academic coach

Job Interview Questions

One of my regular e-newsletter readers asks the following questions:

"I have recently been shortlisted for a faculty position (just finishing a post-doc) and am very excited about the position. My questions are:

    1) A question about appropriate dress - is a jacket necessary?  The last time I interviewed I wore my jacket for the first meeting and then carried it around for the rest of the day.  I wore it for the dean's meeting later in the day -- it was a real nuisance and made me self-conscious.  So it is really necessary?

    2) Is it appropriate to take out a note book, to both refresh my memory of specific questions I have for specific panel members, and to make notes to answers I get?  Or is this a "no no."

    3) As an internal applicant, is there anything I should consider/do differently?  Everyone knows me so it's hard to flip myself into an "applicant" and interview situation when I have had casual conversions with these people numerous times.

My answers are below -- but I've posted these questions to get ideas from readers in the academogosphere.  I'm curious what you think.

Here are some of my thoughts on the topics:

1) I think that the first guide to appropriate interview drag is COMFORT.  If schlepping the jacket around makes you uncomfortable, by all means leave it behind.

I think that a slightly more formal look for a dean is a good idea -- since he or she probably dresses a bit more formally than most professors.  However, it is rarely possible to change your outfit for a single appointment -- and jumping into a telephone booth to turn into Super Interviewer would be weird.  My solution, dress for the Dean rather than the meeting with the grad students or the junior profs.

Personally, I need to wear layers when I am giving a presentation or having meetings.  When the spotlight is on my performance my temperature seems to rise slightly and I have to avoid getting hot.  I always need short sleeved tops when I'm giving a presentation in front of lots of people -- even in the dead of winter I have on something cool under a jacket - which I remove in the first few minutes of my talk if not beforehand.

2) I would think that a notebook is fine.  But you might want to make it a small one rather than a standard 8X11 size.  What would be the downside?

3)  Internal candidates do need to act differently and they will automatically get different questions.  The questions you need to ask need to be more specific and saavy than your non-internal competitors.  You need to make sure and talk about scholarly interests, accomplishments, and directions of future research that colleagues in the department might not know about.  If you give a formal job talk (and I hope that you do) it would be good to make references to the related research of other members of the department.  You might also prepare questions for faculty who are attending your talk: ie. "I've talked about x, you study y, how do you think that specific-aspect-of-y relates to my assertion about specific-aspect-of-x?"

 

I think any comments about this reader's questions could be really helpful to many job-seekers out there....

For example, what do you think, Dean Dad? (If you post something on your own blog, let me know so that I can link to it.)

Dooced!

Once again, Ivan Tribbles and their administration cohorts are chanting "Told you so."

In mid-December, DeVry University fired instructor Meg Spohn for what she calls "water-cooler kvetching" on her blog.

Although Meg is still A.B.D. at the University of Denver, she had a full-time job teaching and serving as department chair of communications and composition at the Westminster campus until mid-December.

Here is her description of Dooce-day:

"I got called into the Academic Dean’s office late Monday morning. The Human Resources person who hired me joined us. She said they had become aware of my blog, and that I had made disparaging comments about DeVry and about its students on the blog, and that because of that, I was being let go. I was then escorted to my office, where I packed up everything in there while the HR person watched (and to some extent, helped) and then to my car.

Here’s what didn’t happen:

- Any specific mention of a particular posting or even particular blog (as many of you know, I participate in or run about half a dozen blogs).

- Any warning, disciplinary procedure, discussion, or any other process by which I was notified of the “problem.” This was especially egregious, as previous instances of faculty having “objectionable” postings on their blogs have been treated by discussing it with the faculty member. I was fired outright without any opportunity for discussion at all.

- My being allowed to say goodbye to anybody or talk to anyone on the way out, ostensibly for the purpose of “confidentiality.” I was hustled out of there in a surprisingly furtive fashion. Nobody even knew I was gone.

- ANY disparaging comment about my students, on ANY blog, EVER! That is just not accurate at all. My students are my heart. But you knew that."

Wow.  From what I can tell so far (I've emailed her to gain access to her now-protected posts) Meg's blog is quite inoffensive. 

Still, I always warn untenured faculty and grad students that I believe they are better off with a pseudonymous blog until they are tenured.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you.

Escaping Academia -- and Fattening Fantasies

O.K. Here's the job I want: food critic in New Orleans. Wow, what a fantasy-fulfilling career.

The fun article in today's Chronicle is the first person narrative of Todd Price, an academic who didn't get hired by a university after 115 applications, 27 informational interviews, and 6 job interviews.

Well, his failure to become a professor has certainly served him well: here's what he does now.

"Three or four times a week, I make reservations under a fake name. I find friends who are willing to eat for free, which is never difficult. At the restaurant, I tell everyone what to order and, when the food arrives, I demand that they pass me their plates for a taste."

And the lucky gourmand gets to indulge in this envious paid passtime in New Orleans, no less, my very favorite food capital of the country (well... San Fran and NYC are fabulous too.)

What do you think of this, Ianqui? You recently posted that if you could change one thing about yourself it would be "not to think about food all the time."  And lots of commenters confessed that they share the same obsession.  Don't try to change your thought patterns, tripleSK, BrightStar, Jo(e), New Kid, and Phantom Scribbler.  No, Ladies!  Let's just make friends with Todd and help him use his many assumed-name, expense account credit cards.  Yuuuuuuum.

But seriously, folks  ---- (not a good way to start this new, "why am I really writing this article anyway" theme. I'm actually Very Serious about my food)  ---- Todd ended up in his heavenly job because HE'S A GREAT WRITER. And he risked writing about what he cared about. There may not be a place for him in academia -- let's face it, positions for specialists in Baroque Spanish theater are few and far between.  But positions for good writers abound.  Todd's story is inspiring and I plan to save it to show to ABDs and post-docs who are worried about, or unsuccessful at, their search for a tenure track position.

Let me give you a sample of Todd's great writing -- an eloquent story of his People Magazine approach to authors:

"I'll admit, when I'm honest with myself, that I went to graduate school not so much because of my love of literature but because of an infatuation with writers. I've always turned to the "About the Author" blurb before reading the first chapter. Where was the writer born? What school did she attend? What odd jobs did he pursue before first seeing his name in print?

"If that dreadful Julia Roberts movie Runaway Bride comes on cable, I'll watch it again, with no concern about whether he gets the girl, just to see the fictional magazine writer get his story about the commitment-phobic bride. "

Suddenly, with those personal examples, and that vivid film-based example, I'm right there with him saying "Oh yeah, I always read those author blurbs too."

I can see why he's a good food critic.  This is a mouth watering piece of journalism.  I'll be salivating with envy all day......

O.K. Dearest food-obsessed friends who posted with Ianqui that you think about food all the time, eat frequently and gobble quickly.  And anyone else who LOVES FOOD and WRITES OFTEN. I'd like to attempt to start a new meme called:

Consuming and Composing

1) What would you like to eat when you go out with Todd?

2) Why is writing important in your life?

Tag, you're it.

P.S. Jo(e), frankly I'm curious to see if you'll come up with a vegan fantasy that will tickle my taste buds -- but feel free to stop chopping veggies while you dine in your mind with Dr. Price.