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[Dr. Joe]

Folks:

I have a phone interview coming up on Monday and just wanted to ask you all what type of questions you would ask the search committee?  I have several in mind, but are there are 'great type of questions' that I should consider asking?

Since this is the second phone interview with the same school (different job, of course), I don't want to repeat the ones I asked last time around.

Thank, gang.

Dr. Joe

[Fiona]

Dr. Joe--Didn't you already accept a job somewhere?

Maybe you're a different Dr. Joe.

[%sig%]

[dr. joe]

NOPE -- maybe there's a different, evil dr. joe living out my life?  Damn him to hell -- if you see him let me know, okay?  He owes me bigtime . . .

Seriously, I've had only had two serious contacts during this year's job search -- one, a campus interview and the other, a phone interview. Sadly, no offers wer made.  If you count my adjunct work at a nearly school as work (I've made less that $2,000 this year), no, I'm hardly working at all : (

BUT this time is different --

So . . . any questions come to mind????

[experimentalist]

It would depend on your field. Mine is experimental, so I usually ask about the equipment they have and what the policies for use of shared equipment are. Of course I make sure BEFORE I ask the question that I have a realistic idea of what they actually have or could have and what other faculty might be interested in. You don't want to come across as being too expensive/too spoilt or something like that.

This question also usually triggers THEIR question if there is a piece of equipment that you absolutely NEED to have. If you can at this point say:  "well, I need machine1, and machine2. I see future colleague A has machine1, and I am sure I can use machine2 at a national lab near-by initially or collaborate with someone, and then I'll write a grant to big-pocket-agency to get one for my own lab."....you are usually in good shape. You can get a real discussion started, you can show that you have a realistic idea about how to get your project started and you can also get some real information about the department.

If they have the type of machine you need and you can ask some specific technical questions about it, the department will be happy that you see a use for equipment they have, the colleague who got the equipment will be flattered and being able to discuss advantages/disadvantages of this particular machine shows that you are actually familiar with the technique. Usually works for me.

[five]

I thought i saw some inconsistencies in Dr Joe's posts - thanks for bringing it up, Claudia.

Joe, it woud help us to know what you covered in the first interview.  We can go from there...

[7th year prof.]

A question an old advisor suggested, and one I've always liked, directed to members of the search committee:

How has working at "Institution X" shaped and influenced your academic career?

[%sig%]

[Fiona]

to five--I'm not Claudia, speaking of identity confusions! ha ha.

But I do appreciate Claudia's postings, which are always very wise and usually much longer and more thoughtful than mine.

I'm rather honored to be confused with her.

[%sig%]

[dr. joe]

Fellow Posters:

Sorry for the confusion over my job search successes and woes . . . I'll try and be clear from here on, okay     : )

Just to cover the basic bases again, I have a Ph.D. in Education (bilingual ed, policy, literacy), and now have a phone interview for a bilingual ed. position in a mid-west, master's granting, state school.

In the first interview within the same department (but for a different job), I asked about the political climate of the community and bilingual ed.  I then asked the committee members whether more public schools will be coming aboard in the next five years. I also asked about  classes they needed me to teach (and teaching load).   I also asked about projected student enrollment.  I think that's about it . . .

Since these are questions I could easily be ask again, I wonder if I'm too area-specific, and should ask larger questions about the college's mission and such?

Thanks again, friends.

[dr. joe]

Folks --

I need to log-off now, but I will look over each and every response tonight or Friday morning.

EACH response is much appreciated . . . so thank you Fiona, Claudia, Experimentalist, Five Seven-Year Prof.  

Dr. Joe

[four-and-a-half]

I felt like I need a demotion after that dumbas* mistake.  Sorry, FIONA.  
I have noticed myself getting you two mixed up before though - not sure if I have you distinguished in my mind. I think I've made you into a composite.

[%sig%]

[five]

I can’t steer you with the area-specific questions, but some general ones might include:

How are the relations among faculty (within & across depts), & between faculty & administration?

Why do new faculty come here?  
How many leave pre-tenure and why?  

What kinds of mentoring programs are available for junior faculty?

