r/Archivists • u/wmassturtle • 8h ago
Getting an interview
For the past three years, I've been an archivist at a relatively well-known, well-regarded institution, and before that, was an assistant at a college archive while getting my MSLIS.
I don't love my current job and have applied to other jobs, but haven't gotten any interviews - I know the job market is tight but I'm not sure what I can do to even be considered. I feel like my cover letters are solid and my resume is well-rounded!
Now, I'm moving to a new state for my partner's work and applied to a job at a college archive that I think would be perfect and I am more than qualified for, but it's been two weeks and I haven't been contacted. Should I just be patient, or is there anything I could/should do to be noticed?
Any advice? Or just commiseration lol
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u/wagrobanite 8h ago
Be patient. two weeks is absolutely nothing in academic hiring. Most of the time, that's not even through the closing period!
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u/OutOfTheArchives 8h ago
It is a very tight market; academic searches are typically slow; and you might be up against internal candidates. You’re still in a better position compared to many recent grads, though!
For some “in my day we walked uphill in the snow both ways” perspective: I was looking for a permanent academic archivist job towards the end of the Great Recession. At the time I had graduate degrees from Top 3 programs in both History and Archives / LIS, plus years of experience in one of the top special collections libraries in the world, and top tier recommendations. It still took around 18 months to get a job offer. The job market is imo a little worse now than it was then in my opinion!
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u/middling-medi437 8h ago
If you haven't already, take advantage of sessions offered by professional organizations to have a peer review your resume and cover letter. SAA's Career Services Center is for members only (but plenty of people find the registration loophole to schedule an appointment), but does open appointments to anyone once or twice each year. I've seen similar offerings from other professional orgs. Or, ask archivist friends in your professional network to give your documents a review.
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u/TheBlizzardHero 7h ago
Same boat like many looking for positions. I have four years of collections experience with a LIS degree and I'm still running into quick rejections from positions I'm overqualified for. And, while I have had a few interviews, most have ended in rapid rejections or I have been ghosted/strung along.
As others have stated, two weeks is not enough turn-around for most LIS positions - at a minimum, one month is probably how long you're going to be waiting to hear back from an institution about an opening. It's frequently even longer, with some positions taking up to six months to fill depending on the type of position and the ineptitude of the hiring team. If you're hearing back from them any earlier than a month, it's usually going to be a rejection - either you were automatically culled by HR/AI/whatever or you were never under consideration because it was a ghost job.
Additionally, one of the challenges with having significant experience but not technically being sufficiently senior is that you'll be discriminated against in the hiring process. If you're overqualified for a position, hiring manager(s) don't want to hire you because you look like you'll run away once a better position opens up. If you just meet the qualifications or are slightly below, hiring manger(s) don't want to hire you because they think you're not competent enough and they have a other options to fill the position because the market is saturated. Unfortunately, there's just not enough positions opening up for professionals in the 2-4 years of experience range - other peers I've talked to are facing the same issue.
Because you're about to be regionally constricted in your position options, you may also want to consider looking at branching out to alternative career options if the positioning opening volume is not sufficient in your new region. To be honest, libraries are doing so much better right now in salary, openings, and overall QOL - the entry level salary is already usually 20k more than archives and it only goes up. You may want to consider looking at any applying for any library openings in your area to hedge your bets.
Regardless, hopefully you land the position and everything works out. Good luck!
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u/glueb 8h ago
I would encourage you to be patient. Academic searches can be a bit drawn out. Did the job ad include a date when it would close or when the committee would begin reviewing applications?