Georgetown Interview & THE decision

I had a great time visiting Georgetown! I flew in Sunday afternoon. We did this fun landing thing where we almost touched down, and the pilot decided, Eh, I don't wanna land just yet. So we took back off and flew around for another 30 minutes, and then landed. He said it was because of the storm, but I think he wanted overtime.

I was so early to my totally awesome hotel, I got to walk around the Dupont Circle area for awhile. The neighborhoods and shops there are super cute, and I felt very safe as there were people everywhere. I met the person supervising this position and the Director of the library for dinner at a very swank Italian restaurant nearby. They are both very techie literate, and fun to talk to. After dinner, I met Becky (an old friend from Athens) for pool and drinks.

The following morning, I got up insanely early and took a taxi to Georgetown University. I arrived at 7am, and spent the next two hours going over my presentation. There was some Lead America conference going on for high school kids, so that was entertaining. I was met at 9am by two librarians who gave me a quick tour of campus and the medical library. The Medical library is sort of buried in the slew of medical related buildings on campus near the hospital. So I would never have found it on my own.

I gave my presentation to the entire library staff. I think it went over very well. I found out later that I was the first candidate they'd interviewed so this was all new material for most of them. I was worried I wouldn't be telling them anything they didn't know, and was happy to learn that was not the case. A couple of people asked a lot of questions, but most didn't. I then met with the 4 person search committee for this position. They asked a lot of questions about my teaching and reference experience, which is limited. I then had lunch with my would-be supervisor and the rest of her department (mostly catalogers). That was a very nice experience; they're a diverse and good group of people and get on really well with each other.

I then had 2 30 min interviews with the Director of the library and my would-be supervisor. The Director let me know there were two more candidates to interview for this position, and the last wouldn't be interviewing until August 20th. He also discussed the salary restraints of the position, and some of the bureaucratic problems within the larger medical system of the university. There are some definite perks to working in the library, but also some very real challenges that have nothing to do with my job but would affect me greatly. Meeting with my would-supervisor again was a nice experience. She and I really clicked. She's easy to talk to, and she's the one who gave me the most understanding of what they expect from this position.

After the interview, I was given an unofficial tour of the older parts of the campus, and was left to my own devices to wander around the Georgetown area proper until time to catch a taxi to the airport. Georgetown is lovely with more cute shops and houses. While at the airport waiting on my plane, I made a long pros/cons list comparing Salisbury and Georgetown. After talking it over with a few people who told me my reactions to both experiences were very different, I realized I'd made my decision. I talked it over with my boss at TBLC and worked out a last day time frame for me here. I then phoned Alice to let her know I would be accepting the position at Salisbury, and when I could start. I'll write to Georgetown later this week to let them know too, so they can ask another candidate to come up if they would like. I'm really happy with my decision, and am grateful I was able to compare my experiences at two places to make a better decision for me. I'm planning to start on 8/25 and move around 8/18-8/22. Wish me luck apartment hunting!