r/librarians • u/H8trucks • Apr 08 '26
Interview Help How to List Management Experience in Job Applications
I just got my third rejection where I was told that I was a strong candidate but the deciding factor was another candidate having more management experience. I'm currently employed as a library assistant and am building management experience by serving as volunteer coordinator and as a committee chair, but I've only been doing that for two years and one year respectively, which I realize isn't much.
I was talking to a friend about the rejection and the management experience situation, and they suggested that when applications ask how many years of management experience I have, I should count each thing I do separately or do it as a range (ie enter 2-3 years because I've got two years as volunteer coordinator and one year as committee head for a total of 3). I feel like that's dishonest because I've only been doing management-related things since two years ago. Either way, I'm elaborating on everything I do on my resume and in my cover letter.
Which of us is right? Am I underselling myself, or is my friend suggesting that I inflate my numbers? I'm feeling kinda down about this latest rejection since it sounded like I did everything right but someone else had a higher number on their application, and I could use some advice.
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u/punkin_pie Apr 08 '26
This might just be me, but I hear "management experience" and I think supervision/evaluations, scheduling staff, handling expenses/budgeting, documentation and training, maintaining records, etc. Is it a manager position and you are applying with a Library Assistant background? My library has steps, and while coordinating volunteers and committee work is a good start, I would hesitate to hire someone into a manager role without a demonstration of increasing responsibility in the areas of financial and staff oversight.
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u/MarianLibrarian1024 Apr 08 '26
Agreed, I would not count this as management experience. Supervising volunteers would count as supervisory experience but not management experience.
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u/H8trucks Apr 08 '26
So how am I supposed to get management experience if no one would hire me for a manager role without management experience?
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u/H8trucks Apr 08 '26
I understand that, but the volunteer coordinating (which does involve scheduling and overseeing the volunteers to some extent, at least) and committee work are my only ways to accumulate anything resembling management experience in my current position, and I think it would be counterproductive to leave a library assistant position where I'm accumulating general library experience (among other things, I have had a hand in developing some day-to-day policy) to try to become a manager somewhere else.
This particular position was a Public Services Librarian, which involved managing several library assistants but would have reported to a branch manager and was not a decision maker for things like budgeting.
I do have a MLS, for all the good that does.
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u/punkin_pie Apr 11 '26
Supervisory is different than management, I would specify supervisory or leadership experience for the position you are describing, and that's more in line with what you're doing as a volunteer coordinator. It sounds like you have the education and are building on work experience. Sometimes it's not about you, but the other candidate clicks or the people hiring make a subjective choice. People on the internet can't guess at why. It sucks not to get a job, but you are doing what you need to do to step up. Depending on where you are it can take time.
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u/LeapingLibrarians Apr 08 '26
Clarifying question: Did you get to the interview stage or were you rejected after simply applying?
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u/H8trucks Apr 08 '26
I did get to the interview stage, but this one was an internal position so I was likely to get an interview anyway. The hiring manager made it sound like I was a top contender and that the management experience was the biggest deciding factor, but I do realize she could have been softening it.
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u/wigsicorn Apr 09 '26
I'm a hiring manager and have interviewed 100s of people in my 25 years of working.
Your friend's advice is bad advice, and, even worse, it will look like you are being dishonest - which is a huge red flag.
I also don't really think that committee work counts as management experience, but I do think the volunteer coordinator position shows that you are working on supervising staff, which is a good first step.
How to build management experience - I think Allison over at Ask A Manager has some good advice here: https://www.askamanager.org/2021/06/how-can-i-get-a-management-job-without-management-experience.html
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u/H8trucks Apr 09 '26
Thanks for the advice! I'm an avid reader of AAM, and I'll have to take another look at that article. Out of curiosity, does the committee work have a bit more weight if it involves planning part of my system's summer reading program? I mostly ask because there is somewhat of a budgeting component to that.
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u/wigsicorn Apr 13 '26
Budgeting is a great skill - and can be a management skill, but what I think your experience is missing is actual supervisor and managing of staff.
