Many candidates view interviews as the biggest hurdle in the job search -- or at least the one that gives them the greatest anxiety. As a consultant for academic-administrator searches, I have seen far too many strong candidates lose the game unnecessarily at the interview.
It's especially disappointing to see the candidate who was the committee's top choice before the interview fall right off the charts in that fateful face-to-face hour. At the same time, it's exciting to see someone with a good but not outstanding resume do a fantastic interview and rise to the top of the ratings.
In this column, I'll suggest some issues to consider as you plan for an administrative interview. I'll talk about interviews in the chronological sequence they often follow, beginning with telephone interviews and "airport interviews." Next month, I'll discuss extended on-campus interviews and individual meetings with the senior officers in charge of filling the vacant position.
First, some basic premises:
- Know your audience. Try to get a list of the people you'll be meeting with and their titles. Find out something about them, either by reading materials that are sent to you or using the Web. Use personal contacts with caution; particularly at early stages in the search, you don't want to appear to be prying inappropriately.
- Be yourself -- but be self-aware. This is an important premise for many different aspects of the job-search process. You never want to pretend to be someone you aren't. But at the same time, some behaviors or words may send inappropriate messages. For example, a candidate who asks during an interview about retirement benefits may signal that he'll only be on the job a short time before retiring. The goal is to demonstrate your best self in the interview.
- Focus on the position and the institution, not just on yourself. Search committees want to know about you, but they want to know this within the context of the position and the institution they're part of. Your task is to place yourself in their institutional context.
- Your questions are as important as your answers. At every stage, you may be given the opportunity to ask questions. You will be judged by the questions you ask and by how you respond to the answers, so give this some thought in advance. Think about the appropriate level of question for each stage in the search process and for each audience. Few people like being asked questions they don't know the answer to, but they're usually happy to talk about things they know and understand. For example, search committees may know nothing about the compensation package, but they know a lot about the campus culture and the expectations for the position. At the early stages, don't ask about moving expenses.
Try to avoid asking questions with simple yes-or-no or quantitative answers -- it's generally more interesting to ask a question that has no simple answer and gets people thinking and talking. If you're being interviewed after many others have been interviewed, try especially hard to make your questions a bit different, avoiding some of the basics like "What are you looking for in the next ______?" or "What do you want the new ________ to accomplish in the next five years?"
It's good to ask questions that show that you have been listening to the committee's questions, such as: "I noticed that you asked quite a few questions about how I would allocate resources. Can you tell me a bit more about how resources have been allocated in the past? How did this approach work?"
Let's turn now from these broad suggestions to the specifics of different types of interviews, beginning with the telephone interview. Some committees want to screen their candidates before they select those they will meet. They may assemble the full committee or a subcommittee to spend an hour interviewing a candidate by phone (possibly a speakerphone, but rarely a videophone) in order to reduce their candidate pool and save time and money.
Many candidates find it particularly difficult to demonstrate their "best selves" in a phone interview. Because you cannot see body language and facial expressions, you should try to be exceptionally sensitive to the aural cues that are available (and if you have a bad connection, this may be a particular challenge).
Be especially careful not to talk too long (speech coming over a speakerphone seems to become boring and to sound rambling more quickly than speech coming from a person in the room). Stop talking often enough and long enough to check whether someone on the other end is trying to make a question or comment. Try to personalize this strangely impersonal exchange by recognizing people's voices as they speak and calling them by name. Since you can't show your interest and enthusiasm visually, try to find a way to show it through your words and tone.
If you "pass" the phone interview, you may be invited for what is often called an "airport interview." The basic concept here is that a non-campus setting, easily accessible for candidates, is chosen for interviews that usually run up to two hours. The committee may meet 10-15 people in this setting.
This is a critical moment in the search process, when candidates are transformed from a paper existence to a flesh-and-blood reality with an appearance, a style, a level of articulateness and enthusiasm, and so on. While credentials and experience continue to be important, these other personal qualities are being judged for the first time, and candidates should reflect on all aspects of their presentation. A few key items:
- Dress for the position. The search committee should be able to visualize you in the job. If you're interviewing for a presidency, you must look presidential, and so on for other positions. How the committee defines that will vary for different regions and institutional types. If you want a more distinctive look, that's fine -- but consider the possible committee reaction and then make your wardrobe decision.
- Your interview style will be taken to represent your leadership and management style and in fact your personality and character. Committees will be watching to see if you make and keep eye contact, if you turn your back on or overlook certain people in the room, if you appear nervous, if you interrupt, if you answer all the questions that are put to you, if you ramble or focus in your responses. Just to spell out one example -- you may be a very focused person but your anxiety can make you appear unfocused. If so, work on making your interview appearance as clear and articulate as your "normal" self.
- Prepare a set of likely questions and practice the answers. Read the position description carefully and assume that you'll be asked questions that let the committee decide whether you're able to do the job in question. You'll also probably be asked some generic questions about why you want the position, why you're leaving your current position, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Think about all these questions in advance so that the words and ideas are there when you need them.
- Prepare a set of important answers, and hope that the committee asks you a question that gives you an opportunity to provide them. There may be some important things you need to say about yourself that are complex or subtle. Practice saying these things so you aren't flustered and so that you don't ramble before getting to the real heart of your answer. However, I strongly suggest that you not bring your script into the interview with you; if you do bring it, I urge that you not consult it. You should know what you want to say without reading notes or text; if you refer to notes, the committee may doubt your sincerity, articulateness, and ability to think on your feet.
Next month: the on-campus interview.
Jean Dowdall is vice-president at A.T. Kearney Executive Search, which handles searches for senior academic administrators. In the last year, she has assisted with searches at Northern Arizona University, Rowan University, and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She has also been a faculty member, dean, vice-president, and president at both public and private institutions.
Ms. Dowdall welcomes comments and suggestions for future columns at movingup@chronicle.com
