Job interviews

[fuzzylogician]

So it's that time of year - I have interviews coming up for assistant prof jobs, both on skype and in person at my field's large society conference (where practically all the schools that have job searches this year will be conducting their interviews). These are interviews of "medium list" applicants, I believe of around 12 people, out of which probably 3-5 will be chosen for an on-campus interview. For people in my position - ABD but no dissertation in hand - getting interviews is great but converting them to actual job offers is not easy at all. I've been reading about interviews and talking to all kinds of people but I'd also love to hear from anyone here who has had experience with similar interviews. Anything and everything that comes to mind would help - keep in mind that I've never had an interview in the US and few relevant experiences in general, so obvious (to you) things may not be obvious (to me).

[wildviolet]

I don't have much experience with faculty job interviews for college, but I do have lots for K-12... and I think if I had to say just three things, it would be:

 

1. Dress nicely! Not black business suit nice, but nice enough for academics. Appearance counts for a lot when they don't have a lot of time to evaluate you, so of course one of the first things they will look at is how you present yourself physically.

 

2. Be yourself. I suppose you don't want to pretend to be someone you're not only to be offered a job at an institution that may not suit the "real" you.

 

3. Be confident, and smile! Have a firm handshake, look people in the eye, and act as if you already got the job.

 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[St Andrews Lynx]

There's a lot of tough-talking but good advice on 'The Professor Is In''s blog:

http://theprofessorisin.com/pearlsofwisdom/

She's written about conference interviews, what to wear and how to prepare various job application documents. 

 

Good luck.