I had my first academic job interview. To be honest, it wasn't all that different from other job interviews I've had (or conducted) in my life. I'll jump to the end. I rocked it!!!
That, of course is no guarantee that I'll get the job or even get an invitation to a second interview. But I don't feel like, "oh crap, I blew that question."
There was the start out by teaching for 5 minutes, which was a little different, though I have had interviews where I had to demonstrate that I could do the thing I was being hired for. Without having a stopwatch going I hit it at 4.5 minutes. And they were nodding and smiling all along the way.
I did a screen capture of my desktop, so I can do a debrief with myself about what answers really worked and what I could be tighter on, but I don't think any of them really failed. And the best part was they said that it's a new position in the department because they'd like to bring someone in with a background in corporate and industrial stuff since in fact that's where all the jobs are. I've been saying that forever, that's where the jobs are, stop training kids for Hollywood and life as a barista. So I think I'm perfect for them. And I think they know that.
I'm sure I'm not the only person in the country who would be a good fit. You can't think it's a done deal at this stage in the game. That's the road to heartbreak. But I do feel really good about this one, and much better prepared for all the others to come. Now I know what to expect.
Lessons learned from this time around:
ReplyDelete- I need to get more concise about my teaching philosophy (without sounding like I've memorized it.)
- A question I wasn't expecting was "we have a lot of students who are the first in their families to go to college, any thoughts on how you might work with them?" I feel like my answer was ok, but I should probably give that some more thought.
- He didn't quite ask why do you want to work for us, but he did ask what are the strengths and challenges of working in a department like ours. Having done the research and thinking to talk about why I would want to work there I was able to answer this slight rephrasing of that idea.
- It came up at the end, and is probably a question I should be explicit about if it doesn't, that for this position the path for tenure and promotion is through creative output. So they explicitly said they want me to keep making films. Ok. Yes please. I mean I have been trying to only apply for jobs where they want films rather than papers and research, but to hear someone come out and say it: your job is to keep making movies. That gives me a warm happy feeling.
Now that I've watched an analyzed the interview and how it went I need to send them a thank you note. I wanted to review the interview first in case there were any points I wanted to elaborate upon in the thank you. I don't think there are, but now I feel like I should try to come up with something. Well, I shall ponder it for the day. I figure I have about 24 hours to get the thank you out.
Can you say "Sea Ranch vacation?" I would hate to have to fly to the other coast to see you, but that's pretty exciting!
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