Shift #32 - Interview with Supervisor
Monday, June 24, 2024 | 11:30 am-12 pm CST/12:30-1 pm EST (30 min)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of my interview with my supervisor, Jennifer. She gives all of us interns an opportunity every quarter to meet with her if we want.
Today, I met with Jennifer - it was a two-fold meeting, to ask her a question about my research project and to interview her for my UNT practicum requirements. Jennifer and I are not in the same field but it was a very informative discussion. For myself, my field of study is information science, where professions consist of dealing with information management of all kinds (whether working directly with it or researching it). I hope that one day, I can consider myself an information professional. I think it is important to have skills and knowledge on how information is preserved, organized and disseminated - information is behind everything we encounter on a daily basis, from websites we view to shows we watch. In addition, information professionals will have the skills to know how information is handled by people and businesses and organizations alike - in how information is used, stored, communicated and transferred. My goal before meeting with Jennifer is to hear about a related field - library science - and the overlap of our two fields along with her career journey.
My first question to Jennifer was about the challenges of her job especially as a remote employee of the Library of Congress. She said that she is in a really unique position as the only person in her division who is remote 100% of the time. Before kids, she traveled every two weeks to DC. However, when one of her bosses left, they gave her the opportunity to change her locality from DC to Florida. Jennifer admitted that there was some tension among the higher up admins due to her role (some didn't want her to be remote). People eligible for remote work tend to be higher paid, decision-makers. There is inequity in remote work and the Library of Congress is taking a measured approach in who can or cannot do it. Jennifer said that her job is really a non-remote-friendly environment. She is ineligible for promotions and would have to go back to DC if she wanted to be considered for it. She shared with me that the government sees it as it's not about you, it's about the position. She also said that communication with people is a challenge as a remote employee. It's hard to know what is going on with people since she doesn't see them every day. To help remedy this, she schedules meetings with colleagues to catch up with them about work and other matters.
Next, I asked what drew her to the Library of Congress and in particular, about being a law librarian. Jennifer said she originally wanted to be an international law lawyer than an academic librarian. Along the way, someone suggested law librarianship so she found a program for people with law degrees and was able to get her MLIS degree in one year. She also said that the law librarianship world is small enough for good networking. She went to a conference and met someone from the Library of Congress. At that point, she didn't have a job lined up but the person she met offered her a contract job to work on some metadata spreadsheets. That led to a temporary job as a metadata tech in the Digital Resources Division. Jennifer made herself essential and she quickly moved to different levels. She became a webmaster and web editor and her job today was made just for her.
I then asked Jennifer what is the best part of her job at the Law Library. She answered by saying the flexibility built into the job. She gave an example of hiring - she could hire one technician to do a position and it would take them 40 hours a week to do, but she has the flexibility to hire two positions covering the same work at 20 hours a week and then allowing them to work on other projects. She also emphasized that employees are allowed to pursue their interests related to their job. An example of this is creating the internship program.
Next, I asked Jennifer about her leadership style. She spoke about her style of servant leadership. She sets the tone and pace for those she works with. Instead of not knowing what someone on her team will do, she already knows the work and therefore, she can demonstrate expertise and understanding to the person who will work on a project. She also helps them to figure out the "what" and the "why" of things but she gives them plenty of opportunities to figure out the "how".
Another question I asked is what is a professional risk Jennifer took and how did it turn out. For Jennifer, the biggest risk was starting the remote internship program. At the beginning she didn't have the full support of her supervisor but she proved that it could work - and it has! When the first cohort of interns began, she anticipated 75 participants and this number held true. There have been some murky years when she didn't have executive leadership support but she's kept it going. Over the last nine years, they have had 700 interns!
Lastly, I asked Jennifer how she continues learning and growing in her current position. For her, the biggest thing she does is attending the American Association of Law Libraries yearly conference. Compared to other conferences, it is a smaller one around 2,000-3,000 attendees so she gets a lot out of it and can connect with colleagues. She also is part of a few AALL committees - this is key to staying in touch with the profession. At work, she takes Skillsoft classes several times a year, she is part of some listservs of other departments to keep abreast of things and she is part of an accessibility working group. Jennifer pointed out that even doing this internship program and talking with us interns is a way that she grows in her work. She believes that interns are on the frontlines of industry changes and she learns from us, as we are a diverse group of people with different educational and professional backgrounds.
What I learned from Jennifer are two key things - tenacity and creativity. Jennifer worked hard in her academic journey and was open to try new things. She has been tenacious in launching the intern program at the Law Library of Congress, even when she had very little support. It is tenacity that can help us overcome challenges, professionally and otherwise. I also learned that it goes a long way to be creative and that finding a supportive environment that can foster your creativity is helpful. Without this, a person can feel stymied and stagnant. It doesn't seem that way for Jennifer's department and that leadership value the creativity that employees offer.
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