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Round one

  • Take one-minute to prepare
  • Find one other person you DO NOT know…
  • At signal, begin (and end…)
  • Start with the handshake…

Remember…it’s not a very tall building…

Round one: review

As Associate Dean, give feedback:

  • Name 2 – 3 key things you heard
    • Could you explain to some else her area of research?
  • Rate confidence level
  • Rate enthusiasm level
  • Rate hand shake
    • The art of confident handshakes…

Rating Scale:

3 = Great!

2 = Okay

1 = Needs work!

Could be better

Round two

  • Jot down 2 – 3 key messages you want to communicate
  • Repeat process with new person
  • Still not a very tall building…

For example…

[RRK does her elevator speech with 2 to 3 key points]

Round two: review

As Associate Dean, give feedback:

  • Name 2 – 3 key things you heard
    • Could you explain to some else her area of research?
  • Rate confidence level
  • Rate enthusiasm level
  • Rate hand shake
    • The art of confident handshakes…

Rating Scale:

3 = Great!

2 = Okay,

1 = Needs work!

Could be better

During the campus visit…more words of advice

  • When gender matters and when it doesn’t…
  • What to wear and how to wear it!
  • When to ask questions and what questions to ask…
  • Giving a technical presentation vs. teaching a class

Anatomy of a good technical presentation (1)

Introduction - 10 Minutes

  • Get them excited
  • Why is your work important?
  • Background to understand it

Anatomy of a good technical presentation (2)

The MEAT – 25 minutes

  • What you did (OK to sacrifice detail for clarity, not too simplistic)
  • What it means
  • Summarize as you go
  • Only the experts should follow the last 10 minutes of this part of the talk

Anatomy of a good technical presentation (3)

The Implications – 10 minutes

  • What does this mean for the future of your field?
  • What direction will you take the work?
  • Leave everyone with a feeling of excitement about the future

Important details

  • Clean slides, No typos, Large font
  • Outline easy to follow – help people stay with your talk
  • Rehearse for knowledgeable audience
  • Not too long or too short
  • Reference work of others in the field, especially if they will be in the audience
  • Practice answering questions
  • Don’t get defensive
  • Check out the room and projector ahead of time
  • Have a backup of your presentation!!
  • Begin by saying, “Good Morning! It’s such a pleasure to be here.”
  • At the end, say, “Thank You, I’d be happy to take any questions.”

Questioning activity

Expect the unexpected: “hard” questions

  1. I don't think you've accounted for the research of Barnes and Bailey. Aren't you familiar with their model? I think it invalidates your main hypothesis.
  2. Unpublished research in my lab shows exactly the opposite effect. You must not have done the proper controls.
  3. I believe a simple non linear equation explains all your data. Why have you wasted your time on such a complex model?
  4. (To the candidate) Well you didn't even account for phenomena x. (Aside to the audience) How can all this research be valid if she didn't account for x?
  5. How does this differ from the basic model that we teach in sophomore transport?
  6. It looks like you've done some interesting modeling. Is there an application of this work?
  7. What a wonderful little application. Is there any theoretical support?
  8. Those results are clearly unattainable. You must have falsified your data.
  9. You've done some interesting work, but I don't see how it could be considered engineering. Why do you think you are qualified to teach engineering?
  10. Your work appears to be a complete replication of Fujimoto's work. Just what is really new here?

Good responses to hard questions

  • “That’s a really good question...thank you for asking it.”
  • “You make a very good point…I have a couple responses…”
  • “We’ve discussed this question a lot in our research group and here’s what I think…”

Final thoughts…

Strategies for Avoiding Interviewing Pitfalls

  • Being too collaborative
  • Being too “easy” (“Rice is my first choice!”)
  • Failing to ask questions about the work of your host
  • Focusing too much on social aspects of department/city

Preparing tuesday’s talk

  • Who’s your audience?
  • How long?
  • What’s the setting? (AV needs?)
  • What kind of feedback will be given?
  • What if you bomb ?

Questions?

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D. Professor, BioengineeringRice University

Sherry E. Woods, Ed.D. Director of Special ProjectsUniversity of Texas at Austin

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Source:  OpenStax, 2007 nsf advance workshop: negotiating the ideal faculty position. OpenStax CNX. Feb 01, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10637/1.1
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