next »

[July Johnson]

Dear all,

I've just been contacted with an invitation to come to Reasonably Good State University in about two weeks' time, to interview for an assistant professorship. I just defended my Ph.D. over the winter, and it's going to be my first interview: I am understandably nervous, but I derive some confidence from the chair's remarks that I am the "the most qualified candidate," and that they "didn't expect to find someone as well suited for the position."

In addition to any first interview advice that you have (what did you wish you knew the first time out?), I could use some feedback on two specific issues:

1. Can I infer anything from the fact that they are interviewing this late in the year? Their term starts a mere five weeks after the interview, and they are aware that I am not local to them and will require relocation time. Does this work to my advantage? Or does it imply that everyone and his mother has turned the position down? And if that, why the glowing commentary on my qualifications and suitability? Ideas?
   
   
2. When I inquired whether they would like me to deliver a paper or teach a class as part of the interview, I was told that the search committee would prefer an "informal discussion of my current and future research." This seems unusual for a school that emphasizes teaching, but my real concern is that it means scrapping my prepared papers and developing a new presentation (I'm certainly not going to wing it, as they imply I might). Any advice on preparing talks like this?
   

Comments or analysis of this situation would be welcome.

July

[anonanon]

The advantage for you is that you won't have to wait a long time to find out if they're going to make an offer.  The disadvantage is that you will have to find a new place to live and move quickly if you get the position.  I imagine there might be others, but those quickly come to mind.

I have also had an interview for a teaching-focused college ask me for a discussion of my research.  I think they want to get an idea of your communication style and if you can present complex ideas in a manner that is clear to the average undergraduate.

Good luck in the interview!

[July Johnson]

Thanks for the reply and the good advice.

Two other questions: what's a good time for an "informal discussion of research" to run? 20 mins? 30? 45? And is it best to pitch it to a middlebrow audience, and then either smarten it up or dumb it down as needed in the questions period?

July

[tk]

From my experience, "informal discussion of your research" = "we do not want you to read to us for 45 minutes, and we especially don't want you to give us a talk that is the standard job talk for a research-oriented school."

I suspect that they would not be pleased if you went into this discussion unprepared (which is what "winging it" means to me) so I would prepare something.  But I would prepare something that resembles a class period rather than a conference paper.  For example: when you teach a class, or lead a discussion in class, you probably don't just read from a sheet of paper for the entire period. You speak informally from notes. The presentation is colloquial and not formal. I would suspect that is what they are looking for.

Also, as informal as they may want this "discussion" to be, never underestimate the power of handouts -- whether it's an outline of what you'll be speaking about, sample syllabi, or sample assignments. People like to have something to look at to remember you by, and also sometimes you can use a handout to do some of the background that you don't want to spend your time discussing.

Finally, did they tell you your audience for this "informal discussion"? Is it the whole faculty?  Will students be present? Is it the search committee alone? Knowing your audience will help to guide your preparation.

Just my two cents, but these were strategies that worked for me.

[sabrina]

>Can I infer anything from the fact that they are
> interviewing this late in the year?

When did they first announce the job? If it was a recent announcement, it is likely that this is a replacement position for someone they just found out is leaving. If a faculty member accepted a position elsewhere this spring, they may have been able to quickly secure the ability to get a replacement hire.

Or they might have previously selected a candidate and then something happened so the search was reopened.

Or they may have managed to finagle a position late in the year (this I would consider the least likely).

>When I inquired whether they would like me to deliver a
> paper or teach a class as part of the interview, I was told
> that the search committee would prefer an "informal
> discussion of my current and future research."

Might be because school is not in session and they don't have a class available for you to teach and don't want to do a formal presentation for just a small group of folks. If you want more clarification, you might ask if it would be appropriate to prepare slides or overheads or if this will just be a question and answer session with a few folks around a table.

My advice: Just be yourself. Be the best you possible, but most importantly be yourself, and don't overanalyze the situation. It'll just drive you crazy.

Good luck!

[Anon V]

I did the reverse route and interviewed at six places during the academic year, and will be defending my dissertation soon. I recently accepted a position to teach at a small college next year -- so I will add some comments about the interview process that I hope will be helpful.

