1. The number of question might vary widely, though I was lucky enough in a phone interview I had today that they actually said at the beginning of the conversation that there would be about 12. More likely, you'll have some idea of how much time they expect to spend talking to you, which is typically an hour or so. To avoid rambling, just try to keep the question in mind as you speak, and when you have answered it, just stop. Some questions will require more detail than others, but the main thing is to address each question completely & focus on conveying your strengths.

2. Hard for me to say, but I've wondered the same thing. I was fortunate enough to find out that I did get this job I interviewed for today (!) but I was visiting the area last week for another interview & had the opportunity to arrange an informational meeting prior to the phone interview. I think in my case it did not hurt that I got to meet them face to face, but keep in mind that there's a good chance they might be doing most of their interviewing on the phone, and it's your job to really let your personality come through in your voice. That's the most important thing.

3. In my experience (this will be my second time moving across country) it's been about 6 weeks, but it very well could be less.

4. Not necessarily, but probably, especially if it's a public library position. This is something you could negotiate after being offered the position.

1. If they don't tell you, ask. Hopefully, at the beginning of phone call (or even better, in email, in advance) they should tell you who you are talking to at the end of the line, how many questions, and how long they expect the session to last. If they don't, you can definitely ask. Say exactly what you said here: you want a sense of the timing, so you know how detailed to be in your answers.

2. I don't have a strong feeling for the answer to this immediate question, but I would say that you should think about the time "around" the phone interview as interview time too. When they contact you to set it up, be professional and engaging. Make them look forward to talking to you. After the phone interview, send them a thank-you-email-note, as you would with an in-person interview. And you can use that to follow-up on anything you missed. If you blanked on something, address that briefly in the thank-you email. Again, be professional, engaged, and solidify the conversation in their head. Phone interviews aren't great for the search committee either.

3 & 4. Relocation time & moving expenses are generally negotiable (moving expenses, depending on the type of library & its funding source). People always (and necessarily) focus on negotiating salary, but remember that you can negotiate these other things too. Right out of library school, it's hard to guess how much negotiating power you have without knowing your other experience, but if they really want you and you really need time to move or to finish out a prior commitment, they'll generally wait. Once you have agreed on salary, they are not going to want the offer to fall apart over start date (unless, of course, there is a teaching obligation or somesuch ...)

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Erin Stalberg
Head of Metadata & Cataloging
North Carolina State University Libraries

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It is much appreciated.

I see a lot of threads for phone interviewing and I have done quite a few myself, although they have never turned out successfully. In any case - I was wondering (just informally from anyone wishing to opinionate) is it really possible to secure a position completely via phone, without ever having a face 2 face interview? Has anyone here ever accomplished that? Or, at some point are you required to interview f2f? I haven't heard of it being offered anywhere, but webcams and video interviewing sounds like a better alternative than phone interviewing.

I actually had a situation, long ago, where I was offered a position on the basis of a half hour interview at a conference. They called me a week later and offered me the job -- wanting me to start following Monday -- and when I said "gee it's 3000 miles away, it's the middle of winter, this is Thursday, they told me "The YMCA is across the street. You can go back later and get your stuff."

I didn't take the job. The whole thing just seemed way off to me.

As it turned out this was a good thing because: I found out later that the person making the offer really had no authority to do so. Someone else in that library told me if I had accepted I would have been turned out immediately and required to go through a formal hiring process. So, I saved myself from quitting my current job, moving 3000 miles, only to find the job didn't exist. And this was a big famous library not some place in Podunk that was ignorant.

My point: You need to see the place, meet the people, and get your job offer in writing. Don't assume that the organization you're considering knows what it's doing. Sometimes they don't.