Interview Etiquette

[Triskeliongirl]

i have been reading this thread with great interest cos i have my first academic interview on mon ...
I am so nervous they are going to expect me to come up with a whole bunch of hugely interesting and inspiring topics i will offer any students i supervise.... but right now i'm so engrossed in writing up i cant see beyond my topic . I know i will come back from the SARMAC conference in July with heaps of ideas, so maybe i'll just have to give them that line .

There isn't a lot of time between now and monday, but I would say that saying you hope to have some ideas after a conference is not the best idea. You should have a big picture plan in your head now of your research goals. Maybe this weekend you could make an outline, and then before the *next* interview flesh it out. When we hire faculty colleagues, the first thing we look at is passed research productivity, and the second thing is the significance, soundness, depth, and fundablity of the future research plan. Clothes don't matter. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

p.s. If you are going to be giving a formal research presentation, that too is important since it is the best indicator they will have of your oral comm. skills, i.e. teaching ability.

[Thistle]

There isn't a lot of time between now and monday, but I would say that saying you hope to have some ideas after a conference is not the best idea. You should have a big picture plan in your head now of your research goals. Maybe this weekend you could make an outline, and then before the *next* interview flesh it out. When we hire faculty colleagues, the first thing we look at is passed research productivity, and the second thing is the significance, soundness, depth, and fundablity of the future research plan. Clothes don't matter. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

p.s. If you are going to be giving a formal research presentation, that too is important since it is the best indicator they will have of your oral comm. skills, i.e. teaching ability.

Thanks Triskeliongirl. I'll spend the weekend doing that, and hopefully will be more inspired the next time round

I kind of wish they did have "job talks" cos i'd like to do a presentation on my research and i know if i'd had to prepare one i'd have had to come up with some decent ideas for future projects

my supervisor did a mock interview with me this morning, felt like hell, but at least it made me think about some things I didnt even know would come up

yikes i'm not looking forward to this

[Triskeliongirl]

...my supervisor did a mock interview with me this morning, felt like hell, but at least it made me think about some things I didnt even know would come up

yikes i'm not looking forward to this

Look do the best you can but don't sweat it. It sounds like maybe this interview is just a little bit premature, but use it to learn and better prepare for the next one. And who knows, depending on circumstances you could still get the job so don't give up before you start, just make the most of the short time you have to think through your future goals a little more clearly.