Another day another interview

I feel like I'm getting good at this, but I do wonder how practiced one wants to become. We'll see if I can go 3 for 3 on turning first interviews into campus visits. I felt like it went well enough, but there's too much depending on things outside of my control to really know. I would like it too anyway. I didn't finish it up thinking, ugh I don't think I'd fit in there.

So here's what I looked like as I was setting up before they joined the session. I closed the window shade because I thought if they were watching it snow over my shoulder they wouldn't be paying attention to me.

I had practiced over the weekend with a list of about a dozen questions. 2 that seemed guaranteed based on the email they'd sent, and then a bunch of others that were likely. They only asked 1 of the two guaranteed ones, and they had some unique takes on the standard questions, but nothing threw me off too badly.

• Introductions. I was talking to the head of the film program, the head of the video program, the head of the animation program, the head of gaming, and the head of broadcast journalism.
• Identify 3 classes from our program that you think you're best suited to teach, and why
  [that i'd been practicing so I was ready to go]
• what is the most important thing that you would like for your students to learn from you?
  [an interesting take on the teaching philosophy question. I nailed it.]
• Would moving here and work at {school} allow you to achieve your personal creative goals as well?
  [an interesting take on the why do you want to work here question, and I had been thinking about that specific side of the issue already so I had a good answer ready.]
• Tell me about skill sets that you possess that can contribute to the management of a film program, university service, and things of that type.
  [ok that was completely new. I went with organization and team building and the ability to work with people from different backgrounds. Listening back to it I think I sound ok, though I was totally pulling it out of my ass.]
• If you were given a brand new film production program to design from the ground up what would the curriculum look like writ large, and what would the goals be for students graduating from that program generally.
  [That was very unexpected because their program is so well designed already. I had done some reading up on them though - I got the list of people the night before - so I managed to pull in some things that they said in their teaching philosophies while still being true to what I think is important in a film program, which is a balanced mix between technical and creative.]
• What are you working on right now creatively?
  [I had this answer well practiced.]
• Do you have questions for us?
  [this was also practiced. Their average students are really ending up on sets. And their faculty are members if UFVA (at San Berdo they hadn't heard of UFVA so I was looking for that).]
• When you look back on your own student years what non-media course do you find was most valuable in terms of what you're doing now?
  [Very unexpected, but I had no trouble answering. Physics. I tell my students that every chance I get and they hate me for it, but the technology changes while the physics of sound or light never does.]