If there is anyone out there trying
to figure out how to impress an interview panel and get a job, here is just the
help you need.
Applying for a job and getting
the interview is not sufficient proof that you really want the job. In article published in The Chronicle, David D.
Perlmutter writes that an interview is part Broadway casting call, part
intellectual dating game, part personality test. Perlmutter adds that desperation is never an
attractive trait, in romance or in hiring.
Perlmutter argues that when there
are many applicants for a position many of them will meet the basic requirements
for the job. The decision about who to hire will depend on less tangible
attributes, what we sometimes call the “soft skills”. But I think they are
really, truly the “hard skills”.
Perlmutter suggest that the
interview is a chance for you to show why a decision to hire you makes sense
for both parties.
Here is what I think are the most brilliant interview tips I
have ever come across. Read them and master them, if you will.
“Align the elements of your application. In an employment workshop I ran recently for our department's
doctoral students, I emphasized the importance of the initial page of their CV.
It's the page that search committees will most likely scrutinize first and may
not look beyond. So make sure it defines you well and accurately for the
position in question.
If you are applying for a research-intensive position, then your
dissertation title is a crucial element of self-definition. The committee will
ask: Does the title fit who you say you are? This last year, my department was
able to hire two terrific young scholars in the area of sports media. What made
it a slam dunk for us was that their dissertations and most of their research
focused on sports media. Make it easy for search committees to see the
relevance of your work to the position.
Likewise with your references. As I wrote in a previous column,
even the most effusive mentor can deliver an "unrecommendation"
that sinks your candidacy. Imagine your reference giving an impassioned booster
speech about you to the chair of the search committee—and talking at length
about a completely different job than the one you applied for. Help your
supporters get their stories straight.
The aligning process can also be a good test of whether you really
fit a position. If you have to twist yourself into too many knots, the job is
not for you.
Focus on what is attractive about a job; repeat often. You will rarely be asked outright, "So, do you really want
this job?" But other questions will serve as indicators of your feelings,
such as, "What makes our position attractive?" You need pithy and
plausible answers. And if you're not asked such questions, bring them up.
Repeat them in several different places and venues. For example, explaining how
you fit the job is a sine qua non for the opening paragraphs of your cover
letter. Make similar points in your job talk and bring them up again in small group
meetings.
Why so much repetition? Over the course of a campus interview, you
may meet key faculty members or administrators, like a dean, only once. The
question, "Why do you want to join us?," has to be answered for each
of them in turn.
In forming your answers, make sure they make sense. If you are a
candidate for a research post at a major research university, maintaining that
you are attracted to the opening because you want to work in a "relaxed,
intimate" atmosphere is not credible.
The order in which you rank the attractive features of a job
should correspond roughly with what the institution is seeking from you. In the
employment workshop I held recently, students assessed various ads for
assistant professorships to see what would be a good fit for them. When you see
certain key words and themes that are important to you repeated in a job ad—as
many as four or five times—that's a heavy hint that the department considers
them vital. In your application materials, make sure you clearly express how you
fit a department's needs.
Avoid irrelevancies. It is fine to joke at dinner with a search
committee in Portland, Ore., about how your love of salmon is one of the
reasons for your interest in the position. But do not repeat it in the real
interview.
Tailor, tailor, tailor. The most
common advice for candidates lately is to tailor an application to the position
and the institution. If that task becomes overly burdensome, you may be
applying for too many jobs. But custom-fitting your application is among the
strongest indicators that you really want the job.
Years ago, I served on a hiring committee where I met the world
champion of tailored applications. She had studied our department, our mission,
our strategic plan, our faculty bios and publications, even our
graduate-student profiles and aspirations. She knew us all by face and name. We
were so impressed that anyone would go to all that trouble that there was
little chance we would not hire her.
The more professional details you show you know about people—as
opposed to mentioning personal information that makes you seem like a
stalker—the more credible you are as a potential colleague.
Fit the future. As chair of
a department at a professional school, I engage in a considerable amount of
outreach to alumni and industry. Over and over again, employers contend that
they are looking for young people who will "add value" to their
companies or institutions. They do not want someone who will just fill a
position and clock time. They want creative, entrepreneurial, "think
different" young people to help them pathfind an increasingly
indeterminate future, especially in the media world.
Academic hiring seems to be going in that same direction. As the
relative number of tenure-track faculty positions decreases, more importance is
attached to each one. I have actually put it this way to all the candidates in
the six hires that have occurred during my tenure as chair: "We want
someone who will help lead us into the future." In other words, we don't
want someone who will just comfortably fit into a slot, but rather someone who
will challenge us with new ideas.
Obviously, this is an area that requires balance. Don't tell the
search committee you want the job because you hope to reform the entire
curriculum to your liking. Do tell them that you are looking for a position in
which you can join with a department to achieve its mission and goals. Radiate
excitement about the possibilities.
Say you want it—and why. It is not
enough to exclaim, "What a great position, faculty, department, and town.
Sign me up!" Don't be generic. Give details that show you have thought
through the why of the want: "I see a strong fit with my teaching
experience and the new expansion of your program into the same area. I think I
could teach these classes and develop new ones." Or, "I would love to
work with Professors Tinker, Evers, and Chance. I can also expand your area in
X." Or, "I like the team approach you have to service projects. I
work well in that kind of system. Or, "I grew up in a town like this. I
always saw myself settling in the same kind of place." And so on—with
greater detail. In a sense, you are providing the talking points for their
"permission to hire" letter. As always, though, be truthful. Be
prepared to back up your case.
Getting a job on the tenure track today involves a combination of
luck, talent, skills, accomplishments, and strength of degree and references.
But one intangible over which you can exert some level of control is making
sure in your own mind that a job you apply for is a job you actually want. Then
you can effectively persuade your future colleagues of the same”.
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