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Panel discussion presented by Emilia Morosan at the 2010 NSF ADVANCE Workshop: Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position, A Workshop for Underrepresented PhDs and Postdocs in Science, Engineering and Psychology September 19-21, 2010

Outline

  • Strategy:
    • What is an interview?
    • How a hiring decision is made?
  • The formal presentation –on campus visit
    • Before the visit:
      • Know institution
      • Know audience
    • During the visit
      • What you should talk about
      • What you should ask
      • Good technical presentation
  • Questions and discussion

Strategy

You want to stand out in a positive way

  • “Never alone and awake at the same time”
  • The interview visit starts when host picks you up at the hotel and ends when host drops you off at the hotel
    • You are on even during dinner on the last day of visit
  • “Interview”= entire campus visit
    • One-on-one meetings
    • Formal presentation
    • Informal meetings and interactions

Strategy

How a hiring decision is made (at R1 university)

  • Step 1: being invited for the interview
    • Application (anywhere from 50 to 150 applicants for one position)
    • 3-4 applicants selected for the interview
      • Recommendations from dissertation advisor, postdoc supervisor, others
      • Match between position requirements and applicants’ research focus
      • Publication record: quantity, journal quality, impact (citations/year)
      • Formal application materials
        • Not a time to be modest–help search committee members identify your strengths on paper and want to learn more (bring you for a campus interview).
  • Step 2: getting the offer
    • THE CAMPUS VISIT
      • you want to present yourself well (more in a minute)
      • you want to learn as much as possible
        • Don’t forget: you too are “interviewing” the department and should not leave campus without knowing whether it is a fit for you
    • Decision on offer:
      • search committee members ⇒ vote by all faculty ⇒ dean (final say)

The formal presentation

  • Homework before the visit
  • Most important rules for interview presentation (and beyond):
    1. Who is the audience?
      • Listen to your host’s instructions: “plan a department colloquium talk; our graduate and some undergraduate students routinely attend department colloquia”
    2. What is the context for the presentation?
      • You are the specialist, but almost nobody else in the audience is familiar with a lot of the “hot”research field you are about to discuss
  • Practice your talk before coming to campus

Homework before the visit

  • Read about the institution, the department and the research group you would belong to
  • Ask ahead as many questions as necessary to prepare appropriate-level presentation
  • Ask to meet with people you think will help you evaluate how good a fit the position is
    • Assistant profs in the department
    • Potential collaborators in the department and other departments
    • Female or minority faculty
    • Graduate students
    • Human resources staff
  • How to get all this info?
    • Your contact person (usually search committee chair, person who contacted you with the invitation for interview)
    • Department assistant
  • Think about all the information offered
    • They will really expect you to fulfill those tasks
      “The department has been running a very successful Professional Masters Program, and we currently only have two faculty teaching courses for the program. The newly hired faculty will have to get in on the rotations for a couple of the courses for this program.”
  • Think about questions you will want to ask:
    • What are the P&T criteria?
    • Expectations for research $$ and grad student support
    • Teaching load
    • Department strategic plan
  • Find out what courses the department needs you to teach
  • Find out department’s priorities with regards to research areas
  • KNOW EVERYBODY ON YOUR SCHEDULE
    • Know what their research area is
    • Have relevant questions during one-on-one meetings
    • Can suggest possible collaborations
    • Be aggressive!
      • One possible scenario: “this is easy, the faculty I’m meeting do most of the talking, I’m not being asked much about my research”…
      • STOP! You must thoughtfully get into the conversation:
        “I find your project very interesting, especially since last year I discovered the same effect in this other device. What I did was… I wonder what you think about applying your technique to my device.”

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Source:  OpenStax, 2010 nsf advance workshop: negotiating the ideal faculty position. OpenStax CNX. Feb 11, 2011 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11275/1.4
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