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Post by awkward on Feb 23, 2010 12:38:30 GMT -5
I've been on a few interviews over the past few years, and one of the most awkward meetings (for me at least) is meeting with the dean and/or provost. They usually just want to answer my questions, but after my one standard question (Where do you see the school going in the next 5 years?) I never know what to ask about.
Last interview in a moment of panic while the silence was growing awkwardly, I asked about maternity leave policies...in retrospect probably not the best idea.
I have another interview coming up soon, and don't want to make the same mistake...so what are some questions to ask the dean/provost to fill up those meetings?
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Post by google on Feb 23, 2010 12:40:58 GMT -5
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Post by awkward on Feb 23, 2010 12:47:07 GMT -5
thanks! Some of those seem questionable though.like i was told to NEVER talk about salary on interviews.
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Post by FemalePhD on Feb 23, 2010 12:51:36 GMT -5
I personally think it's a very acceptable and appropriate idea to ask about maternity leave policies and did so in all of my interactions with Deans on the job market. This is no way hampered my ability to get offers from those places and I think it's a perfectly valid concern for any female faculty member (or their partner, for that matter) to have.
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Post by awkward on Feb 23, 2010 13:03:16 GMT -5
I personally think it's a very acceptable and appropriate idea to ask about maternity leave policies and did so in all of my interactions with Deans on the job market. This is no way hampered my ability to get offers from those places and I think it's a perfectly valid concern for any female faculty member (or their partner, for that matter) to have. I thought it would be fine too, but the provost responded to my question about maternity leave with "Wow, I have no idea, no one has ever asked that before." which made me cringe inside. And his response may be a bad sign about the family-friendliness of the school in general (and I later found out they only give 6 weeks of maternity leave), but yeah...it just made me think that a better time to bring that up might be when I have an offer in hand.
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Post by annony on Feb 23, 2010 13:40:01 GMT -5
You are over-thinking this. The meeting with the Dean is no big deal. In most cases, it is probably the least important meeting as far as you getting the job or not. Unless the university is truly dysfunctional, the dean just wants to keep the department happy. I mean, it is not like the Dean is going to be in the room when the hiring decision gets discusses anyway, and if she was (okay, USUALLY a HE), she would not stand up and say "wait, the candidate did not ask good questions during our 30 minute sit down!". So basically, you just ask whatever you want. If you care about maternity leave, ask about it. No big deal...
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Post by Yanick on Feb 23, 2010 13:50:48 GMT -5
My advice is not to ask anything remotely related to the offer. Don't ask about salaries, maternity leave, partner benefits, etc.
The reason for that is that the interview is as much about them figuring out if you would accept the position as it is about fit and all that.
Ask about teaching load, tenure expectations, how he or she sees the department and its role on campus, that kind of stuff.
It's unlikely, but the other questions can actually hurt you. Imagine you ask about maternity leave, and they don't have a good policy on that: that could make them less likely to offer you a job because they know that maternity leave is important to you, and they know that their policy regarding that isn't great, so they would be afraid to offer you something and get turned down.
In any case, most of these HR related questions are answered in the HR page of the university, and other things can be easily learned on the CHE fora and so on.
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Post by IckyDean on Feb 23, 2010 14:10:06 GMT -5
I respectfully disagree. I really don't think asking those types of questions will hurt you and, in fact, their responses can help you learn a lot about the campus climate, Dean/department rapport, ability to negotiate future salary and research support, and whether YOU want to be at their school (which is also important despite the crappy job market). It is true that many of these questions can wait until the offer is in hand, but I actually turned down an offer based on bad vibes from a Dean because I didn't want that type of person to be overseeing my tenure process.
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Post by deans1 on Feb 23, 2010 14:28:20 GMT -5
I agree that the Dean is the least important of the interviews unless you are applying to a truly dysfunctional department where the Dean has decided they are going to make a better decision than the department. So, just relax with the Dean and feel free to ask questions about the department that people in the department may not want to answer.
As for saying the wrong thing in an interview, I think you have to be careful in the department interviews though not necessarily nervous about it. For example, I remember making what I thought was an innocent little side comment in an interview about how, "This job would be a great first job" and realizing that I may have just insulted the two faculty members I was talking to who had been there for their entire careers. For them it was not just their "first job" but also their "last job."
The best outcome of an interview is to have people like you, give the appearance that you really want to be in the department, and that you want to represent the department in the discipline. As such, you should avoid discussing anything that may give the impression that you might decline their offer should they make one, as hard as this may be. Wait for an offer to share your full life story unless you really have a good sense of what you can discuss and not discuss.
