My question: Can I wear tennis shoes?
Nah, sorry, bad joke.
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Q: I've always heard that a job interview has to go both ways, but have never been in a position to be choosy. I've always gone to campus interviews as the supplicant, on my knees. But what sort of truth is there to the notion that I need to interview them, my future colleagues as well? What should I learning about the school and the department? What kinds of questions should I be asking? What should I ask to see on a campus tour? How do I interview them?
Ah, the campus tour. Make sure you see the REAL location of your office. Don't let them say, "Faculty office are (sorta) like this." They're showing you a fake.
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, you have to interview them. You have to imagine being around those people and that campus. Ask to see the kids. Ask to teach class (even if you aren't scheduled to do one.) Talk to some undergrad majors OUT of hearing of the rest. Just make a fun lunch request for some students to attend.
Be a part of how the schedule gets set if you can, although more and more it's a Bataan death march of things we plan instead.
The interview can go both ways in the sense that the people on the search committee interviewing you can clearly be such assholes that you decide there's no way you're going to spend the next 30 years being their colleagues. There was one job search where all five candidates knew each other, we were all treated like crap, and the one who got the job was outta there within a year (accepted the job but immediately set out to find another one). We joke (years afterwards) that we should make up t-shirts saying "I survived the U of [ ] Dept of [ ] job interview of 2001."
ReplyDeleteTo repeat what I said in the last interview thread: the interview is a 2-day date. The department is probably looking for a commitment: someone who will be done the hall from them for the next 30 years or so. And you're going to be down the hall from them, too.
ReplyDeleteSo, be interested in your new prospective school, or at least act interested. Try to lay groundwork for making friends, not just supplicating yourself. Ask how friendly the department is, how often they do informal seminars or have coffee. Look to see if there's a coffee maker in a hang-out zone.
If you want to show willingness to commit, a good question to ask is about local housing prices and schools.
I agree with Dr Nathaniel; you're looking for a good match here, so know your dealbreakers. Maybe you're so desperate for a job that you don't have any dealbreakers, but if you do, find out whether this place has them and if you can live with them. What's the teaching load? Research/publication expectations? Campus culture? What are the students like?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I was looking for was whether the town I was relocating to had opportunities for music and theater (I love to perform in my limited free time). The search committee asked about those interests, and mentioned the various places I could do that in the area. And that's the thing: they should want you to be happy as one of them, and after meeting them and seeing the school, you should be able to picture being happy as one of them. If there are too many red flags for you, then it's probably not a good fit.
Unless, of course, you just want any job. Then, by all means, kiss all of their asses and hope for the best.
Ooh!
ReplyDeleteLook out for department politics.
My partner just got hired T/T at an Ivy. So exciting right? (jealousy aside)
NO. Because now that he's there, which is awesome etc, he found out that he has been hired to figure out how to get the two most senior profs to stop being total dicks and allow a reconfiguration of the curriculum. So this young person, fresh-ish out of grad school, is having to command super-awkward and volatile meetings with people 30+ years his senior and try not to piss either of them off since both of them are on his tenure committee.
Apparently, for this particular university, department politics are par for the course. And hiring some new guy to solve the problem was a pipe dream that will never happen.
(caveat, thankful for jobs etc etc but jesus christ that urban SLAC looks a lot more promising now that we know what his hire was all about!!)
What sort of questions you ask should also, by and large, depend on where you are interviewing.
ReplyDeleteI went to one place that could not explain why the odd partnership they had with another department was a good thing, or that it had any benefits at all when asked about it. Without even being there I could have answered that question. It made the department a lot less interesting to me as a place to live and work.
@ Academic Monkey
ReplyDeleteI remember an interview in which the committee kept making a big deal out of how they wanted this hire to "foster interactions between X and Y departments"
Me: If they want to interact, what's stopping them from interacting?
Them: ---crickets---
Having just done this recently, I can't emphasize enough the curiosity angle. Just ask anything. Be interested in their buildings, in their students. Ask to see everything. Find out whatever you can and file it all away.
ReplyDeleteIt's also a great way to keep the keen eyes off of you temporarily.
Definitely check the place out, especially if working there involves a major move to another location.
ReplyDeleteI once took a job in another part of the country and quickly realized that I'd made a big mistake. I had no idea that the political situation there was as bad as it was until I saw my department head and the company president butting heads during a presentation shortly after I started. Unfortunately, I couldn't suddenly quit and leave because my employer had paid for the move and I would have been required to pay back the difference, which was quite a substantial sum.
Also, make sure you get an idea of how the place functions and who your colleagues might be. Scuttlebutt of any kind would be of enormous value. Remember that you're going to be stuck there with them.