1. Interviewing late in the year: I had the opportunity to watch a job search at my university, and learned that over 80 people applied for a temporary lecturer position. (So I am sure far more than that applied for the job you have an interview for). Every place that I interviewed for paid for the plane ticket, hotel, food, etc., so believe me, they are carefully screening who gets invited as they are investing time and money for each candidate. As for the places I interviewed, they invited anywhere from one to three job candidates -- so every person does not get a call and an opportunity to "reject" the job offer (if you think back to how many probably applied). There may be a possibility that they did not like the first few candidates and are moving on to the next applicants, or that the search committee is phenomenally slow at making a decision/funding just came through for the position/etc. (I was told this for a few of my late interviews or places that took 8 months to reply.)

Re: Glowing commentary: I wish I had realized this more fully. Treat a lot of the "glowing" compliments with a grain of salt. I was told many things like that during interviews -- some that resulted in offers, others that did not. But really, reserve judgement on how you stand until you actually get a job offer. There is the possibility that you are the only candidate who was invited to the interview (in which case, the position is yours unless you clash with facultly there). Annd hence the comment by the chair. You can ask this during the interview: When is the last job candidate interviewing? How many are interviewing for this position?

2. Research talk: I used a powerpoint presentation -- and showed my former and current research, and also had slides with future research ideas. It is worth investing the time in that talk now. A few institutions requested this type of talk.

Just as a suggestion, interview them too (especially if they are having you present research and no teaching demonstration). There was an institution that I turned down based on what I found out during the interview process. There are some things that I highly value for teaching, and most of the faculty members could not respond to the questions or did not indicate much thought on the topics. If they seem to place little value on teaching and that is the most important aspect for you, do you want to invest your time there?

I also thoroughly explored the Web sites of the colleges and universities where I had interviews beforehand. Find out what they value, what they do, any research by faculty members that you find interesting and ask them about it when you are there. If you similarly value a particular teaching approach, you can mention that during the interview, or comment on the last paper you read of a particular faculty member, etc.  Even if you do not get the job, you will learn a lot and meet interesting people. It was stressful for me but I still value what I learned from each college and university.

Good luck, and congratulations on getting the interview.

[Brent Chesley]

Congratulations on getting an on campus interview.

I agree with anonanon's assessment.  I would add, though, that during each question-and-answer session with an interviewer, at some point you will be asked if you have any questions for them about the job or the university or the area. This is your opportunity to mention your strengths that they haven't yet discussed with you.  "In addition to the things we've discussed, I've done a lot of work with X.  How might that benefit your department?" If you give them three or four such questions, you will look like an even better candidate than they'd imagined.

You will have the usual mundane questions about benefits, real estate, moving allowance, and such, of course, but I'd save those for someone in human resources. You can even call the HR office after you get home and ask those questions, if you don't get a chance to do so during your visit. (I've had on-campus visits in which I never got near the HR office and never received any information about HR issues.)

Good luck.  Let us know how it goes.

[Spork]

A few tips:

1) Find out who you will be meeting with (you should be able to get a fairly detailed schedule of your interview before you arrive), if these people are on the hiring committee, and what your audience will be for your "informal" research presentation. Don't get blindsided by preparing a talk for faculty members and discovering upon your arrival that you're actually teaching a class.

2) Wear comfortable shoes.

3) If possible arrive the afternoon before the interview starts so you are guaranteed a good night's sleep. Maybe you can even explore the campus or environs a little by yourself at your own speed.

4) Take important materials, like your interview suit, as carry-on luggage.

5) Find out as much as you can about the university and members of the department by searching the Web, journal databases, etc. prior to the interview. Make a crib sheet that lists pertinent info about people you'll be meeting.  This helps direct conversation away from you and toward the person who's evaluating you -- most people enjoy talking about themselves and your diligent research will indicate interest in the job.

[a friend]

You've no doubt read this before, but DO NOT assume ANYTHING. I was recently blindsided in an "informal" gathering of faculty members at an institution by not preparing enough. The department chairman may have meant what he said, but the other faculty members present weren't in on the secret, and they blasted me.

And I agree, the compliments don't mean anything -- they may be saying the same to two or three others.

If you have a "prepared" lecture, please don't read it. I too like the idea of slides or Powerpoint where you can "show and tell." It's easier and it's more effective. If they don't want that when you get there, fine. At least you were ready.

Pause every once and a while and see if anyone interrupts you with a question. My own institution turned down someone last year because one of the faculty members commented that "she thought she knew it all!"

Sigh ... smile and expect anything. Good luck.