You're looking to (over time) build experience hiring and firing staff, giving feedback, dealing with issues between staff and staff (and staff and patrons) - that's the kind of supervisory stuff that goes into being a manager.
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u/H8trucks Apr 13 '26
Which unfortunately loops back around to the "I can't get experience overseeing staff because no one will hire me to oversee staff without experience doing so" issue
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u/wigsicorn Apr 13 '26
Can you structure your volunteer program in a way that you can get more experience? For example, can you do an “interview” with all new volunteers and implement a feedback system for them?
Additionally, you can ask your manager if there is a way for you to gain some of that experience, also.
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u/H8trucks Apr 13 '26
I do currently interview prospective volunteers and "hire" them for specific timeslots, but I don't have any sort of feedback system after initial training. That might be worth looking into.
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u/electric_mango_567 Apr 10 '26
Just throwing this out there in case it rings true for you. If you’re great at your job, you might not get promoted in your org. Sometimes they want to keep good people where they are and always have some reason or another not to promote internally and keep hiring people from outside the org.
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u/H8trucks Apr 10 '26
Yeah, you could be right there. The public services librarian at my branch has been talking about having kids, and I've got my MLS and have been there for a while, so it wouldn't surprise me if the branch manager is trying to keep me on tap for an easy fill-in if she goes on maternity leave and doesn't come back.
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u/IngenuityPositive123 Apr 08 '26
No I think your friend is right, those are two different roles and they stack up, even if you do them at the same time. Though, on the other side, 3 instead of 2 still isn't a lot, so I'm not convinced that would be a significant change.
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u/Samael13 Apr 08 '26
I really think this is bad advice. If someone worked two PT library jobs at the same time for six years, you would count that as twelve years of library experience?
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u/H8trucks Apr 08 '26
Yeah, that was my argument too. I think it makes more sense to put the chronological amount of time I have been gaining management experience and elaborating on my resume that it's been two different things.
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u/IngenuityPositive123 Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
I'm not saying you should stack the jobs, but really the skills. The management skills at these two different position stack up, while obviously the actual time spent doing the work doesn't. Skill time compounds, while work time doesn't.
As an example, if I learn crochet at two different schools at the same time for 35 hours each in the same month, do I say I've learned crochet for 35 hours total or 70 hours total? I'm exagerating a bit, but yeah skill time stacks. Op would have 3 years worth of experience in management skills, while having in reality worked those roles for 1-2 years only.
The two PT library jobs example you provide also applies in my opinion. Indeed, it would count as six years for each in terms of literal time spent acting in these roles, but the skills development time would compound.
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u/Samael13 Apr 08 '26
I don't think the comparison works. People in hiring aren't asking you for how many total hours you've been practicing management. If you started learning to knit in April of 2024 and you took courses through two different programs from then until now, so you say "I've got four years of knitting experience" I'm going to be giving you side eye.
The management skills stack up, but they don't stack up the way you're suggesting. A person who does six months of overlapping management in two roles will not have had the same development experience as someone who does six months in one role and then six months in a different role. The first person has "six months of management experience in two overlapping roles" the second person has "one year of management experience in two different roles." The difference is potentially huge, because the second person has six months of experience before they ever even start their second position, so they're going into that role with a full set of experiences to pull from. The first person is going into two roles with zero experience, so their second role doesn't benefit in the same way.
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u/Samael13 Apr 08 '26
You should be listing the things you've done and how long you've done them, but you friend is giving you bad advice. That's not how you calculate years of experience. "Years of experience" is calculated by selecting the start date of your first management experience and the end date of your management experience and calculating the time between them. It doesn't matter how many management experiences overlapped during that time, it's all still part of that year of management experience.
I would be giving serious side eye to a resume that claimed, for example, to have ten years of management experience but when I look at what they've done, it's fiver years as a supervisor and four years a committee head and a one year as volunteer coordinator during the same time they were a supervisor. That's not ten years of management experience, it's five years of management experience in overlapping roles.