As a hiring manager I would not bat an eye at the week, but three weeks out might be trickier. You need to bring it up before or when you accept the job. A, you don't want them to feel sandbagged, and B, you don't want to accidentally get caught up by existing policies around accumulated vacation, other people's schedules who have more seniority, length of time allowed, etc. iME, they will have a lot more flexibility to bend rules as part of the hiring process than on behalf of a brand new employee.

It is a coverage kind of job - desk shifts and teaching classes - but I would expect that with advance knowledge there are enough people in the coverage rotation (elsewhere I've worked it's nearly 20) that 3 weeks off is not a terrible problem. It might be a problem at an academic library in the busy season (start/end of semesters), but I doubt public libraries are that strongly seasonal.

But I do live in a world where people take a month off in the summer, so.

Heh. In 7 years here I've known one person to take a full month, and to be honest I'm still kind of bitter about the impact on the rest of us and that later in the year our manager gave her some extra time off at Thanksgiving.

Thanks, Brenda, that confirms my instinct, which was sort of that when we start to talk about start dates, I bring it up then. I mean, obviously they would not want to wait until after those 3 weeks, but it seems appropriate to bring up commitments at that point.

flea,

if you get the job offer, I would listen to the HR person's terms first and benefits, etc. see how long you have to think about the offer and then in your next conversation, mention that you had a family vacation planned for July 1-21. You would like to request unpaid leave for those 3 weeks, but you would like to know if there would be a problem with this and what procedures you need to do to request the leave. Can you work the difference (for example, put in an extra 5 hours a week until that time is made up)? I wouldn't bring up the seminar unless you absolutely HAVE to. It isn't their business really.

As far as salary: I usually recommend a counter offer of 10-20% more than the starting offer. In my line of work though, salary is important, but also so is other benefits. So, if my work pays for more of my benefits than I have to put in, I might not push as hard on salary.

I think you also need to get a sense of raises and expected raise schedule and what last year's raises (if there were any) were.

Oh yeah, I'd do it in the conversation where you accept the job for sure.

On negotiating, if you know the range they expect to pay, literally you just have to ask for a number toward the top of the range. They say, "We want to offer you the job, and the salary is XX." You say, "I was looking for something closer to X+Y. Is that possible?" The time off could also be part of that negotiation, if there isn't more money, maybe you could get more time off? (I have heard this exists, but have never actually experienced it myself.)

So your car is playing an April Fools trick on you? Bad manners.

Yes, let's go with that.

I am so used to being in a no-raise environment (at UGA nobody has gotten any raises since I was hired in August 2008 - in fact, one year we had furloughs) that it is hard to imagine! Also, I realize I know almost nothing about librarian rank and longevity of employment contracts in a public library setting (in an academic library there are usually 3-4 ranks to progress through, with associated raises, and tenure or continuing appointment at some institutions.) Must research.

The range is really big, though - like more than $25K wide - and I am at the entry level - this would be my first job with librarian as a title. So I shouldn't ask for or expect top of the range? I was just hoping to not come in at the basement, especially since I was basically working as a librarian but not being paid as one the last 2 years of my last job.

The time off could also be part of that negotiation, if there isn't more money, maybe you could get more time off? (I have heard this exists, but have never actually experienced it myself.)

My most recent hire asked for (and got) additional time off, Moneywise we gave her an offer that was slightly higher than what she had told HR was her target so there wasn't much room for her to move there.