs with a good salary befitting of my level of experience and qualifications. And it was also part-time.
There are plenty of part-time jobs, but very few are professional and well-paid. I felt this job was the Holy Grail of jobs that many professionals, particularly women, seek out. Unsurprisingly, it attracted several candidates and seven were interviewed for the post. The quality of interviewees must have been so high that they took several days to reach a decision. Either that, or the preferred candidate wanted a few days to think about it.
After a painful weekend, I did my best to carry on with life and prepare myself for disappointment. But I couldn’t help fantasising that I’d got the job. When the bad news happened, it was still devastating.

My career so far…

I’ve been a librarian for two decades. A few years ago, I took voluntary severance after 13 years in the same job. I thought I would spend time with my growing family and completed several home improvement projects before applying for part-time roles. When I started looking again, professional part-time librarian jobs were, and still are, few and far between.
There were jobs advertising themselves as ‘full-time available for job share’. I applied for at least three of these posts and made it clear in my interview that I wished to be considered for a job share. I suspect all the successful candidates for these posts were full-time.
After a few months, worried that I was losing professional credibility, I succeeded in getting full-time work to cover for maternity leave. It has recently ended. It was enjoyable, professionally enriching, but hard work. Full-time is consuming, draining. And if you have young children and no support structure, utterly exhausting. I can do full-time and will do it again if necessary. But I would prefer not to.

Lack of part-time jobs

A search on Information Professional on 6th June 2019 for library jobs across the country brings up 45 jobs. Refine to ‘part-time’, the number is reduced to ten and only four of these are salaried and professional. Many of the advertised part-time posts are voluntary roles for CILIP committee groups.
The relatively low number of quality part-time work in comparison to full-time is reflected in several studies and reports into the issue (see Further reading). In a review of the 2009 European Company Survey, only 14% of UK employers reported having part-time staff in senior or supervisory roles (cited from Bell, 2011). Ten years after that report was published, it seems that things haven’t changed much. Looking at professional part-time roles on job-seeking sites like Indeed, or Total Jobs – if I narrow down to a region like Wales, the number of available part-time jobs is pitiful.
Although legislation is in place to support workers wishing to go part-time, there are still not many high-quality part-time jobs being advertised. In many organisations, part-time roles are ‘peripheral’, providing support to a ‘core’ full-time work force (Gallie et al, 2016), which could explain the comparatively few professional part-time opportunities available.

Barriers

There are also barriers that can make it harder to compete with those who don’t have them. I’m 50 (age discrimination for women starts at 40 according to this report), and have a sensory disability. It can be a barrier at networking events and I sometimes lack confidence leading or speaking out in meetings. But with the aid of Access to Work it has never stopped me from being an effective worker.
I enjoy my career. I have always loved helping people find information resources and teaching them the lifelong skills to do this well. I am creative and curious, I read widely academically, I’m not afraid to experiment and try out new educational technology and teaching practice. And I have a huge wealth of practical experience and understanding of how librarianship has changed and adapted since starting my career in libraries 25 years ago.
I know full well that I fall short in some skills and techniques which may have tipped the decision in favour of other candidates. My interview skills could improve, and nerves managed more successfully. I need to review my PKSB and fill in those skills gaps. My family tell me I need to think positive, brush up my CV and convince myself that I Have Confidence .
But today, I’m going to wallow, I’m going to eat a giant bar of Cadburys and just rage futilely until I start to calmly contemplate, reflect, learn, adapt and continue job searching.

Further reading

Bell, Mark. “Achieving the Objectives of the Part-Time Work Directive? Revisiting the Part-Time Workers Regulations.” Industrial Law Journal, 40.3, 2011, pp. 254-79. (Paywall)
Warhurst, Chris, Sally Wright and Clare Lyonette, “Understanding and measuring job quality” Research report, Part 1: Thematic review. CPID, Warwick Institute for Employment Research, 2017.
Gallie, Duncan, Michael Gebel, Johannes Giesecke, Karin Halldén, Peter Van Der Meer, and Rudi Wielers. “Quality of Work and Job Satisfaction: Comparing Female Part-time Work in Four European Countries.” International Review of Sociology, vol. 26, no.3, 2016, pp. 457-81. (Paywall)
Lyonette, C and B. Baldauf. Quality Part-time Work: an Evaluation of the Quality Part-Time Work Fund. Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, Government Equalities Office, 2010.
Lyonette, C. “Part-time Work, Work–life Balance and Gender Equality.” Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. vol. 37, no. 3, 2015, pp. 321-333. (Paywall)

About Guest Blogger

This post was written by guest contributor, Catherine Finch.

Catherine writes,

I am an experienced librarian currently seeking reasonably paid, part-time or flexible professional work in the library and information sector. Although I worked full-time with my children (now 13 and 9), having to negotiate leave and arrange childcare around the demands of the service was hard. So, I took a risk: voluntary severance in 2017 with the long-term aim of getting part-time work. It has been great to write for my former library school mate, @Libraryreturner, who is doing much to raise awareness and provide guidance for returning professionals who want a rewarding careers that don’t consume 37 hours a week. “Rejection hurts” was written immediately after a wrought experience of an interview for a job I really wanted, and wish there were more of. We were so pleased at the encouraging responses and discussion it generated. With the summer holidays starting and many workers probably wishing they were somewhere else, a discussion on part-time work, or even changing the scope and nature of full-time work is timely.

You can follow Catherine on Twitter @Cath_Finch.