Tips for the Interview

[Aleksandra]

Things are starting to pick up with notifications from universities, so I would like to take this time to ask for general interview tips.

I applied exclusively to research-based universities, so any tips on that would be great.

Thanks!

[anonomouse]

bring some kind of power bar/granola bar/ something that you can eat rapidly in between interviews in case you start feeling starved

wear flat shoes that you have broken in - you will walk a lot, and you don't want blisters (bring some bandaids too just in case)

come prepared with a lot of questions because most faculty will just want to answer your questions

come prepared with a 2 minute summary of your research. Think about how you would answer some common questions (what is your next research project, what is your dissertation about, how would you teach x class, what classes are you interested in / able to teach)

look up the faculty's webpages and print out the webpage or CV of every prof you will meet with and write some shorthand notes if you can so you remember what research they do

do a practice job talk in front of your advisers/fellow grad students/ spouse/ cats/ whatever and get as much feedback as you can.

don't stress out too much beforehand...mostly it's just people wanting to hear about you, which is actually kinda fun once you get there

[anonprof]

Great tips from anonomouse. I would emphasize that you should have your job talk DOWN. As in, practice it 2-3 times in front of audiences that scare you (don't neglect to invite evil-senior-prof, because you want to know what he/she thinks too so you can be prepared for other, unknown evil-senior-profs). You want to be able to deliver it in your sleep.

Also realize that you are likely to be presenting to an audience of at least half who won't understand your methodology (whether you are qual or quant) and be prepared for questions from those folks. Don't be defensive. "That is a really interesting point and I'll definitely think about that," is a perfectly reasonable answer.

[Anonymous]

For jobs at R1s (and probably other types of schools?)...the job talk Q&A is much more important than the actual 'canned' part of the talk. Can you think on your feet? Can you discuss the relevance of your work to other subfields? If you had a million dollars, how would you design the perfect study to address your research question? Your ability to think and respond really shows who you are. And, if you truly don't know the answer, just put on your best pensive face, and say "Thank you. That's an excellent point. I'll definitely explore that in my future work..."

GOOD LUCK!

[anonner]

I think the other key thing with tough questions is not to be afraid to think out loud, even if you don't know "the answer" right away. If you were talking your project over with a friend, they would probably be unable to stump you completely if asking about your research. I think that's basically what people want to see in Q&A - that you'd make a good colleague who is interesting to talk with, not somebody with all the answers. Of course, you may get a person or two who wants to derail you - for whatever reason - but you are not going to win that person over anyway no matter what you say.

[littlelady]

Great advice already-
--Ditto the flat shoes.
--Bring food/snacks that you can eat on the go.
--Make sure you know who is picking you up from the airport (sounds funny, but sometimes this isn't handled as professionally as it should be). Exchange cell phone #s so that you can actually find this person.
--I prepared a two page "cheat sheet" - one page was about my research and one about teaching, and it was just a way of reminding myself of key things I wanted to mention. I would review it before meeting people. I found it helpful, because sometimes anxiety clouds my memory.
--Be prepared for meetings with different audiences (the chair, the committee, faculty from other departments who have similar research interests, grad students if any, etc.)
--Bring a syllabus or two. You don't have to whip it out, but if asked "what would your dream course look like," you'll have it.
--Agree that Q&A is more important than the talk itself. Practice the talk in front of as many different audiences as possible and keep track of the common questions. This will give you a sense of what kind of questions to expect on campus.
--If your talk relies on technology, have a version of your talk that you can present just as well without technology (technology often fails).
--Don't talk salary. Don't talk postdocs. People will talk about these things to you (usually the dean or the chair tells you the basics about salary). Smile, nod, take notes. The time to really talk salary is after the offer is made.

[yahoo]

Ditto on the "Make sure you know who is picking you up from the airport" tip. Last year I had an interview where I was told [Italian sounding name] would drive me to the hotel. I got there and no one was waiting for me. Turns out [Italian sounding name] was actually the name of a local shuttle service, not a person.

Be prepared to answer the usual "illegal" questions about marriage, partner's job, etc.

Know your audience. For this, the chronicle of higher education forums are a great resource. If you are doing a teaching demonstration in front of undergrads, it's good to know if they are generally more liberal, more conservative, etc. My interview was at a place where students were very progressive, and so the questions were very different from the sorts of questions I was used to answering at my own institution.

