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[ydpzjumn]

I am preparing for my first interview, and found some really tough interview questions. Could anyone give me some hints. thanks

1: How would you handle advising undergraduate and graduate students

2: How would you collaborate with our faculty?

3: How to integrate students into your research?

4: How your teach and research influence each other?

Thanks

[watermarkup]

Here's the basic strategy for questions like this:

1. Have you done this before? If so, talk about what you've done.

2. Have you never done this before? If so, try to think of some nice things that you would do. The SC won't buy it, but they won't hate you, either. No one who's at all new has had a chance to do everything before.

3. Make plans to do all of these things at some point over the next year. For next year's interviews, go to 1.

This sounds sarcastic, but it's not. A while back I had some questions about what kinds of service I enjoy. I got the sense that "Dunno, never done any" wasn't an effective response, so I asked for an opportunity to be on a committee that fit me, although I'm in a visiting position. Now when people ask, I have something intelligent to say.

[pocksuppet]

Could anyone give me some hints.

Absolutely not.  The main value to a search committee of asking such questions is how they weed out those who honestly don't have a good answer to these questions.

Advising students, collaborating on research, and integrating the classroom and research experiences are important parts of what faculty (at many institutions) do.  If you can't answer these questions for yourself, you have not yet spent enough time thinking about why you want a faculty job, and how you plan to succeed at one.

Your answers need not be "right" in the sense that you won't change your ideas with experience, but you do need to have some ideas to be a compelling candidate.

[lyndonparker]

I agree with the previous responses. At my SLAC, we tend to ask questions about teaching, research, and service. We don't expect answers to be perfect, but we do want to see some enthusiasm for the topic and thought about how you would proceed here. Advising at our SLAC, for example, is much more intensive and hands on than at many other places. We don't expect you to know how to do it all, and in fact we exclude first-year faculty from advising so they can focus on their teaching, but we expect you to welcome the opportunity and embrace it, not look at it as something that is beneath you. That wouldn't work here.

Same with research--what do you plan on doing? How can we help you? Does your research agenda fit with the resources we have, which are ample but still relatively modest. If we help you with some small grants ($2,000 to $5,000) could you get going and bridge that to outside funding? Would you be willing to assist undergraduates to work with you? I do this a lot, and enjoy it, but in some ways it would be quicker to do on my own.

We also ask about service, but we don't expect you to understand our faculty-governed institution during an interview. We ask candidates this just to raise the issue with them and to show that we do expect committee work in time. If a candidate just shows that they play well with others and are willing to learn they will do fine.

I would suggest thinking about experiences you have had working in similar situations and building on that. Have you ever worked with junior doctoral students? Mention that. No one is perfect or has it all, especially someone new to the game. Good luck.

[csguy]

The other respondents are no fun (though they are good responses).

I am preparing for my first interview, and found some really tough interview questions. Could anyone give me some hints. thanks

1: How would you handle advising undergraduate and graduate students

Send them to one of you.

2: How would you collaborate with our faculty?

Collaborate? With your faculty?

3: How to integrate students into your research?

As test subjects.

4: How your teach and research influence each other?

You don't seriously expect me to teach do you?

[der_gadfly]

OP, these are pretty run-of-the-mill questions.

1: How would you handle advising undergraduate and graduate students

Advising takes on a different meaning in different places. See if you can find out how THEY do it and what it means to them.

2: How would you collaborate with our faculty?

Research what their faculty are working on.

3: How to integrate students into your research?

Students can be recruited into research projects when you are enthusiastic about it, talk it up, and even use some of it in your classroom discussions.

4: How your teach and research influence each other?

See #3

Bottom line, you have to dig, dig, dig to find out about them.

[ydpzjumn]

Thanks for the valuable information. Happy new year

[pollinate]

I am about to attend a interview of software developer. I could get a interview question like this. I am a recent graduate and I am in need of help for this question --
What do you think is the main difference between a life in academics versus a corporate life?

Get lost, spammer.

BTW, your question is irrelevant, since things like you NEVER get academic jobs.