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[mrbean]

I suspect that issues like this come up rather often, and apologize if I'd have found an extensive discussion by a cleverer use of the search function.

I recently had a campus interview at school A, and have interviews at schools B and C in the next couple of weeks.  Happily, my interview at A seems to have gone fairly well, and since they have multiple TT positions to fill I think I stand a pretty good chance of being included in the first round of offers early next week, though I certainly won't be stunned if it doesn't work out that way.

Today, I was surprised to find an interview offer at school D in my inbox.  A-D are all R1s (though they vary a bit in prestige) and I wouldn't have applied to any of them if I couldn't see myself there, but D is somewhat weaker than the rest in my particular subfield and its location is surely a pleasant place to live but is rather isolated from other quality departments in my field.   At least now, it seems thoroughly unlikely that I'd choose D over any of A,B, or C, and even if I were to visit and fall in love with the place, if an offer from A does come soon D wouldn't be in a position to make me an offer before I'd need to get back to A.  Also, D is on the other side of the country and rather distant from major airports, so it would be a significant pain to get out there (and I'd have to schedule subs for my classes).  Further, it won't be the end of the world if I don't get any job offers at all this year, as I still have a year left on my postdoc if I want it.

So at the moment I'm feeling unenthused about D, and I definitely wouldn't want to reserve a flight for at least a week from now, since an offer from A in that period would prompt me to cancel the interview with D.  So should I:
turn down the invitation?
explain candidly to the SC that I can't commit to coming for another week because I'm waiting to hear from somewhere that has already interviewed me? or
accept the invitation, stall about getting the plane ticket, and cancel if A does indeed make me an offer?

Any thoughts, well-informed or otherwise, would be welcome.

[yellowtractor]

Accept the invitation.  Period.  And don't say anything at all to D's SC about other possible jobs etc.  It's the SC's job to assume that since you applied to his or her school then you probably also applied to other schools (!) which may or may not be considering you at this time (!!).

When you schedule your actual campus interview with D, my guess is that one or both of two things will likely happen.  Either their anticipated dates will conflict with your B & C interviews (in which case D will get some indirect idea that you are in fact a desirable candidate under consideration elsewhere), and/or you will have to schedule your D interview well after A-B-C.  Especially if the latter is the case, the odds are you will have plenty of time to hear from A, at least--possibly from B and/or C as well.

Also, you have no idea (beyond your impression that the campus interview at A went well) whether or not you will receive offers from A, B, or C.  If there's any chance at all, under any circumstances, at any point in your career, that you might consider accepting an offer from D, say yes.  You can cancel or find substitutes for your classes, and/or withdraw from D, as events unfold.

(One complication:  are you implying that D wants you to buy your own plane ticket and will reimburse you later?  If that's the case, you can probably postpone buying the ticket until you are more sure.  What do other forumites think about this?)

[mrbean]

Hi yellowtractor,

Many thanks for your input.  I haven't talked to anyone from D yet (I've just gotten an email, to which I'll respond soon when I decide what to do), but my expectation is that D will want me to buy my own plane ticket and will reimburse me later; this is how it's worked at A, B, and C, and seems to be the standard way of doing it in my field.

The email indicated that, because they have multiple positions, they're inviting enough people that they expect to still be interviewing as late as the end of next month, so I suppose I could try to arrange a date that's sufficiently late as to enable me to buy a ticket next week without it looking strange.

[betterthanok]

I think you need to decide whether School D is really in the running for you. Your original post suggests that you're more cool than lukewarm. Don't waste their time and money, or yours, if you're really just not that into them.

On the other hand, there are plenty of us who have gone on interviews with low expectations only to be pleasantly surprised.

[sibyl]

I agree with yellowtractor.  You are about to turn down D because you hope you will get an offer from A, B, or C, which is a very slender reed.  It's a huge mistake to step off the merry-go-round without a signed contract.  Accept the interview with D.  The timetable is such that even if A were to make an offer next week, you could have the interview and come back before your deadline from A.  You might then find out that the offer from A was inadequate in some way (salary, start-up funds, relocation expenses, whatever) and D (or B or C) was somehow better.  You might be able to leverage a better offer from A or B or C or even D.  You lose absolutely nothing by accepting the interview and may stand to gain.  Stay the course. 

[larryc]

It's a huge mistake to step off the merry-go-round without a signed contract.

Wise advice.  Also, you may visit the campus and absolutely fall in love with D.  I am in my 12th year at a job I adore where I almost turned down the interview.  Go check them out.

[harry]

I'd second the advice above--I took my first job at what many people would consider a sub-par location in part because it felt right throughout the on-campus. And it turned out to be (at least until I opted for personal reasons to go elsewhere).

In each case I've actually gone on interviews with offers in hand. It's not that unusual and, to be mercenary about it, may help your negotiation standpoint with A (or B or C).

One last thing about plane flights. Usually if you book a flight that's non-refundable and it turns out you cancel, you can apply the value of that ticket to some other travel (a house hunting trip to A?). Technically it's a change of ticket, which usually comes at a charge of about $100. But rarely is it money that's entirely lost.

[michigander]

I agree with the previous posters who are encouraging you to accept the invitation to interview at D if there is any reasonable set of circumstances under which you'd consider going to work there.  I once received an offer from Dreamboat U. and only at that point learned about the one significantly negative aspect of the job which was more important to me than it evidently was to other applicants.  Fortunately, I'd also accepted an interview at school number 37 or so on my list which eventually courted me, captured my heart, and made me an offer I couldn't (and didn't) refuse.  The day I accepted that offer, I called and canceled a scheduled interview trip to another supposedly better school.  I've never been sorry.  You just can't know how things will turn out at this stage of the game.

[mrbean]

Thanks to all for the fine advice.

After sleeping on it last night, I did decide this morning to accept the invitation, and as it happened some of the scheduling issues I was worried about (e.g. that I might have to buy a plane ticket and then risk that I might get an offer from A whose deadline would be earlier than my visit to D) turned out to be moot, as D has room in the schedule for me next week.  So while it'll be a hectic end of January, I'll go in with an open mind to each place and see how it all ends up.