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[infopri]

I actually do (now!) remember my GPA, although for the life of me I could not come up with it yesterday.  Suffice it to say it is nowhere near my very respectable graduate GPA.  Perhaps that's because, as a graduate student,  (a) I went to every single meeting of every class, and (b) I did not ingest mind-altering substances before (or after) class.

[mdwlark]

This is more of a difficult questioning situation than a difficult question.   I was at an interview a couple of years ago, and after every question that I answered, the SC glanced around at each other and rolled their eyes.   I was not giving bad answers.  They were standard questions, and I'm pretty sure other candidates would give very similar answers.  Of course, I didn't get the job.   

To this day I wish that I had said, "It is clear from all the meaningful glances and eye rolling that I'm screwed.  Would you like to tell me why?"   I didn't have the courage to do that at the time.  I don't know if it would be wise, but it would have felt better.   

[lassboni]

I actually do (now!) remember my GPA, although for the life of me I could not come up with it yesterday.  Suffice it to say it is nowhere near my very respectable graduate GPA.  Perhaps that's because, as a graduate student,  (a) I went to every single meeting of every class, and (b) I did not ingest mind-altering substances before (or after) class.

Again, numbers often lie; it's what you can show and tell in front of a group of mush-minded, i-phone distracted, energy-drink-stoked people that count the most.

I actually cut the last class of one of my courses in grad school because I felt (knew?) that the professor was asking students to give marginally shorter, oral-account versions of the exact same contents of their written projects because hu was getting ready to move out of state two-three days from that point and probably was going to do a microwavable version of grading our reports via the verbalizations. Cutting meant an automatic one-lower-letter grade than what I had accumulated to that point, but what the fug? The poor thing now actually had to read 9 pages' worth of text garnished with grandiose words and right-of-center-thought (almost but not quite reactionary, given the vile subject--bilingual education), evaluate and grade it, and leave it behind in the department head's letter box. Hope hu didn't miss the plane!

[angel]

I actually cut the last class of one of my courses in grad school because I felt (knew?) that the professor was asking students to give marginally shorter, oral-account versions of the exact same contents of their written projects because hu was getting ready to move out of state two-three days from that point and probably was going to do a microwavable version of grading our reports via the verbalizations. Cutting meant an automatic one-lower-letter grade than what I had accumulated to that point, but what the fug? The poor thing now actually had to read 9 pages' worth of text garnished with grandiose words and right-of-center-thought (almost but not quite reactionary, given the vile subject--bilingual education), evaluate and grade it, and leave it behind in the department head's letter box. Hope hu didn't miss the plane!

Huh?

It sounds like you think you stuck it to the professor in some way. But really, you only harmed yourself here by not fulfilling an assignment and receiving a lower grade. And if anything you gave the professor one less assignment to grade.

I'm also not clear on how this relates to the previous discussion of difficult interview questions. Did you mean to post it to this thread?

[sporosarcina]

I just went through the interview process a couple of years back for a community college science position.  The questions that took me aback were the plethora of questions about how I would deal with students who steadfastly did not accept the Theory of Evolution.  It took some quick thinking, but I must have done okay since they did hire me.  It wasn't until I was teaching that I realized that 40-60% of my students actively opposed the idea of evolution and as such it has become a key point in my biology classes.

[losemygrip]

Angel, I also noticed gpm's bizarre non-sequitur post.  I attribute it to his/her being in Education (extrapolating from the bilingual ed mention).

Oops, did I say that?  :)

[geonerd]

When I was in grad school, there was a very smart theorist who always asked the same question of candidates. It went something like this:

"Here's your argument for X as I understand it [and he always presented it fairly]. Now, if we take this piece and move it here and that piece and move it there, and reverse your causal/relational claims in this way, one can take the data you've presented and actually plausibly argue not X. What do you think?"

I never saw a junior candidate successfully engage the question. I saw one senior person do it by arguing effectively that one of the pieces actually wasn't moveable. I think that person had been tipped off that this form of a question would be asked by the theorist, but I was still really impressed.

My fantasy response to this would be "This is why I don't date theorists."

[puderluder]

How about most inappropriate questions?  During the course of a day and a half interview for a tt position, I was asked my age, religion, if I was married, what my wife did for a living and if we had kids.  Granted, all of these were not asked during more formal situations as one-on-one office sessions but while walking through campus or at dinner.  Though I do consider these casual times part of the interview as well. 

