The Hiring process: Information for Applicants

Thinking of applying for a job in the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences? Great!

We know that applying to jobs is a lot of work and can be stressful. While the process is a little different for each search, here's a glimpse into how we use the materials you submit, and some tips for making your application as strong as possible.

Linked words point to a glossary and tip sheet where we give more detail about that part of the process. For example, our applications have a best consideration date rather than a deadline to apply. If you are wondering what that actually means, and what happens to applications received after the best consideration date, the glossary and tip sheet explains it.

Note: While we hire lots of student workers, some temporary/on-call employees, adjunct faculty and a few other types of positions, here we're just talking about permanent staff and tenure-track faculty positions.

The Job Posting

By the time we advertise a positions, months of work have already gone into the process. Faculty positions are often proposed years in advance as part of multi-year hiring plans.

For staff positions, the University has established job descriptions (https://jobdescriptions.unm.edu). If we have a vacancy and funding, we decide which position will best meet our need, and request permission from the University to fill that position.

In addition to a description of the job itself and how it fits in to the organization, the posting will list the minimum qualifications, preferred qualifications, desired start date, and either a salary range (for staff positions) or a minimum salary (for faculty positions). There will also be a best consideration date to apply by.

Initial Review

As soon as the best consideration date has passed, The applications that meet are reviewed by the search committee. Typically, each search committee member scores each applicant on each qualification, minimum and preferred, using a rubric developed for that position before any applications were received or reviewed. The rubric might use numerical scores, e.g., a five- or ten-point scale, or we might simply assign High, Medium, Low, or None based on the information in the cover letter, CV or resume, and any additional documents we requested.

For example, if one of the preferred qualifications is demonstrated teaching experience, the rubric will attempt to define what low, medium, or high levels of experience look like, in relation to the position. The same experience might score differently for a teaching position in the OILS program and an instruction librarian position in the UL, because of the different expectations of the position. 

After each individual committee member has scored all the applicants, the committee will review the scores as a group and discuss any discrepancies. This helps us ensure that each application is reviewed fairly, and, we hope, redresses any implicit bias that individual committee members brought to their evaluations.

From here, the

The Interview

At this point, the process for faculty and staff positions diverges somewhat. Faculty positions always have two rounds of interviews, while staff positions often only have one. In both cases, the committee looks for a natural break in the rankings – we don’t want to miss a great candidate just because they had one fewer point than someone else, though sometimes that happens if there isn’t a natural break.

Staff Interviews

For positions with only one interview, the committee selects the top candidates, usually three or four, to interview. These are typically in-person interviews, if there doesn’t happen to be a global pandemic limiting our interactions, but sometimes can be by phone or video call. These interviews are usually just with the search committee, where we ask about eight to ten interview questions, and then give the applicant time to ask us questions. In total, the interview typically lasts less than an hour.

Faculty Interviews

For faculty positions, after reviewing the application materials, we invite the top candidates, rarely more than ten, for phone or video interviews. These interviews are just with the search committee, usually consist of about eight to ten interview questions, with time for the applicant to ask us questions as well. Typically, these last less than an hour.

After the first round of interviews we invite finalists, usually three, for on-campus interviews – unless there happens to be a public health crisis that makes travel and group events too risky. These campus interviews are all-day affairs, with many different meetings with many groups. Wear comfortable shoes! Once a candidate accepts an interview as a finalist, we send their CV and cover letter to the all the faculty and staff in the College, with contact information redacted, along with a copy of the job description. This way, everyone has a chance to review the materials before meeting the candidate during the interview. The finalist interviews include a presentation and Q&A session for the College (and other interested parties), usually scheduled as the first item of the day. There is also a second formal interview with the search committee, a campus tour, lunch with faculty and staff from the College, meetings with the Promotion and Tenure committee, a meeting with the HR coordinator, the Dean, and the faculty.

Selecting a Candidate

After all the interviews are done, typically within two weeks of the first interview, the Chair of the search committee prepares a report for the Dean, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, and recommending which ones the committee thinks would be a most successful in that role. We usually recommend multiple candidates, in case someone turns us down. The Dean then makes the final decision on who we make the >offer to. If we haven’t already checked references for an applicant, we do that before an offer is made. If the search committee doesn’t recommend any candidates, or if none of the candidates that we make an offer to accept the position, we can either have the search committee look at applications that were submitted after the best consideration date, >readvertise the position to get more applicants, or cancel the search altogether.