adjunchan
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Posts: 13
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« on: November 14, 2007, 05:06:39 PM » |
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Hi, I have just come back from a campus interview at a research U (not top ten).
I did OK. I did not make big mistakes as far as I know. My job talk was OK, but not brilliant. I could have handled questions better, but it was OK. Yes, I did OK, but not brilliant. That is what I feel now. I am the first one, and two more will come within a few weeks.
I know what I can do now is to wait. But I am just wondering what is important in the whole interview process. What do SC members look at? I know it is too late to ask, but can somebody give some comment to this poor guy who are now just hoping to hear from the SC.
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kyotokyoto
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« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2007, 06:27:51 PM » |
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There are just too many factors. I guess we cannot locate a single one critical factor. And all SCs at various schools are so different.
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trabb
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« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2007, 06:34:24 PM » |
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Each committee member will look at different things, and you can't know in advance what will please each one.
Rest assured, though, that doing OK but not brilliant is enough to get a job in this business. It's certainly not a guarantee, so expect to be disappointed, but enough candidates completely tank the interview, that sometimes steady and solid looks pretty good.
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limbo_postdoc
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Posts: 42
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« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2007, 11:56:18 AM » |
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Depending upon the university/department/program, being "perfect" can be a negative. If the candidate seems arrogant about their "perfect" performance and arrogance isn't a prized attribute in that program, then it can be the kiss of death.
I sat on a search committee several years ago as a student, and this actually was the deciding factor between our top 2. One was a teeny bit stronger in research but had an ego the size of Alaska. It made interactions with them quite difficult. The candidate we hired was comparatively humble, and gets along well with the program's faculty and students. Hu has also since built a strong, exciting research program. Nobody seems to regret this decision.
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troegenator
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Posts: 32
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« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2007, 06:56:17 PM » |
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The critical factor will be something arbitrary. It will fall under the category of "best fit" for the department.
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kurejara
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« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2007, 10:58:55 PM » |
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For my sanity, as soon as I got back from my campus visit I did three things:
(1) I wrote as many thank you notes as I could.
(2) I sent out another two job applications with December deadlines.
(3) I got back to revising my dissertation chapters.
After the visit, there's nothing left to do. The hay is in the barn. (At least these are the things that I keep telling myself).
-k
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"Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
-George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
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sibyl
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« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2007, 11:50:41 AM » |
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And you are exactly correct, kurejara.
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"I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see that they are often wrong." -- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
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adjunchan
New member
Posts: 13
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« Reply #7 on: November 17, 2007, 10:37:18 PM » |
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Thanks everybody!
kurejara, yes, I did exactly the same thing.
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