This is a conversion of a presentation given at the Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position Workshop given on October 14-16, 2007. The presentation was compiled by Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Sherry Woods.
Assumptions
“
Interview ” = entire campus visit
- Formal presentations/seminars
- One-on-one meetings
- Informal gatherings and interactions
- Sample schedule
“
Standing Out ” = Positive&Negative
- You want to be remembered…for the right reasons
- You are
always “on”…
Components of a hiring decision for a research 1 institution
- Step One: Getting an interview
- Recommendations from dissertation advisor and others
- Publication record: quantity and journal quality
- Match between institutional needs and applicant’s research focus
- The “Hot” factor of research area
- Formal application materials:
- CV
- Statement of research interests
- Statement of teaching interests
- Start up needs
- Step Two: Getting an offer
- All of the previous (and more…)
-
THE CAMPUS VISIT
- Who Decides if an Offer Is Made?Varies from campus to campus
- Full professors
- All faculty
- Dean has the “
final ” say
Today’s focus
- The formal presentation
- Practice talks on Tuesday afternoon
- One-on-one meetings and interactions with:
- Faculty
- Administrators
- Students
- Strategies for success and for avoiding common pitfalls
Top rules #’s 1&2:
Continually ask yourself these two questions:
- Who is my
AUDIENCE ?
- What is the
CONTEXT/SETTING ?
Before the campus visit…
-
INVESTIGATE THE INSTITUTIONAL PRIORITIES, CULTURE AND NEEDS
- Find out what you are doing and who your audiences will be…
AND PREPARE ACCORDINGLY!
- Don’t be afraid to ask for 30 min of prep time before your seminar
- Ask for meetings that will help
YOU determine if position is a good fit
- Assistant professors in the department
- Potential collaborators in other departments
- Graduate students in your area
- Female faculty from other departments
- Know who everyone on your schedule is and what their area is
- Find out what research areas the department is emphasizing
- Find out what courses the department needs you to teach
- How to get this info?
Things to ask everyone on your schedule
- What are the P&T criteria?
- What is the teaching load?
- What are the strategic directions of the department?
- If you could change anything about the department, what would it be?
During the campus visit…words of advice
- Presenting oneself as confident and competent is a
balancing act
- The difference between: “I don’t know” and “I don’t know…”
- “Knowing your stuff” is
NOT the same as “Knowing how to talk about the stuff you know…”
Elevator speech activity
You are visiting for a two-day faculty interview at your number one school. In the elevator on the way to a meeting, someone introduces you to Dr. Clark, the Associate Dean for Research. She is not in your area. After shaking hands, she asks, “So, what do you do?” Your assignment is to prepare a 1-minute elevator speech that:
--
Describes your research interest in a compelling way to someone outside your area
Ideally, you want her to walk back to her office and call the chair of the search committee to say how impressed she is with you as a potential colleague.