Describe promotion, tenure, reappointment/review processes.
How are scholarship, teaching, & service weighted relatively?
Who doesn’t get tenure and why?  

Are summer teaching opportunities available? Are you expected to teach in summer?  

Describe the students (undergraduate and graduate), in and out of major.
What proportion of students in your classes will be in & out of major? Who are the non-majors (what are their majors)?  
What do they tend to do after finishing their programs? Do undergrads go to grad school? Do Masters students go to PhD programs? What kind of occupations do they enter?

And perhaps not a telephone interview question, but a good one for face-to-face interviews:  
If you could, what would you change about this university (or dept or program)?  
Answers to this can be very telling indeed.

Good luck!

[%sig%]

[Search Committee Member]

Five has given a good list of questions, but they suggest to me something closer to the closing than a telephone interview. I think your questions at telephone interview should be more slanted towards selling yourself to the committee and making sure they know you're interested in what you can do for the school. For example--
What is the most important thing you would expect me to do in this position?
What needs to you have that lead you to making this hire?
etc.
Since you DO know something about the school and its population, I know it may sound forced, but I think we always like chances to sell ourself, and think kindly of people who give us those chances. Thus the "what do your students do with their degree?" and "what interaction do your students have with the local school system?" and whatever else you can think of that suggests that you've thought of ways to help do what it is they want to do, phrased as a question so you can hear them say what they want, and then talk about the ways you could do that.

Sorry for confusing language. I've been reading a draft of a very drafty dissertation chapter, and revising sentences as I go. Seem to have used up my quote of syntax for the day.

[anon in social sciences]

Don't have a best questions to ask (though if it's a research position ask about stuff that will help you with research, and if it's a teaching position ask about the students), but I believe from what I've been following there's a "joe" and a "dr. joe" who are different people.  I'm betting it's been "joe" that I also remember having gotten a position... or rather a couple of positions.

[Gardener]

For most of my phone interview screenings, the conversation was really ALL ABOUT THEM getting to ask the questions. They did ask at the end, "Do you have any questions?" but I got the distinct sense that all they really wanted me to ask was about what the timeline might be.

With a couple of interviews, more questions were clearly not wanted, as they had a schedule to keep. I also got the impression that some of the (state) schools were very conscious of time so that they could say that they conducted a "clean" search. (One committee clearly worried about the amount of time I had with the committee vs. the time other people had.)

If you're thinking, well, maybe they just weren't into me, I did get job offers from some of the schools I interviewed with in this manner.

In general, the phone screens were short and sweet. They learned something about me, but I learned almost nothing about them because I wasn't given the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. It was a little frustrating, but I got the feeling that this is just how it goes at the phone interview stage.

[%sig%]

[Emma]

I have a few general questions that I like to ask.    

Describe the organizations culture?  

-- I find this one great, because it often makes the interviewers really think.  Several times I've been asked to clarifty specifically which part of the department's culture or the organizations culture I'm interested in.  But for the most part interviewers have just talked.   I even had one interview where the search committee members talked for a good 20 minutes, and I learned a lot about the institution, not only by their comments, but how they interacted based on those comments.

What challenges do you forsee the department facing in the next 5-10 years,?

-- I like this one because sometimes you find out that they have climbing enrollment, or perhaps there has been a restriction on funds, or sometimes you'll find out something that isn't usually discussed.  Plus, it's a good way to discover what the departments priorities are, beyond how much grant money they want people to bring in, or how many publications you should have.

Finally, I think you should always ask about the timeline and what the next step to the process is.   Most places, I've found are usually good, about telling you that they want to make a decision by a certain date, or they can tell you who's authorization they need to extend an offer.  As a result, I think it's easier to follow-up with the interviewees when you have an educated idea about the timeline of the process.

My questions are general, and perhaps they won't fit your situation, and I freely admit that I'm on the other side of academia (the administrative side versus the academic side) so my perspective is different.  But, personally every time I've been part of a search committee for any position (and I've been on a handful of search committees for faculty), I want to hear the person we're interviewing asking us about our department and our institutions, I want the interviewee to want to know more about what we need.  And of course I want all our interviewees to have done their homework about the institution before they ever interview with us.