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- 2010 nsf advance workshop:
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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)
- Homework before the visit
- Most important rules for interview presentation (and beyond):
- 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”
- 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.”
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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