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[endy70]

I'd like to hear from some of the forumites what some difficult questions you've had to answer during interviews. As I've not had interviews before now, I'd like to hear reports from the field. -e70

[shrek]

I haven't interviewed in a while, but the one that seemed to stump our interviewees (on the phone interview) this round was, "we typically offer one or two doc seminars in the department on topics that are of broad interest to students across sub-specialties. what doctoral level courses would you be able to offer?"

[trabb]

My personal favorite has always been some variation on the following:  "Here's how we would have written your dissertation.  Why didn't you write it that way?"

[eagle]

This was not necessarily a difficult question, but one for which I was unprepared and then flubbed, so I wanted to throw it out there.  I still think about this 3 years later.  The question was, "What courses could you teach that we don't already offer?"  Well, I had been to their website and it was incredibly difficult to navigate.  I gave up looking for much of anything and, interviewing for the first time (and not yet having found the forums), didn't know I should be doing a little more research on that. I basically had no idea what courses they did or didn't offer, so I couldn't really answer the question.

I also had a question one time about, "How would you teach X?" with X being a very specific topic in my field.  As in, something you would teach in one, maybe two class periods.  That was hard to come up with a cohesive answer that showed some spark, too.

Other than that, most of mine have been pretty normal. (And really, mine haven't been all that hard looking back.  They were just traumatic at the time.)

[endy70]

For those of you who are trying to prepare for an upcoming interview, here is a really nice guide to interview questions. I hope it works--it's been awhile since I've done any HTMLling!

Some are more targeted than others, i.e., some are geared for education, others for MLA-relevant fields, e.g., English, Philosophy, etc. Each of them offer something; together, this is a wonderful repository of interview questions to prepare. Many thanks to James Beebe for putting up this link on the web--you rock, James!

-e70

[endy70]

I see the link does not, in fact, work. Here it is for those who would like it:

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jbeebe2/IntvQs.htm

-e70

[englitprof]

"What would you like us to know about you that your CV may not tell us?"

This shouldn't have been a difficult question, but for some reason it flummoxed me at first.  I wasn't sure exactly what they were asking for (and I suppose that may have been part of the point of the question--see what interviewees come up with), so I ended up saying something about the breadth of my research interests.  Probably not exactly what I would say if I had been expecting the question, actually.

[smurlein]

In a PHONE interview, I was asked a SIX part question on how I would integrate diversity in the classroom, my research, and my service. Although I had done much with diversity, I got lost somewhere between parts c and e.

[eugenides]

SC asked:
"From your CV, we already understand that you have strengths in teaching and research. Now tell us your weaknesses in teaching and research."

My weaknesses?
Ah, I don't know....
(Or, I know my weaknesses but I don't know what to confess...)

[cronopio]

Lots of folk sneak in the "weaknesses" question (attached to any ole question). Always be prepared on this one. You want to identify something that you are working on ("Students told me I presented ideas in complex ways, which didn't work for all of them; I am working on crafting bullet points for all my lectures that I put on the board, hand out," bla bla). You can also go with the "A weakness in my teaching... some people say I am overly enthusiastic about my subject matter and can't believe anyone can get such a thrill from morphology and syntax-- well, I do love my subject, and it's hard for me to tame my enjoyment" bla bla.

NEVER say a "real" weakness. Betty Ford should only be a president's wife to you.

[winterbourne]

My personal favorite has always been some variation on the following:  "Here's how we would have written your dissertation.  Why didn't you write it that way?"

Amen to that.

[shrek]

The weakness question is fairly standard in my experience, the "correct" answer is some variation of "I'm making my weakness a strength"
this truly has divided the candidates on the phone list, but we do know it's often a question of experience-- we're more worried if a more advanced assistant professor can't answer than if a Ph.D. student can't (in the context of responses to the other questions of course).

[eugenides]

Thanks to all.
I think I will try to answer the weakness question by stating that....

(1) I am too enthusiastic....
(2) I am too dedicated to interdisciplinary pedagogy....

[athena1]

One I got -- "What would make you stand out compared to other candidates for this position?" I don't know why but it caught me off guard. First off, I don't know whom their other candidates are.

[ambroseu]

I can think of a lot of different joke-answers to this.  Like, greatest weakness? My bum knee since I banged it on the couch.  Haha.  No, I don't think that is very funny.  But it did get me to think about making jokes during an interview.  I suppose that's not kosher.  Might buy you time though.  Anyone got a I-responded-to-a-difficult-question-with-a-joke story?

Forgive me.