January 21, 2009
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– Assistant Proessor, Biology Department Eastern Michigan UniversityUM Preparing Future Faculty in the Sciences seminar series
“PreParation and guidance for an academic interview” // ten tiPs for an academic Job interview:
Relax - while an interview can be an intense, nerve-wracking experience, try not to let your nerves get the1.best o you. It is oten very obvious when someone is nervous, and this can negatively aect perceptions o you. Remember that you have been invited to visit campus because the aculty/committee is excited aboutyou – usually people are very riendly! Note that the rst interview is likely to be the most dicult since it willpresent many new situations (e.g., meeting with a member o the upper administration), uture interviewswill be easier. Treat each interview like you would an important experiment – just as you take careul notes about your2.experiments and research, take a ew minutes at the end o the day to refect on the interview, noting whatworked well and any rough spots you may have encountered. Try to come up with ways to avoid suchtrouble spots in the uture. O course, an interview presents many more variables than a well-designedexperiment, but this practice will enable you to minimize the likelihood o repeat problems.Be yoursel – i you take the job, you’ll likely be interacting with most o the people you meet or many years.3.It is important to make sure that you will be able to get along well with your uture colleagues.Make sure your presentation(s) is/are clear, concise, and audience appropriate – a lot is likely to ride on this4.portion o the interview – in lieu o teaching a class the job talk may be used as a proxy to judge teachingability, and it will certainly be used as a measure o research skills/potential. Be sure to discuss with yourhost about the composition o the audience. Also, make sure to include sucient background inorma-tion to enable people who may not be experts in your area to ollow along and understand the gist o yourpresentation. Remember, a little too much background inormation is typically ar less problematic than notenough. Practice your presentation in ront o an audience (time it!) at least once. While your lab mates andclose colleagues will likely provide helpul comments, I also recommend including someone less amiliarwith your work in the audience. For example, I presented my seminar to my dad (psychiatrist, not a plantcellular & molecular biologist), and as awkward as this seemed at rst, it was a very helpul experience toget questions/comments rom an interested non-expert in my eld. One other tip, keep track o time duringthe seminar, adjust timing accordingly and do not run over time. Turn the interview around – Use probing (but tactul) questions to get the inside scoop about this depart-5.ment where you may end up working or many years. You’ll likely interact with junior and senior acultymembers as well as students, and each will have valuable perspectives about lie at University X. Askingquestions is benecial or a number o reasons:
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