[thechat] I got 20 job mon. Advice to myself.

[Joe Crawford]

Hey Andrew - cool!

Andrew Forsberg wrote:
> >Another note about working in a library - there were basically 4 tasks:
> >       -- shelving
> >       -- reading
> >       -- sorting
> >       -- maintaining
> 
> Can I add to this list:
>         -- customer service
>         -- needs analysis
> 
> Library work was a fantastic crash course for me at around the same
> age as Joe. You get to quickly master the fine art of being really
> nice to incredibly stupid people -- or get sacked.

BINGO! That rings so true to me. Lots of emphasis on how to say to
people "I don't know ma'am, but the librarian for the section may be
able to help you." So much in my tech life there was NO emphasis on
being nice to people who don't know what they're talking about. And no
repercussions if you were rude.

But then, I know some very talented people who have no social skills but
are good at what they do.

The whole "service with a smile" thing is a nice differentiation
strategy. :-)

> 95% of punters
> don't know what they want, but they do know what they don't want.

Yah!

> Sound like any other particular type of work?

*chuckle* - coincidence? Maybe not.

In my library job, we were almost /discouraged/ from trying to help the
customers. We were supposed to direct people to the the /real/
librarians - who had proper degrees.

	- Joe