Ah, the interview...

For those of you applying for faculty positions, things are in full swing. All the “good” positions are being posted now, so get out there and tell them how great you are. I realize that different disciplines have different ways of handling interviews. (If you have been invited to go interview somewhere, congratulations! Feel free to set up an appointment with me and we can do a mock academic interview so you can practice your interviewing skills.) Some disciplines will do first round interviews at a national conference, some just jump right in and fly you to campus. It seems timely to discuss some interviewing tips for you so here we go. (And make sure you check out our Preparing for the Academic Interview page on the Career Development Site.) Please note that many of these tips are for navigating the insanity that is an interview for a tenure-track faculty position out of state, but many of them can be applied to any interviewing situation…especially one where you have to get on a plane to get to the interview: 
 

Research, prepare, research and prepare some more.

When putting together your application materials, you should have already done a fair amount of research about the institution you’re applying to. For example, How many students attend? Are there graduate students? What are common class sizes? Faculty to student ratio? Private or public? Religiously affiliated? What kinds of research are done in the department you’re applying to? Where do faculty members commonly publish? Ok…you get the idea. Now do some more research.  

Try to get an official itinerary listing all the different people  you’ll be meeting with, but don’t be a pest either. Most of the time these things come together at the very last minute. Trying to schedule multiple faculty to be in one place, let alone administrators, is like herding cats. If they can’t provide you with an itinerary, ask for a list of the search committee members as a consolation prize. You’ll most likely meet with every one of these people at some point during your visit. Get their names and get to know them. Find out about some of their research, especially if there might be a chance for collaboration. If you’re interested in some aspect of their research, ask them about it when you’re on campus. If they didn’t think you had the qualifications to be on their faculty, they wouldn’t be interviewing you. Now they want to know how you’ll fit in and if you’ll get along with everyone. They like paper-you…now what about living, breathing, talking you? If someone was interested in working for you and your company, you would like for them to care enough to do some research about you, right?

Also research the local community. How big is it? What part of the country are you in? What is the political climate? Diversity of cultures, ethnicities? What’s the weather like in the summer/winter? It is a small town? Opportunities for recreation? Arts and culture? Think about how you would like to live in a community like this…especially if you’ve grown up, lived most your life in the opposite kind of community? If you’re coming from a big city world, they’ll want to know that you’ll feel comfortable in a small town environment or vice versa? Will you? It’s something you need to ask yourself as well. 

Now read these:

Suddenly Location Matters

Embrace Your Inner North Dakotan

Location, location, location

Dress professionally

Ok. For some reason, this part of preparing for the interview drove me the most crazy. What do I wear? Does it have to be a suit every day? Do I have to wear a suit on the flight? Ugh. What about dinner with the faculty? What do I pack? 

Here’s the short answer. If in doubt, better to overdress than underdress. And part two. There are always different expectations from different disciplines and at different campuses. You don’t want to show up in a polo and khakis just to find out that the whole department wears suits and ties every day. Not good.  

Here’s my take. 

For the flight to campus: Dress on the higher end of business casual, but overall, be comfortable. Wear your most comfortable dress shoes, NOT BRAND NEW (you might have long distances to walk quickly to make a  connecting flight, or have a way to walk to get back to the car when you get there), wear a nice pair of pants or skirt, and a dress shirt, blouse, sweater. I battled with whether or not to wear a suit on the flight, but I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable, and I’d just look rumpled (and maybe a little grumpy) when I got there.   

On-campus: Suit. Make sure you iron it, no stains, look clean and presentable. Make sure you get up early enough to have time to iron and do your whole getting-ready routine, plus a little. You will be meeting with at least one administrator and s/he will likely be wearing a suit or suit and tie. 

Dinners with faculty: Usually you have a chance to get back to the hotel before dinner. I dressed higher end business casual again for these events. Most faculty are not going to be in their suits for this (if they ever wear suits). 

Flight back: If you have a chance to change, dressy business casual again. You must be in interview mode from the time you are picked up to the time you’re dropped off. Stay professional. Everyone is interviewing you. You can relax when you’re on the plane (but the person sitting next to you might be from the campus, so stay somewhat professional until you get home.)

 

What to pack

Only the basics, but make a list and make sure it’s all in there. If you can, pack it in a small enough bag to carry on so you don’t have to worry about the airline losing your bag. If you need to check a bag, make sure you take a suit and the essentials in your carry on so you can get through at least one day of interviewing if you lose your suitcase. Take your laptop if you have one. It will allow you to make some last minute changes to presentations if you get an idea, and it will allow you to do some research and follow-up on a question. I also take my laptop with me when I’m giving presentations in case my multiple flash drives fail me. It’s a pain to carry around, but you can always leave it an office for the rest of the day.  

