This is a conversion of a presentation given at the Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position Workshop given on October 14-16, 2007. This document was originally compiled by Obdulia Ley.
Before the interview
Once you have selected positions from Academic Keys, Journal websites and opportunities posted by Professional societies…..
- Look at the Department website
- Find out if they have more people with your same background.
- How many faculty are in the same or similar area.
- Look at the number of faculty and their level.
- What is this department known for?
- What resources do they have (labs, industry contacts etc) that you can use?
- Have you seen anyone from this institution in conferences?
- Think about what you can bring to this department by using their current infrastructure.
- Look at annual reports (description of faculty interests and overall achievements)
- Look at the University website.
- Learn about their population.
- diversity and numbers, class sizes, ranking, location.
- If you do multidisciplinary research, visiting other departments’ websites is a must, ask your self: will I have what I need to do research?
- Get publications about college and university rankings and compare your school with the ones you are applying to.
- Make a list of the things that you like, the things that you are unsure of, and the things that you think are important for you to function in a place.
- Does you advisor know the departments that you are applying to?
- Do you have any friends at that or other institutions that can give you information or know the institution you are applying to?
- Conferences are great opportunities to get to know faculty or other students.
- Contact the chair of the search committee (questions about required profile).
During and interview:
You should ask different things to different people
In an interview you will most likely meet with
- Department faculty (Assistant, Associate and Full Professors)
- Talking to them will help you to learn a lot about the department and you can ask any thing in the list below)
- Search committee (people in your area that know your resume very well, they decided to invite you for the interview).
- With the committee, you should talk about your research and objectives.
- Director of Graduate and Undergraduate programs
- Ask anything about students and teaching.
- Department Head
- With him/her talk about tenure promotion, funding and support.
- Dean of your discipline
- He/she will describe the vision of the institution, go over the information about the university that was given to you, use this time to clarify any doubts about the institution.
- Dean of Faculties
- He/she is the appropriate person to discuss about collaboration between institutions, university programs, hiring of spouses, family involvement, etc.
Note that you should do your homework beforehand and be somewhat familiar with the university; ask additional questions to clarify your understanding
List of questions during your interview
- Ranking
- Number of students in the different programs offered by the department
- Number of graduating BS, MS and PhD per year
- Average time spent in the institution to complete each degree
- Average number of students advised per faculty (assistant, associate, and full professors)
- How are students funded?
- How do graduate students select research advisors?
- What kinds of financial support are available for research and supplies?
- What do graduate students receive in terms of health insurance, tuition, and stipend?
- Does the university offers scholarships for undergraduate if enrolled in research?
- How important is undergraduate research experience in this department?
- Statistics about minority enrollment and retention.
- Information about the population of international students, such as numbers and universities they come from.
- Requirements for the different degrees offered by the department (number of classes, research credits, is an MS required for PhD?).
- Admission policies for graduate students (average GRE, and TOEFL scores).
- Teaching load (initial and normal), group size, teaching assistantships.
- Classes that you will be assigned and what is the protocol followed to assign them.
- Can the professors select classes and schedules?
- Policies about special topics or elective classes (required number of students, syllabus).
- How many undergraduate and graduate students are presently in the department? How are their numbers changing?
- Average teaching scores expected from new faculty?
- Do senior faculty or department officials attend lectures of new faculty?
- How are course evaluations provided and what are the main components?
- What kind of feedback will you receive before tenure review?
- Tell me about your student population.
- Where do the undergraduate students go after graduation?
- What kinds of technology are available in the classroom?
- What courses are you looking to fill?
- How does the department and university support the improvement of teaching?
- Components considered for tenure review and the weight of each one.
- How is the tenure committee selected?
- Are there specific journals where faculty should publish?
- Is there a dollar amount of external funding required to receive tenure?
- What type of secretarial support is available to faculty?
- What is the average time that faculty spend in each academic rank? How long is it before assistant professors are reviewed for promotion and tenure?
- What is the nature of the tenure review process?
- About what percent of faculty receive tenure?
- What type of support for proposal writing and submission is available at department or college level?
- What is the percentile effort that needs to be devoted to research, teaching and service in this institution?
- What kind of service activities are expected from new faculty?
- Will the department provide funds for conference registration, publication charges and travel?
- How well does the library meet departmental needs? Are the reserves adequate?
- What are the department's plans for growth and hiring?
- What resources for research are available within the department (e.g., computer facilities, equipment).
- How important is research in determining tenure and promotion?
- Is outside grant support essential for promotion and tenure?
- Is this a new position? If not, why did the faculty member leave?
- What is the type of support provided to new faculty?
- Any information regarding life in the city, cost of living, school districts, property taxes, state taxes.
- The very last question (to department chair and committee chair): Time frame in which the committee will make a decision.
For selected interviewers, such as Dean of faculties or someone in human resources
- What type of retirement program is there?
- What percentage of the salary goes to retirement?
- What does the school contribute?
- What type of health program exists?
- What are the costs and benefits?
Things you should not ask about during the interview:
- Salary
- What dollar amount is offered in the start-up package
Once you are hired
- Interact with other faculty in your department and university.
- Attend seminars offered by your institution in topics like grant writing, funding, special grants, tenure review, teaching improvement.
- Publicize yourself (graduate seminar, special topics class, student organizations).
- Get involved with your department functions.
- Ask secretaries, graduate advisors, undergraduate coordinators, and other faculty when you are unsure.
