Hilarity and Dismay

Over in this FriendFeed thread, Martha points out that there are a number of awesome people at my new place of work. Discussion ensues, with people ultimately acknowledging that there are multiple Libraries of Awesome and to the question of  “I wonder what I & my colleagues can do to help make MPOW work mucho awesome (even more so than it is now). Obviously, there are lots of Librarylands of Awesome already.”

Well, ok then. That’s a BIG question, and I can only answer what mattered for me with my decision to come to Georgia State. While I accepted the offer quickly, there was a long thought process that went into me even applying.  Especially since I swore, when I left Atlanta in 2002, that I would never live in this city again. Apparently “never” is 8 years in my world.

But I wouldn’t have come back now if the job hadn’t been right. So, what told me this was the right place?

• The conversations during the interview process felt like just that, conversations
• The information I gathered from the library during the interview came across as accurate – not a picture painted to make things sound good
• The information I could gather from the library’s website supported what I was being told – at least in the areas I could access
• The university’s strategic plan and other documents available from the university supported what I wanted to have at the institution I worked for

All of this though, could have been things that I interpreted as I wanted to interpret them. What else stood out?

• The dean came to my interview presentation, obviously listened and asked questions when I met with her at the end of the day.  I’ve not had that happen at any other interview (though to be fair, at one, I met with the dean prior to my presentation and was asked what I planned to talk about and that framed our conversation, since that dean was unavailable during the presentation)
• People smiled and seemed happy to be here – this might seem like a small thing, but it very much sets the atmosphere
• During different interview meetings, people were mentally present and seemed to be listening to what I was saying – I never felt like anyone was just there physically but really focusing on all that they had to get done around this meeting.
• The  conversations I had with people I knew who worked here – both before I applied and after.
• The attitude in the library that I picked up on while interviewing. It very much felt like one that was customer/patron/user/whatever name you use focused, where the first question that would be asked of something new was “how does this benefit our users” rather than”how does this benefit us”.
• The gut feeling that this was a good place to work – all the other stuff comes together to create that gut feeling.

All of these things combined, and perhaps some that I haven’t yet identified came together to have my answer to the offer be yes.  And that yes brought me back to Atlanta – and if I’m being truthful, I’m surprisingly pleased to be back here despite my words 8 years ago.