Summary Acing the Academic Interview: Strategies for Face-to-Face, Digital, and Phone Interviews (Youtube) www.youtube.com
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Speaker 0 Welcome, everybody. I'm gonna go ahead and start my, little clock here because, hey, as a comm professor, I don't know when to shut up, so I need to see those kinds of things. On behalf of the National Communication Association, I'd like to welcome you to this morning's job talk. As Jenna indicated, my name is Pete Jorgensen. I have the honor to serve as the department chairperson of the department communication at Western Law University, where I am also serving as the interim chairperson of communication sciences and disorders.
Speaker 0 I have been in academe now for well over 25 years and during those 25 years, I have had multiple opportunities to serve on dozens of faculty searches. I've chaired many of those searches. I've chaired searches for department chairs and served on, selection committees for higher ed the higher administration. So, looking at deans and provosts. So I know something about this selection process.
Speaker 0 1 of the things we realize when we're looking at the job landscape as it is right now is that, things have changed from where they once were. The interst the, the interview landscape has changed a little bit. It used to be the case that when you were on a search committee, you could take your time going over the files, and then maybe choose the 3 or 4 top people in the files based on the portfolios, and those are the folks that you interview and bring them on to campus. Well, as budgets have shrunk over the course of the last few years, universities have been forced to sort of, upgrade and integrate and change some of their interviewing processes. So now you're seeing a lot more second steps in those selection criteria.
Speaker 0 So the question for you is, obviously, I'm sure you're here today because you wanna know what you need to do to be able to successfully land that position. And that's what we're gonna be talking a little bit about today, specifically, the interviewing process. Now, as I'm pretty sure, many of your programs have classes in interviewing. I moved there. It's a 16 week class.
Speaker 0 I have about, 20 20, 25 minutes to go over some of these things. So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to cut it down to the bare bones minimum, but the secret minimums, not necessarily the usual bells and whistles, the kinds of things that get you recognized and advance you from the selection phase into the final interview phase, and from the final interview phase, hopefully, getting an offer in Interviews of the institution where you're interviewing. So when we're talking about the interview landscape, we're gonna cover 3 different areas here today. We're gonna talk about the face to face Interview. We're gonna talk about the digital Interview.
Speaker 0 And then finally, we're gonna talk about the phone interview. Now the digital interviews and the phone interviews are the newcomers to this process, whether they're being used as, screening devices, where now we may identify our top dozen applicants for a position, and then we're going to do either Skype interviews or we're going to do phone interviews with those folks and then go ahead and select who the final people are going to be. So your ability to perform well in these stages are also imperative if you're going to get into those 1 of those final offer positions. Okay. So let's start then with what the secret is.
Speaker 0 I mean, when it comes down to it, there are some commonalities that you are going to do well in an interview if you have 2 things prepared, 2 areas of knowledge that you have to have. Alright? These keys are, first of all, know yourself. Now that seems like it's kind of an easy thing to do. I mean, nobody knows you better than you, yet your ability to articulate who you are, what your dreams are, what your strengths are, what you bring in terms of added value to an organization, all of that is going to be up to you to do to people who don't know you, and you've got to do it in a short time.
Speaker 0 So you've gotta prepare some of these things. You've gotta be thinking about, for instance, if people ask you what your current research your current research is right now, what do you tell them? Well, if you've got scholars that ask you about what your dissertation topic is or what your recent research is, you can then go ahead and talk to them. But what if you've got a dean from a different college who's interviewing you? You know, they may not understand the same kinds of things, so how do you translate your current research into language they're going to understand?
Speaker 0 If you're applying to smaller liberal art private colleges, you may be looking at selection committees that are made up of faculty members and administrators from for a variety of different departments, many of them which may not have the same kind of research methodology expertise that you do. How do you explain your current research in terms that they're going to understand? You know, we're communication scholars. We know about the importance of adapting our messages for different audiences. Realizing that you may have different audiences even during the course of an interview process where you're talking about your current research.
