Kellee and I were chatting the other day about her work in Interview Interventions over the past few months. She said to me, “What clients always need to understand is that the question is not the question! They
always think the question is asking XXX, but it’s actually asking YYY, they just don’t know it!”
We talked more. We came up with some examples of common questions, and what our clients think they’re supposed to say vs. what the search committee really wants to know.
1) Tell us about your research.
You think they care about your research.
You say way too much about narrow, narrow, oh so narrow, tediously narrow interests.
No. They want to learn about how your expertise fits into their departmental needs as expressed by the job ad, and connects with the work of the people doing the interview (which is why your methodology and contribution
are actually the most important portion of your answer), and is quickly getting funded and published in ways that bode well for tenure. At the same time, they observe how you express yourself, how self absorbed you are or aren’t.
2) Tell us about your plans for the next five years.
You think they want to hear about your interests and motivations in the life of the mind in huge, grandiose, boring abstractions.
This is the equivalent of someone asking you how to get to from LA to NY by car, and you start the answer: “the corn of Nebraska is beautiful in late summer!”
No. It’s not about the corn. Instead, you’ll need to explain how, leaving on XX date, on XX road, you’ll make it to XX city by sundown. Then starting the next day, you’ll reach XX by sundown. You will give the
step-by-step route complete with mileage goals and destinations along the way. They don’t need to know your feelings about the scenery.
Same for tenure. Tenure is a destination that must be reached in careful and well-planned stages. The search committee needs to know 1) that you get what tenure at their institution means and 2) that you have plan
complete with dates and locations to get there. All framed within THEIR concerns. R1 = RESEARCH goals, along with teaching and a tiny bit of service; SLAC = TEACHING goals, always informed by research and more service.
3) Tell us how you would teach our big survey course.
You think they want to hear how you’re going to make those undergrads finally grasp the point of transnationalism, once and for all. Or modernity.
They must know modernity. Or intersectionality, goddammit! They MUST. BE. TAUGHT. INTERSECTIONALITY.
No. They do not want to hear that you are going to dogmatically hijack their big intro course and make it into an altar to your personal theoretical preoccupation. They want to know that 1) you get that you will
be teaching big survey courses, 2) you get what the discipline expects students to learn in those classes and have a plan to assure students learn it. They want to know that even though they are hiring an expert in the power dynamics of gender on Mars it does
not mean you will hijack their Introduction to Anthropology class and teach it through a Martian gender theory lens. In other words, they want to know that you will not take their courses off the rails and leave them with ill-prepared students in their 200
level courses.
4) Tell us how you see yourself contributing to this department.
You think they want to know the courses you will propose and how much you loooooooove students (graduate or otherwise)
No. They need to see you making specific connections between your work and the work being done by current faculty in the department, at thematic and/or topical levels.
They also want to know how you will raise their department profile or raise the profile of their students (depending the institution) both on an off campus. Working Groups. Interdisciplinary collaborations. Professional
Affiliations. Programs. Initiatives. Field Schools. And yes, courses. But really the courses you propose only go so far.
5) Tell us why you want to work here.
You think they want to know how great their department will be for you and all the great things you will do with all of their great resources.
No. That is self-absorbed. This is not the time for more “me, me, me” and how the job is going to serve you. They want to know that you understand the university, the department, the faculty. That you have thought
it through and see where you can connect, build, and engage, giving specific examples and ideas.
6) Do you have any questions for us?
You think the purpose of these questions is to gather information.
No. These questions are more ways they elicit information about you. They want to know what you are prioritizing in your academic life. Your questions always reveal your values, and you must manage them for what
they disclose. They are often where your deepest priorities and anxieties come out into the light. If all your questions are about teaching, and it’s an R1, you look like you don’t belong. You must show them that you are thinking about what they think you
should be thinking about. Always with an eye to your tenure case. I wrote some specifics about this in a recent Chronicle Vitae post,
Good Question!
Kellee was talking with her brother recently and lamenting how often people they’ve interviewed for positions had clearly failed to prepare in any way to understand the position or the organization. He mentioned
a recent search he was chairing for a position in the U.S. Forest Service. He and his colleagues asked, “do you have any questions for us?” The candidates fell into two groups: those who asked something like, “How often am I paid and what are my benefits?”
and those who asked something like, “I was looking at XXX project that you did last year, and it really intersects with my work; I am interested to know if you have plans to further develop XXX? I would like to be involved.”
To quote Kellee’s brother: “Who do you think made the short list?”