[sporosarcina]

I just remembered a question that the CC vice-president asked me in our face-to-face interview.  We had been going over my academic career (Tech Univ undergrad, large R1 grad, large R1 post-doc, a dozen pubs in my field) and he sudenly looked up and asked how I could justify teaching at a community college when the citizens of the US had spent so much money training me as a top-tier researcher in my field.  I must admit that I was taken aback by the question (and though it was hugely inappropriate).  My response was quite simply to ask him why he thought it was any less acceptable to repay any debt to society I might have through educating students who may not have had any advantages than it was doing it through research.

[hamed]

I had a kicker that happened during my visit to a school where I really want to get the job. ................. Let's just say I come from an area that has been having multiple natural and man-made problems (am a US Citizen now though).... and as I and another member of the faculty walk in the office of a senior member of the faculty we find him eating junk food. Neither I nor the other prof say anything to incite what follows.

Before he even says hi to us properly, this guys keeps on and on about how much calories his junk food has and how useless/bad it is for him ...  quietly I am thinking, who cares but I take it with a smile as does the other prof who brought me there ............ then in less than 2mins after we walked into the door he turns to me and says "this is probably equivalent to a whole days worth of meal from where you come from, right?"

this guy doesn't stop there, he goes on to insult me further. He glosses over a copy of my CV that is in his desk and says "you have taken 10 years to finish your Ph.D. since you received your bachelors" was it too hard, coming from your background, to make it in the US Educational system?

the first comment, I pretended like it wasn't an insult and took it in like a champ, but the second one I had to reply and gave it to him about how I studied in some of the best schools in the country and finished ahead of my classmates, passing all my exams with flying colors .... etc.

what was worse was that this happened right before I was supposed to give my job talk and this guys sat in front of me the whole time.
The final decision for the job is pending , but I wonder if my attitude would have any influence on their decision ....

[infopri]

Sounds awful, hamed.  Not someone you'd want to work with, so I hope you get the offer, and just in time to learn that Prof NoManners is leaving.

But, since things rarely work out so neatly, just think of it this way:  If you get the job (and I hope you do), then you will have lots of opportunity to set Prof NoManners straight on the facts about your area of origin.

Good luck to you.

[geheim]

I've only been caught off-guard once, but I was meeting with the president of the college. He asked me to discuss what I both liked and disliked about my job. The "like" part is simple enough, right? He wouldn't let me off the hook for the "dislike." Fortunately I think quickly on my feet and gave him an answer that surprised and challenged him (in a good way).

I think I caught a SC off-guard when they asked the dreaded question about how I handle diversity in the classroom. They weren't even clear on what they meant by diversity, except I gathered that it was related to race, socioeconomics, and possibly religion. Pshaw. That's only part of the story! I went on to address not only those points, but also GLBT students. Unfortunately (?) I made one committee member squirm when I started talking about my approach to a transgendered student who was biological female, but identified as male and wished to be refered to by masculine pronouns and his male name. How do you handle that in a classroom? They found out. Fortunately (!) the other SC members smiled and were totally on board with me as I discussed these other issues of diversity. I rather enjoyed that.

[losemygrip]

Re-reading this thread, I noticed this:

Your work in chapter 2 seems a clear case of a Habermasian analysis, yet you do not explicitly engage Habermas or anyone from the Frankfurt School. Can you comment?

Funny, because I had an interview question almost exactly like that, and my dissertation had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Frankfurt school.  That particular SC had asked me to send them my entire dissertation, and seemed to have read it in more detail than my dissertation committee.  The interview was like a horrendous dissertation defense.  There was almost nothing else discussed.  They basically hated my research and spent the entire time asking highly skeptical questions with raised eyebrows.  To make things worse, the room was small and insufferably hot, and one committee member fell asleep right in front of me.

Oddly enough, I think this committee actually really liked me as a person and potential colleague (and I was basically told in an email that in personal terms I was their favorite, but . . .).  It was my biggest R1 type interview, and just goes to show how obsessed with research those places are (and this department didn't even offer a Ph.D.--just a small M.A. program).

I wanted to tell this woman who asked that question that I thought Habermas was an over-rated bore.

[mdwlark]

I had a similar experience with someone whose specialty was ethics.   She wanted to know why I didn't write about ethical issues in my dissertation with juvenile delinquents, as in how to teach delinquents ethical behavior.   I stammered around discussing what my topic was and why I chose it and why I thought it was important.  I wanted to say, "ethics is a perfectly fine topic, it just doesn't happen to be my topic."   My dissertation topic was overly broad enough.  You can't write about everything.   She dismissed my dissertation as completely without merit because I didn't discuss ethics.   My dissertation committee really loved it though.   

[zhimple]

for me, Why should we hire you? or What important trends do you see in our industry?
i feel nervous and my knees are shaking with this question hehe

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