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[atlanta]

I pose this question as an interviewer, rather than an interviewee: Is it appropriate (or inappropriate) to interview candidates in a conference hotel room at a major convention? My department was unable to secure a hotel suite for interviewing, and, for various reasons, we'd rather not interview in the large interview area. We have a search committee of three, so, including the candidate, we'd have four in the room.

Thoughts? Thank you for any feedback--

[larryc]

It would not bother me, but a lot of candidates have indicated in past threads that the practice makes them extremely uncomfortable. I don't think you will be seeing people at their best.

Since you are a small committee, why not the hotel lobby? Or a coffee shop?

[onion]

I've been interviewed in a hotel room--one that featured no "living room" style furniture--and I found it totally unacceptable.  I was the only woman in the room, being interviewed by several men; gang rape crossed my mind more than once.  I even had to sit on the bed.  (This was about 5 years ago, not 40 years ago.)  I found this to be highly unprofessional, and I was NOT more comfortable in the hotel room than the job register area. 

My current department insists on interviewing in hotel rooms; they claim that candidates prefer it (I doubt that) and that it makes our department look like it has money (it doesn't).  I think it's creepy and smacks of inefficiency and disorganization (my dept. is never on the ball enough to get a suite and ends up in a lousy hotel *room*).  My department needs to get over its impression that interviewing in the "Job Register" area makes it look bad or cheap; it doesn't.  Hundreds of schools use the job register.

I have very strong feelings on this and I think that your committee should just use the job register area if it can't get a proper suite. 

[procra]

Way back in the mists of time, I had a couple of MLA interviews in hotel rooms.  Any particular weirdness of the setting pretty much dissolved into the general miasma of desperation, awkwardness, and anxiety that swirls around any MLA convention hotel.  Neither committee asked me to sit on the bed (that would have thrown me)--and in fact, I think they had acquired enough chairs that no one was sitting on a bed, which may have helped matters. 

LarryC's idea could work if you can be sure of a table that is sufficiently secluded to hide the candidates and members of the search committee from old grad school buddies, determined schmoozers, long-lost conference pals and the like.  Since people don't expect to see interviews taking place in such settings, they might not perceive the "do not disturb" cues.

Onion posted while I was typing.  Wow: obviously experiences can vary.  I just assumed hotel suites were standard operating procedure.  That said, I didn't appreciate it when one all-male committee (in a suite, not a room) drew attention to the fact that they were an all-male committee: that introduced a level of awkwardness that was memorable and didn't help matters.  The committees I encountered in hotel rooms had women on them; that well may have made a difference.

[normative_]

I've never had to do this myself, but I agree in Onion. I wouldn't come to your university if you asked me to do that. I probably wouldn't even stay for the interview.

Reserve a table at a restaurant, either at the conference hotel or at a place nearby. Table, some mineral water, whatever. That won't cost you the price of a suite.

[onion]

Since you are a small committee, why not the hotel lobby? Or a coffee shop?

I'm imagining the horror I would feel if my current department chair cruised through the hotel lobby as I am trying to wow a search committee with my stunning take on how to teach the survey.

Gotta disagree with you on this one, friend.

[larryc]

Since you are a small committee, why not the hotel lobby? Or a coffee shop?

I'm imagining the horror I would feel if my current department chair cruised through the hotel lobby as I am trying to wow a search committee with my stunning take on how to teach the survey.

Gotta disagree with you on this one, friend.

Good point!

[concordancia]

I have interviewed in hotel lobbies and hotel rooms - the rooms are better. Especially if it can be arranged so that nobody has to sit on the bed. Even then, I like hotel rooms better than lobbies or the cattle call room (For those who don't have these in their field: a ballroom full of tables with interviews going on at each one. There is nothing quite like having your best interview and your worst at adjoining tables.)

[svenc]

Can you get a hotel suite at another nearby hotel, even if it is not officially sanctioned as a conference venue?

Alternatively, can you find out ahead of time if it is possible to get a room that has enough space for you to accommodate the interviewing at a table with chairs, rather than on the beds? 

I have been interviewed in hotel rooms (i.e., not suites) and did not find it odd, but I was always offered a chair.  And I am in no position to discount the discomfort that may be felt by female interviewees if the committee is all male. 

I also recall that SCs sometimes left the outside door partially open during these hotel room interviews.

I personally would be far less comfortable being interviewed in a truly public space than in a hotel room (ref. Onion's second post).  I think the job center would be preferable to trying to set up scheduled appointments in the local Starbucks.