Pack snacks and a water bottle. You will be taken out for meals, but you will be nervous and not given much time to eat since you’ll be asked a lot of questions. I recommend protein bars to stash in your hotel room. Mixed nuts, trail mix, dried fruit, etc. are all good choices. Try to keep it healthy. If offered cookies and a vegetable tray, lean more towards the veggies, although it is harder to eat those quickly to get to questions asked…just keep that in mind. Gnawing through a large piece of broccoli quickly to address a faculty member’s question is not pretty. Trust me. I’ve been there. And always get up early enough to grab some food if there’s a complimentary continental breakfast and take it back to your room way before someone comes to pick you up. Stash an extra apple, banana, whatever in your room. Take every advantage to eat in peace and quiet.  

Check the weather before you go and bring appropriate gear. Umbrella? Boots? Hat? Scarf? I went to one interview and day 1 was drizzly, wet and kind of yucky (but it was also Ohio so it felt like home to me), and overnight it snowed four inches and we walked across campus to see the Dean in sideways snow, but I had brought dress boots because I knew it would snow. And a hat. And a scarf. And a professional bag to carry them all in. Plan ahead.

 

Be yourself…just not too much.

I just read this in an advice blog on the Chronicle and I love it. It’s advice that I’ve heard many times from my mentors (and if you know me, you know why). You don’t want to act like someone you’re not and have them hire you based on you acting like someone else. You’re interviewing them too. Would you want them to hire you if they didn’t like YOU? At the same time, don’t get too comfortable. Always stay professional. Always. Try to stay away from expressing your view on controversial topics not related to your research or the position. Stay neutral, interested and non-committal. But take notes. If they offer you a position and you take it, you could be working there for a really…long…time. Does thinking about that give you a sense of dread? Probably not the position for you.

 

Make sure you can answer the question, “Why do you want to work at our institution?”

Sounds like a simple question, doesn’t it? Makes you want to answer, “Because I need a #$(@* job and you’re the ones who posted it!” (Ok, maybe that last one was just me.) In reality, this question can be many tiered depending on the context. What they really might be asking is:

a.       You’ve spent your entire college career at large research-focused universities. Why do you want to work at a small liberal arts college (SLAC)? How would you fit in here?

b.      You’re from the south. You know it snows here – a lot – right?

c.       You’re not going to want to move in three years to be closer to your family are you?

d.      You have a strong research background and we focus on teaching. Could you really be happy here?

e.      This is a really small town without a lot of cultural/recreational activities available locally. Will that work for you? (Or this is a really big town with lots of people – how will you navigate this environment?)

 

They’re going to want to make sure you did your research and really have thought about a future at their university. Ask what their typical student is like, and think about how you could/would relate to him/her. If arts and culture is your thing, tell them you’re excited about the local community theater and that you wouldn’t mind driving every once in awhile to visit a large city to get your fix. Whatever. But think about it and be ready to tell them.

 

Be prepared to ask them questions.

This is once again going to show them that you’ve thought about working there. And bring lots of them because many might be answered in the course of your visit. Look on the CDC site for some questions to prepare to answer, and some to ask.

 

Take notes

At the end of the day and the end of the trip, you’ll be exhausted, but take a minute to take some notes. Think about who you talked with and what about. Think about follow up questions you might have. All of this will be good for when you write thank you notes so you can personalize them for each person you spoke with.

 

Enjoy yourself.

You’re interviewing them too. Enjoy visiting a new campus. Learn about the exciting research they’re doing. Find out why they love working where they are and doing what they’re doing. (If they don’t like it there or don’t have nice things to say, that should tell you something.) One of my favorite questions to ask everyone I spoke with was, “What’s the best thing about working at <enter institution name here>?”

 

Parting words…

You may not end up liking the place where you interviewed. For whatever reason. Maybe it was obvious you wouldn’t fit in. Maybe you just got a bad feeling. Maybe there was conflict within the department or there wasn’t a good working relationship between the faculty and the administration. If you don’t feel comfortable during a two-day visit, you’re not likely to enjoy working there for years.  Even in this economy…if it wasn’t a good fit…maybe you shouldn’t take the position. You’re not going to be effective/productive if you’re miserable. It wouldn’t be good for them and it wouldn’t be good for you. Something else will come along that will be a good fit.

 

You may also feel like you've found your new home-away-from-home. They may call you almost immediately to offer you a position. You may really like them and the feeling may be mutual. I hope you all find that position in your search and go out a do great things. Best of luck!

 

-- Dawn