On the Front Lines

About a month ago, I wrote about our intention to undertake a late search for a position in management after our earlier search had fallen through. We’re in the process of setting up on-campus interviews for the finalists, who on paper and in preliminary phone interviews look promising.

As we set up these interviews, I’m reminded again how important it is to have a competent and good-spirited person managing the arrangements. In our case, the administrative assistant to the associate dean of the faculty, in my office, handles the arrangements. She is good at it, dealing well with juggled schedules, flight arrangements, lodging, and all the other logistics that go into a successful campus-interview process.

Any regular reader of the Chronicle Forums has read horror stories about botched on-campus interviews—candidates have experienced late notice, unclear instructions, and poor communications of many other kinds, not to mention incomplete arrangements (for example, no one around to coordinate his or her arrival on campus), and other indignities that, in a better and more just market, would make it impossible for the offending institutions to do any hiring.

The challenges of getting candidates to our campus are real, adding significantly to the effort involved in setting up a good interview. As I’ve written before, we are about two and a half hours from Des Moines and Omaha, the nearest metropolitan areas with useful airports. Neither is a major airport, though, so flights and connections are not often either frequent or smooth. and getting to campus requires a long drive on rural roads.

In addition, as I’ve also written, rural northwest Iowa isn’t always an easy sell for candidates. Ensuring that our search process is smooth, professional, and courteous helps us have the best chance of recruiting strong candidates for our positions. Our front-line contact person for candidates is therefore key and must have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.

We’re remarkably fortunate to have an outstanding colleague handling these matters. Candidates routinely mention how pleasant it has been to work with her on setting up their campus interviews (and the phone interviews that often precede them). She is a most valuable part of our hiring team.

Since she is on the front line of the hiring process, and deals with candidates in making complex and sometimes stressful arrangements, we also listen carefully to her impressions of the candidates as she has worked with them to plan their interviews. That’s a word to the wise, for job candidates at any institution.