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Chapter 14 Interviewing The academic interviewing process may encompass three different types of events: the short half-hour to hour-long screening interview at an annual conference or convention which serves as the central job clearinghouse for a field, the phone interview, and the all-day or several-day interview on campus which may follow a successful conference or phone interview. If you are invited to interview for a job as a result of your direct response to an advertisement, an all-day campus interview may well be the first and only stage in the interviewing process. If you interview a lot, you may experience everything from highly structured interactions in which all candidates are asked essentially the same questions, to interviews in which you, as the candidate , must provide all the structure. While there are many similarities between kinds of interviews, each presents its own challenges. At a conference interview you have a very limited amount of time to stand out in a field of candidates, often under rushed and stressful conditions. In this setting you need to be prepared to present your qualifications succinctly and interestingly. An all-day campus visit is a far more complex event. It usually requires a presentation and involves more people, a greater variety of social situations, and more ambiguity. Any sort of interview, however, is far more like ordinary professional conversations than different from them. Any time two people meet each other, they form an impression of each other. An interview differs only in that the evaluative dimension is more explicit. Whenever you encounter an unanticipated situation, do what you would ordinarily do in a professional setting , and it is likely that your impulse will be correct. In ordinary conversation, if you are asked a question you do not understand , you ask for clarification, rather than panic. If you say something that produces a puzzled expression on your listener’s face, you ask whether there is something you can clarify. If a question spontaneously occurs to you as a result of something the other person has said, you ask it. If you can’t answer a question, you say so. All these responses are appropriate in an interview. Most interviewers are far more impressed by candidates who 178 Conducting the Search appear confident and candid than by those who appear to be trying to give the ‘‘right’’ answers. While you should always give the interviewer the opportunity to take the lead, many people who conduct interviews are far more comfortable if the candidate feels free to volunteer information and ask questions. Areas You Will Need to Discuss In any interview for a faculty position, be prepared to address these concerns : your current research, your teaching, your future research plans, and your interest in the institution to which you are applying. If you are interviewing for a research position, your research will be the main topic of conversation. Your Dissertation/Postdoctoral Research Be prepared to explain your work to the variety of people you may encounter in an interview, from world experts in your area of specialization through the person outside the department, such as a dean, whose work may have been in another discipline entirely. Practice particularly the way you will explain your work to those totally unfamiliar with its context. The effort you will need to make to be concise and to explain relevance in that case may well also improve your more technical presentation to experts in the field. You could discuss your work for hours, but prepare to begin with a brief summary (about a paragraph long). It should leave the interviewer with the impression that he or she knows what you did (be clear); the work was interesting (speak with enthusiasm, and mention interesting findings or conclusions early in your discussion); the work was important (discuss how your work relates to other work and suggest areas for future exploration). Once you’ve captured this level of interest, further discussion becomes much easier. Approach this discussion, not as a student seeking the approval of more senior faculty members, but as a colleague in the field who, in this case, is an authority. No one who is interviewing will know more about your research topic than you do. Some candidates find that if they think of themselves as teaching about their research, rather than merely reporting on it, their presentation becomes more confident, lively, and interesting. Your Future Research Interests It’s imperative that you appear...

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