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[zztop]

I have to give my job talk in three weeks. The school told me that there would be some students as well as the committee memebers in the audience.

Do I need to dumb it down so that everyone can understand it?
Should I present it like a conferance paper or should I lecture it?
Does power point presentation help?

Is there anything I should not or should do while giving my job talk?
My field is humanity.

Wondering ZZTOP

[anon]

If it's a true job talk, and not a teaching demonstration, don't dumb anything down.  Powerpoint is a good idea, as it shows them you are comfortable with technology.  I also recommend making handouts for everyone in attendance.  Whatever you do, don't read from your notes the whole time.  Best of luck!

[zztop]

I thought about giving an overall picture of my dissertation with my powerpoint first and then going deeply with one aspect of my dissertation.

Would this work?

If I do not dumb it down, wouldn't they feel little lost especially for the student audience.

[wondering]

you said your field is humanities.
i'm curious how powerpoint works for that kind of job talk?

images of the context or time period?
terminology?
thesis statement?
:)

- students who are there are majors and want to be stretched (depending on what kind of institution it is) , but you may want to engage them directly, like ask the students "do you have any questions" at the QA session.

[anon]

given the breadth and depth of some humanities disciplines.... if you are giving a presentation at such a level that some undergraduates might not understand, then it is likely that you are giving it at a level that some faculty might not understand.

[anon]

I want to say at the front that this is hard to answer because we don't know your field, but here are my thoughts from my experience of seeing several job talks.  Basically, I agree with 8:17 anon.  Your talk should deal with new research and new ideas, and it can be complex.  But if you feel that advanced undergrads who are majoring in your discipline cannot understand it, how can you be sure that someone who isn't in your sub-field, even at the faculty level, *will* understand it?  Also, in your job talk--especially if there is no corresponding teaching demonstration--part of your work should be to demonstrate that you can be engaging in front of undergrads.

In my experience as a grad student at a decent R1, job candidates often pitch their talks slightly too high.  The ones who do the best engage the audience and present talks that advanced undergrads could understand (even though undergrads don't attend the talks).  Usually, they are just presenting on more obscure, less studied, or slightly drier material than an undergrad class would find interesting.

My advice would be to pitch about 75-80% of the content toward advanced undergrads or faculty who have been at an institution for a long time and who are not in your sub-field.  Then, incorporate another 20-25% that gets more sophisticated.  You may want to increase the first percentage and decrease the latter depending on the institution.  But I definitely wouldn't increase the amount of specialty or complex material you include.

[WE]

I'm out in the sciences - so its a little different than humanities - but the best job talks usually have a few slides of intro. Why did you do this research? Who cares? Why is it important to the rest of the world? My PhD advisor also always recommended a joke after your "host" introduces you. This gets the audience on your side and they will forgive nerves. Also if your host messes up your resume - ex. wrong school whatever, politely correct them after the joke or where it comes up in your talk. The work I did at school X....

Then talk about what your contribution was. It is usually ok to mention other students that worked with you and their work as long as you give credit at the end. No one expects you to have saved the world in the 5 years you worked on your diss - and they understand if your project is part of a ongoing long term research program - like a 50 year study of the effects of the dust bowl on the US or something.

A REALLY bad talk will rule you out - especially at a strong teaching school. They are looking to see how you teach and how the students like you. Can you explain your research to a novice committee that you will have to get $$ or student from .

A REALLY good one can be the edge over the other candidates. My fac adviser would ask the postdocs what they thought after each talk. The ones that always worry me are 1) the ones who claim they did save the world on their own 2) the ones that gush over another student/postdocs work - so uh, why aren't we hiring her?

Powerpoint is a must especially for graphs or if you have lots of interviews.
Good luck!

[B.F.]

I attended a few job talks as an undergraduate and the talks were not "dumbed down" for me. I followed as much of the talks as I could. Do not worry about the students being there unless you were told to present to their level.

[hey]

If you talk about slides, make sure you have a slide projector.
If you are talking about power points, then talk about pages, not slides.

When I hear slides, i wonder Kodakachrone or Ektachrome?