WWCCD?

During a library job interview today, I had to think to myself, (for the first time, but probably not the last), "What Would Carrie Carter Do?"

So here's the situation.  While waiting for my interview for a 14 hr/week library book shelving position, I walked into the waiting area and sat down next to another girl.  Let me describe this girl to you, because there are many like her in the world.

This is the kind of girl you will find in every waiting room for every library position in the country.  This girl is very plain.  She is wearing the top of a grey lady-suit that looked like she borrowed from her mother who borrowed it from the eighties.  This girl has mid-length brown hair, styled with a headband (...can you even buy a headband anymore?).  She has facial acne.  She has glasses.  She is make-up-less.  She doesn't know what heels are.  She will probably tell you that she likes books.

This is the type of girl that applies for and is hired by libraries every damn day.

I, on the other hand, have chosen the route of sexy librarian.

The sexy librarian wears heels.  The sexy librarian has styled her hair, and has the perfect professional make-up routine.  The sexy librarian bought her clothes in a store.  This decade.  Today, I realized, though: it is not enough to look like a sexy librarian and still give perfectly prim and expected answers to questions.  So, during this interview, I decided: what the hell.  I'm going to stand out.  Not obnoxiously so, as to scare people from hiring me.  But adding just enough edge to the interview to stand out verbally, as well.  A few examples.

Question: "If a patron asked a question that you didn't know the answer to, what would you do?"

Answer: "Oh, I would know the answer, so I wouldn't need to do anything." 

And, most memorably:

Question: "If you were to leave the room and two of your friends were to come in and talk to me about you, what would they say?"

Here, I thought about Carrie Carter.  I also thought about the past months I've spent working at an electronics store.  About how refreshing it was to be in a library again, and how I was sick of getting turned down from jobs for not being someone's niece who knows the library director.  I thought about how much I missed the work I love, and how this lady had the power to give it to me.

Answer: "They would tell you that I am a librarian.  They would say that if you didn't hire me, that I will just go someplace else and be a librarian there because that's what I am and I won't stop until I reach that goal."

She smiled.  I don't know what it meant; if it was patronizing or proud.  But damn, it felt great.