Speaker 0 In addition to your current research, you're also looking at your future research plans. This is what you're doing now. Where do you wanna be going in the future? Now, why is this important? Why is it important to be able to articulate where you're going to go in the future?
Speaker 0 Well, obviously, you are looking at being, you were interviewing to become a colleague in a particular department, and this particular department has a particular philosophy. And this philosophy is based on certain kinds of assumptions about what you want to do in that department. So your future research should be consistent with the goals and the, the philosophy of that department. You're teaching skills and interests. What do you do well?
Speaker 0 What do you have experience doing? What do you want to do? You know, 1 of the questions that we always ask applicants, when we're bringing them in for interviews are not only what classes can you teach right now, but what classes can you be prepared to teach in 6 months that you have the content expertise to be able to go into other areas? So understand where your strengths and weaknesses are. And then, as I mentioned, your content extra your content area expertise, be able to articulate what kind of knowledge, what kind of philosophy, what kind background you're bringing in.
Speaker 0 Be able to talk about it both in terms to scholars and fellow experts in the area as well as people who may not be all that familiar with what your area is. Be able to adapt those stories, those narratives for different kinds of audiences. So that's 1 thing, know yourself. The other thing you need to know is obviously about the program that you're applying for, and this requires a little bit of research. It never fails to amaze me how many applicants we talk to, either in terms of screening interviews or even in the face to face interviews, that really know nothing about the department.
Speaker 0 They don't know about the courses. They don't know what the curricular philosophy is. They don't know what the core courses are. This is 1 of the things that's going to be, separating individuals from the pack in being forwarded in terms of a future interview opportune that's going to advance you to the next stage. Is your demonstration of what you know about the program.
Speaker 0 What do you know about their current curriculum? How many research methods do they have? You know, research method classes, are they required? Are they optional? What are the expectations for students at that level?
Speaker 0 What about internships? Are students encouraged to do internships? And if so, what kind of preparation are they given to go into that? Are there different tracks? Are there different options?
Speaker 0 What are the different programs offered within the department? The more you can talk about that, the better off you're going to see you're you're going to be in terms of the eyes of the selection committee because, obviously, they're important enough that you've taken the time to do some research on that, so you know the curriculum. In addition to the curriculum, you also wanna be knowing something about the departmental or the institutional history. Knowing that have they gone through a lot of leadership changes, have they shifted their major or changed their major in the last couple of years, have they added a graduate program, are they going to add a graduate program. Those kinds of questions are also important to know going in, for reasons we'll talk about here shortly.
Speaker 0 The research Interview of the faculty. Nothing gets people's attention than flattery, you know, better than flattery. And so when you're talking about people going into a program and you know who these individuals are and what kinds of research they do, that makes a positive impression on the faculty, that you've done your research. You know what they're doing. And if you can link your content expertise or your current research or your future research to their interests, that's how you're going to fit into that department and that you can make contributions to the department as it currently is.
Speaker 0 And then finally, you want to know something about the student population. Who are the students of this institution? Are you going to be expected to teach large lecture classes and then, have them discussion sections let out by, graduate students and and doctoral students? Are you talking about a small liberal arts college where you've got people coming in that, for the most part, are undeclared and sort of searching for what they want to be? I was just talking, to Trevor Perry Giles here about from Western Illinois University.
Speaker 0 We had some, incredible statistics come out this past year that 46% of our students 46% of our students are first generation college students at Western Illinois University. That has implications for the kind of job that you're applying for. If you're talking about almost half your population is first gear, is first generation college students, These are folks that don't really have a lot of family support. Their families don't know what they're going through in terms of college. So it's going to take a special kind of instructor to be able to reach them and to be able to establish rapport with them and give them those kinds of success Strategies, to give them those skills that's going to help them succeed in the college program.
Speaker 0 So know something about the student population. Are they a diverse group or not? Do they have a lot of financial challenges, or are they are they a pretty, a wealthy population going through that are looking for opportunities, study abroad programs, ways to get involved in research, be able to get involved in your training and development or your consulting opportunities? Find out who that student population is. Now sometimes you can do that by going through the department or many of the universities have, institutional research departments that you can just sort of dig a little bit on the website.