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Post by Yanick on Feb 23, 2010 14:38:43 GMT -5
I respectfully disagree. I really don't think asking those types of questions will hurt you and, in fact, their responses can help you learn a lot about the campus climate, Dean/department rapport, ability to negotiate future salary and research support, and whether YOU want to be at their school (which is also important despite the crappy job market). It is true that many of these questions can wait until the offer is in hand, but I actually turned down an offer based on bad vibes from a Dean because I didn't want that type of person to be overseeing my tenure process. All those things can be learned with an offer in hand. And I do think that asking about how the dean sees the dept is ok and will give you a good insight into those issues. As I said, it is unlikely to hurt, but it is still possible. There is nothing to be gained by discussing this sort of stuff pre offer, and a small but real possibility of it hurting you.
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Post by ummm on Feb 23, 2010 17:04:31 GMT -5
But who would want to GET that job if they have a crappy family leave policy and, by extension, a not-too-family-friendly work environment, assuming these things are important to the life of the candidate?! Not someone who needs these, personally, but I think it's a totally important gauge of a university and worth asking. And I actually asked it on my interview even though I don't plan to have kids, in the spirit of getting a read on the uni on a number of fronts. That said, I *guess* it's something that could wait to be asked post-offer, but I think one should think about the campus visit as an important measure of fit for both parties, not just the dept's interests, and therefore this is a reasonable and important time to ask such questions and gauge such responses. I think the candidate above learned something important by asking, in person, such a question to the dean. I would have asked the chair as well, to see if it's just a totally flaky/out of touch dean, or a general indication of the campus culture.
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Post by Yanick on Feb 23, 2010 17:23:26 GMT -5
But who would want to GET that job if they have a crappy family leave policy and, by extension, a not-too-family-friendly work environment, assuming these things are important to the life of the candidate?! Not someone who needs these, personally, but I think it's a totally important gauge of a university and worth asking. And I actually asked it on my interview even though I don't plan to have kids, in the spirit of getting a read on the uni on a number of fronts. That said, I *guess* it's something that could wait to be asked post-offer, but I think one should think about the campus visit as an important measure of fit for both parties, not just the dept's interests, and therefore this is a reasonable and important time to ask such questions and gauge such responses. I think the candidate above learned something important by asking, in person, such a question to the dean. I would have asked the chair as well, to see if it's just a totally flaky/out of touch dean, or a general indication of the campus culture. Let me repeat myself: all those things can be found out post-offer, when the person can still make a decision. On top of that, even an offer a person has no intention of accepting has it's uses, if for no other reason than to use it as a leverage to negotiate or speed up the process elsewhere. Finally, even a job with few benefits will have more benefits than no job, or a job as a perpetual adjunct. Of course, people are free to do whatever they want. I just don't see an upside to discussing these things pre-offer, and a potential, though rare, downside if you do discuss them. Personally, I am fairly certain that a discussion regarding my spouse's career hurt me in an interview at remote rural SLAC. You only have a short time with each person in the interview. If you use that short time discussing benefits/salaries, it is not unreasonable to imagine they would think those are very important to you. If they can't give you a positive answer (i.e., salaries are low, no partner benefits, etc), it is not far fetched to imagine a situation where they believe you would turn down an offer because of that. In a situation where there are two evenly matched candidates, it is quite possible that they would rather make an offer to the person who spent 30 minutes talking about the role and direction of the department over the person who spent 25 minutes discussing the role and direction of the department, and 5 minutes discussing benefits/salaries (especially if these are below average). Even in nice places where the dean generally butts out, some information always gets back to the search committee. And in an economy like this, departments are very concerned about people leaving their institutions when the economy rebounds. No reason to give them more ammo so suspect that you will be leaving the first chance you get.
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Post by good advice on Feb 24, 2010 9:21:43 GMT -5
Thanks for posting the question, awkward! I just logged on to see if there was any discussion on this, and your question was right at the top. Thanks to the person that posted the Dartmouth link, it is very helpful. I once had the same awkward interview experience with a dean even though I had a few questions--I thought he'd take more of a lead in our discussion but he just sat there, waiting for each of my questions and offering only brief answers. Your post and the replies helped me a lot!
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Post by ummm on Feb 24, 2010 13:27:19 GMT -5
Yanick, I totally hear you and agree about the risks in asking, but I maintain that the interview should be as much about you feeling out the school as them feeling you out. Doing so on the phone, post-offer, wouldn't give you the same insight as in person discussions. Just sayin'.
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Post by ummm on Feb 24, 2010 13:28:46 GMT -5
(obviously this is not a representative sample, but for what it's worth - i treated my interview like that and i got the job. and did well on another interview, by all indications.)
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