|
|
|
First Round of the Process‹ Be Proactive | Job Search Advice.Home Page | Questions to Ask › Once you get through the first stage or so of sending documents and you get to the interview stage, you have to make another shift from trying to prove that you’re the “smartest kid in the class” to trying to demonstrate that you’re a good colleague—that you’re someone other faculty members want right next door. That’s different. That involves not showing up to the interview as the smart grad student, but instead showing up as the interested and interesting researcher, committed teacher, and good departmental citizen. As one of my own advisors put it, “it’s possible to get all the answers right on the exam and still fail the test.” “On paper” qualifications get you to the interview, but other, often more intangible, factors get you *through* the interview. Practice mock interviews. And practice some more. Have your fellow job-seekers in your program, or your faculty mentors, ask you the kinds of questions interviewers typically ask. Generate questions that are might be asked by a particular school. If you’re away from your granting institution (like I was), brainstorm with colleagues where you may be teaching. You are interviewing for a job as well as being interviewed. Try to imagine yourself actually in any position you interview for, but do not try to remodel yourself to fit a position—it never works, really. Act like you’re interested, in the interview. Don’t come in with a canned recitation about your dissertation or your work and then leave it to the interviewers to ask all the questions. An interview is, ideally, a dialogue as much as it is a performance. Also, remember that you are auditioning them as well. Will’s advice about choosing your brand of nutcake is so true. You need to ask questions. Know in advance what’s important to you, what will make you happy in a place. You are supposed to be a rhetorician, so you should comport yourself with that knowledge. Read your audience. Pay attention to what’s *not* being said. I don’t mean this only in the sense of what interviewers might be leaving out, but also in terms of the “whole” interview experience. Recently, I interviewed for a position and the school, interview committee, and potential faculty colleagues left me to my own devices for the evening I arrived. I found that quite odd — no offers for dinner (either at someone’s house or at a restaurant), no offers for chatting, no campus tour, nada, zero, zip, zilch. I pretty much figured that they were telling me someone else had been chosen for the position and that I was there just to meet hiring requirements. Imagine my surprise when they offered me the position. I turned it down and the initial reception played a role in that decision. Oh, yeah: Best advice: Relax and enjoy the experience. You’re getting to meet lots of new colleagues—even if you don’t take that job (or it isn’t offered) you WILL see those folks again. ‹ Be Proactive | Job Search Advice.Home Page | Questions to Ask › |