Gone are the days of traditional face-to-face interviews at your local library. The Orange County Public Libraries (OCPL) has embraced a streamlined, entirely virtual hiring process. First, you'll submit an online application when a position opens up. If you qualify, you’ll then take an examination. You'll be invited to an online interview if you rank high enough.
Here's where it gets interesting: instead of fielding questions from a live panel, you'll be presented with pre-recorded prompts. You'll have time to thoughtfully prepare your responses, then record your answers via webcam. That's right, no more in-person interactions – your camera skills are now part of the job application package. Make sure that your camera is working and that you have decent lighting.
This shift to a video-centric interview process marks a significant departure from the OCPL's former approach, which involved in-person meetings with a committee and the branch manager. The hiring decisions are now centralized at headquarters, leaving branch managers out of the loop. Even your eventual branch assignment will be determined by headquarters.
You don’t get to interact with a branch manager or even the regional managers at headquarters to make a connection; instead, you record your replies via video.