[untenured]

I'm torn on the appropriateness of hotel rooms as interview venues.

Anti-hotel room:  This is a personal space used for a business purpose.  Hotel rooms convey intinmacy.  Intimacy not permissible in a job interview.  That combined with the obvious disparate nature of power present unpleasant implications to any interviewer.

Pro-hotel room: Privacy is much greater than in a lobby or restaurant.  Interviews may want to keep their search personal and non-private suites deny that benefit.  Also, there is less possibility of eavesdropping.  Also, a hotel room does not cost extra as it can serve a double purpose.

Finally, I question the notion that many men + one woman + a hotel room = a reasonable expectation that gang rape should cross the woman's mind.  Does that thought simply promote stereotypes (e.g. man as uncontrollable sexual animal, women as targeted prey) that academia has worked so hard to eliminate?

Untenured

[cloudjumping]

I have to agree with onion - please don't make a female candidate have to sit on the bed. Especially if it's an all male SC. If you can't get a room with enough chairs, please find somewhere else. You don't know what personal history the candidate has. Too weird. If need be, buy some fold-out chairs and bring them along. I think it might be ok in a hotel room if no one is sitting on the bed and the doors are slightly open but personally would rather a coffee shop a number of blocks from the conference (reduce chances of running into your advisor but still close enough to walk there easily...).

[egret]

Hotel room interviews at the annual conference are standard in my field. Because it's so standard, it never even occurred to me to question the practice until reading here. It is also true in my field that only departments/institutions generally perceived as less prestigious use the interview hall.

I've done a number of hotel room interviews, and only one of them was in a suite. The only time I felt vaguely uncomfortable was my first year on the job market: one of the search committee members (of a SC of 2) couldn't make it, so as a young, female grad student, I ended up in a one on one hotel room interview with an older man I didn't know. The interview(er) was wholly professional though.

I certainly never had to sit on the bed, and I can't remember anyone sitting on the bed in any of my interviews. They've always found enough chairs, and made an interview/seating area in one corner of the room. Apart from the one interview, I've never had an all male SC. (There are lots of women in my field, and in fact I've had several all female committees.)

[pink_]

One of my MLA interviews was at a hotel room last year and it was fine. There were three SC members, I had a chair and side table, The one male sat on the bench at the foot of the bed, and the other two (female) SC members sat on either side of the desk.  I didn't feel uncomfortable at all, and actually it was only after the fact that it occurred to me that it was a hotel room instead of a suite.

[sugaree]

I've interviewed in hotel rooms, suites, the job registry, a "quiet corner" at the conference hotel, and at nearby coffee shops. I find the "quiet corner" and coffee shops wholly inappropriate. It's rarely as "quiet" as you hope it would be, people moving about you are distracting and you never know whom you will see during the interview. The job registry is not as bad as people so often make it out to be (at least, I don't think so) and I think it is preferable to a standard/small hotel room. Obviously, the suite is the ideal setting, but if your university insists on a room (and can't get a suite), make sure the committee member whose room it is gets early housekeeping so that the bed is made before interviews begin. Demand enough non-bed seating for everyone (conference hotels are quite accomodating in this regard; if not, the phrase "that's unacceptable" if repeated enough, seems to work wonders I find).

One notable interview I had (as a woman) with 2 male faculty members in a standard hotel room (with 2 double beds) began in the late afternoon. The curtains were open to enjoy the view during the day, but as the interview progressed the sun went down and the mood lighting was overwhelming. The only thing missing at the end of this interview was Barry White playing softly in the background and the sound of ice clinking in cocktail glasses. Nonetheless, the interviewers were entirely professional, had set up a table and chairs for all of us in the corner of the room - with my back to the beds so I could pretend the setting was different than it was. It could have been so much worse, but the SC made sure it wasn't (even though the setting of the interview was less-than-ideal).

[dundee]

Are there any viable alternatives to interviewing in either the main hall or hotel rooms? I've been to some hotels with fairly small conference rooms. Perhaps the search committees could book small conference rooms at a hotel near the conference hotel. Or would those rooms cost too much? I'm not opposed to participating in hotel room interviews or freaked out by them (maybe I would be if I were female), but I do think it's a rather strange idea (mixing the personal with business, as untenured noted), and when I mention the practice to family and friends outside academe, they think it's very weird, even seedy. I've never heard of hotel room interviews taking place in other professions.