Speaker 0 You can get demographic statistics in terms of, who the population currently is. Alright. So those are the 2 keys. 1st of all, know thyself, and second, know the department. That information is going to arm you and and serve you well regardless of whether you're doing a face to face interview, a digital interview, or a phone interview.
Speaker 0 So let's take a look then at some of the, some of the secrets in terms of how to succeed in each 1 of these following things. Let's start with special considerations for the face to face interview. Again, my guess is that most of you are familiar with what this process involves and you know technically what the textbook says you should and should not do during interviews. Alright. Having said that, from being on the other side of the selection committee, what kinds of things can I tell you about the face to face interview that you should keep in mind when you find yourself engaged in this situation?
Speaker 0 Alright. First of all, always, always have a list of questions for the interviewers. Nothing is so deflating to a search committee as at the end of the Interview, when they say, okay, well, that's all our formal questions. Do you have any questions for us? And the applicant's like, no.
Speaker 0 No. No. I'm just, no. You know, which, no translates as, no, you're not interesting enough for me to be thinking beyond the questions that I just answered. No.
Speaker 0 I'm kind of brain dead after being rung through the interview. No. I just really haven't thought about it serious enough to really ask any questions that are gonna matter. Alright? Always have a list of prepared questions.
Speaker 0 You don't necessarily need to get them answered by people, but even if you do, if some people inadvertently answer some of the questions you've got on your list, go ahead and ask it in the interview as well. Alright? So always have a list of questions ready to go. 2nd, display professionalism and collegiality at all times. Well, in 1 sense, this sort of goes without saying, but the 1 thing I really want to emphasize for you on this 1 is this point.
Speaker 0 You are always in the interview as soon as you step off of that plane. Alright. I'm not talking about the formal job interview. We've had job talks on that in the past. What I'm talking about is when you're in a face to face interview, you are always in the interview.
Speaker 0 When you're being picked up at the airport and you've got an hour and a half drive back to the to the, university where you're gonna be interviewing, and people are saying, oh, yeah. No. We're just gonna go ahead and get to know each other here. You're in the interview. Right?
Speaker 0 That's not casual time. It's not time to sort of you put on the professional face later on. Every meal that you attend, every person that you meet, every class you walk into, every student you interact with, you are on display And whatever your behaviors are, whatever you say or you do, can be brought up later by this by this selection committee, by the search committee, and may work for you or against you depending on the kinds of things you do. I see a lot of applicants come in that sort of go casual mode and they're just sort of joking around and sort of talking smack about some other other instructors and professors in their graduate program, all of things that seem very normal and, you know, in a good way to build social connections and social networks. But in terms of the professional interviews, those sort of stick in minds of the faculty, and the faculty bring up later on saying, well, you know, they were sort of talking pretty poorly about their program or about 1 or people sort of spreading gossip.
Speaker 0 You know, those kinds of things get noticed. So realize display professionalism and collegiality at all times. Practice your answers to common questions orally. I don't have a list of common questions for you. These are easy enough to find.
Speaker 0 All you have to do go on the Internet to sort of Google, academic interview questions and you will get tons of questions that are commonly asked at these kinds of interviews. Practice your answers to these things orally, out loud. Often times, we look at a selection, we think, yeah, I know how I'd answer that, I talk about this and then I talk about that and then when it comes time to actually do that, suddenly, it doesn't come out of your mouth like it was in your brain. And so, get that especially the important ones, the ones you're pretty certain they're gonna be answering. Practice those answer orally, so you can hear what it sounds like.
Speaker 0 Now, you've got all different kinds of devices to do it. I mean, right now, I'm sort of looking at my iPhone counting down on my stopwatch. We've got digital recordings on our smartphones and our tablets. Go ahead and practice your oral answers and then listen back to your answer and see what works and what doesn't. Okay.
Speaker 0 So prepare for some of those common questions. Effectively manage your verbal and nonverbal behaviors during the course of the interview. When you're in the formal interview, this means if somebody asks you a question, you're not just answering it back to them. Include all of the search committee. It's not just 1 person making the decision.