Finally, and this is the most important thing of all, and the one thing that I wish I knew: try to always be "up," always be positive, no matter who you are meeting with. No matter how much they empathize with your position, no matter if they started it, negative comments can and often will count against you. And I say this because we are in a situation where it will be relatively common to hear assistant professors or graduate students complaining about their own institutions to job candidates, for example.

[littlelady]

- Agree about the illegal interview questions. Best to be prepared for those questions. Some of it is meant to be well intentioned- i.e. you are sitting at your fourth meal of the campus visit, and you are tired of talking about your field, and so people start talking about their personal lives, and someone casually asks you "oh, are you partnered?"


Just to add two quick ones I forgot:

-- be prepared for "you got your Ph.D. at X (type of institution), but can you really teach OUR students?"
-- the best advice i got (simple as it sounds) is there are really only two questions that can be asked: what do you study and what do you teach. this is true. these questions will take many different forms, but that's what's underpinning anything you're asked.

[tnrd]

littlelady said: "there are really only two questions that can be asked: what do you study and what do you teach", which sounds reasonable, but actually contradicts the comment in the previous paragraph about illegal questions.

Even if questions are not illegal, they may have to do with your personal life and it's helpful to be prepared. There are more or less ideal answers to give depending on the question so it's worth thinking about them ahead of time as well. For example, if you're interviewing at a rural school and when asked about your hobbies say that you can't live without opera and live concerts, that may not send the right message.

[anonophone]

Anyone have general advice for phone interviews vis-a-vis in person interviews (I've never done a phone interview before)?

Is it more structured than the in-person equivalent? Should I expect specific questions, etc. Seems like a weird format for an interview. Also, I hate talking on the phone!

[me too]

I have one coming up soon, too, and a helpful tip I read somewhere said to ask the person setting up the interview roughly how long it's supposed to last. This might be awkward if you've only been contacted by faculty, but if you're in touch with assistants who are in charge of scheduling then it shouldn't be weird to ask. That would help you gauge how deep the questions will be.

Good luck!

[tnrd]

It's not clear to me why you couldn't ask a faculty member for some information about the interview. There are all sorts of logistical reasons why some specifics could be of interest such as the need to find a quiet location for the allotted time. In fact, it's a bit rude that you weren't given any details up front, but it's not the first time people on the recruiting side wouldn't take candidates' concerns into consideration. Just be polite about your inquiry, don't sound demanding and don't make it a long message.

[anonomouse]

my phone interview went pretty much like on campus interview. Similar questions. My advice is be prepared for the standard questions (how would you teach x class? What is your dissertation about? what is your next research project?) and find a quiet place to do the interview. It's hard to gauge when to stop talking on a question, because you can't see body language, so don't just babble on forever. Also come prepared with your own questions, but don't have them be very specific questions regarding pay or whatever, it's better to have questions that makes it seem as if you are interested in the school/job.

Also my last phone interview I got asked some very specific questions about my dissertation (like about specific findings), so I guess review the findings from your dissertation so you can remember them off hand? Or have notes from your dissertation in front of you would probably be even wiser, but I didn't think of that before my phone interview.

Oh and as for how long it will last, not sure how much info that will get you. I was told my phone interview would last about 20 minutes. They asked very specific ('deeper') questions, and the interview actually lasted 45 minutes (then again, I asked a lot of questions that took up at least 15-20 minutes- but I later got an on campus interview so it seems that asking all those questions was a good thing).

[littlelady]

Phone interviews: i did a few last year- generally they were VERY structured (in fact, two committees told me they were required to ask all candidates the same questions, and that they were not allowed to ask any follow up questions, so I should try to flesh out my answers as much as possible).

All the phone interviews that I did were divided into research, teaching, and questions for them. Research: agree that they want to hear about FINDINGS or CONCLUSIONS; what does your dissertation ultimately argue? And also they want to hear about what's next.
Teaching: what is your dream course? could you teach X course that is always offered in our department? How would you teach Y (service course)? How do you handle X issue that happens in the classroom? How do you use technology?
Questions for them.

Other small details:
-use a landline if you can. I think it's a lot easier to hear.
-Be prepared to be somewhere very quiet. I had one phone interview where it was hard to hear everyone because there were six people interviewing me and they kept interrupting each other. I couldn't always follow along.