Speaker 0 You want to make sure that you're providing answers and including everyone, even the silent members of search committee that may never ask a question, you need to establish that communicative link with them in terms of non verbally and direct the answers to everybody there. Avoid caffeine. This is a big 1. Avoid caffeine. You're nervous enough, anxiety is already high, stress levels are high, going into an interview.
Speaker 0 You add caffeine into the mix and suddenly, your mouth runs faster than your brain does. And sometimes, things don't come out of your mouth like the way they you thought they were going to. You sort of get into problems with saying some things you didn't mean to. It's a little harder to think. So, you know, relax.
Speaker 0 Take take my advice. Avoid the caffeine. You You can hit the caffeine up after the interview process, but during the interview process, try to avoid the caffeine. And then finally, if you can, get plenty of rest the night before. You want to make sure that you're at your best, that you're calm, that you're composed, that you're cogent, and sometimes a good night's rest is a key to all those kinds of things.
Speaker 0 Alright. So those are some of the special considerations in the face to face interview. Let's go ahead now and graduate up to more of the tech interviews. These are the ones that you may have less experience with and may need a little bit more assistance in, in terms of understanding how do you really ace the academic interview in these formats, in these channels. Let's start by talking about the digital interview.
Speaker 0 Right. Now, the digital interview can occur through a number of different ways and a lot of people, you know, don't think that it's simply a FaceTime or a Skype interview and you just sort of call in and then you do it. There are a lot of things you need to keep in mind here. First of all, you want to set the stage. All Alright?
Speaker 0 And when I'm talking about setting the stage, I'm talking about setting your stage. Remember, we're talking about digital. So when we're talking about Zoom interviews, we're talking could be looking at Skype, if you've got a professional conference capability, you may be looking at, codec or video conference, Polycom systems, whatever they might be doing it in terms of video conferencing and or the digital Interview. You want to be able to set your background. First of all, know what's in your background.
Speaker 0 If you're using your computer or you're using your webcam, what is your what is what's the selection committee the interviewer seeing behind you? Right? Is it, you know, the the the old Ozzy Osbourne poster that's still hanging on the wall? Is it, you know, some of mom's artwork that, she sent you for Christmas and so you still got up there? Think about what it looks like.
Speaker 0 Alright? Not only that, but we're talking about the setting, realize that you can manipulate the setting on your side. You can put notes on the desk or post its around the computer screen with the names of the faculty members you're going to be interviewing with. They're never going to see that. You can have that information ready to go.
Speaker 0 Okay? Make sense? Alright. So Interviews of setting the scene, setting the stage, you are also looking at things like lighting. Okay?
Speaker 0 Where is the lighting in this 1? I know we are calm people, we are not necessarily theater performance folks, but you don't want to have strong lighting behind you because then suddenly you look like you're interviewing from the witness protection program. You know, you wanna have face you wanna have light that's somewhat diffuse, not too harsh, and you need it coming in the front so that people can see your features rather than from behind you. Think about where the sun is in the room at the time that you're going to be doing the interview. Certainly, and I'll talk about well, let's go ahead and say this right now, eliminating selection.
Speaker 0 Make sure you're in a quiet place that is not gonna be interrupted. Alright. If you've got kids and your playful 5 year old decides to open the door and let your black playful lab come in and jump all over you and lick your face during the course of the interview, probably not a good scene. I've seen that happen. You know, as a search committee, you're like, okay, that's different.
Speaker 0 Right? So you need to avoid the distractions. Now other distractions are such things as the kind of clothing that you're wearing. I don't know if you're familiar with the in terms of looking at, video and broadcasting. You don't wanna be doing things that are that have lots of fine patterns in them.
Speaker 0 Stripes are not very good in terms of visual overlay. You want some solid colors, nothing too flashily or bright because sometimes you can get a little bit of a blur on the video image. So think about the kind of dress in terms of what people are going to be seeing on the other end of the screen. Okay? Look into the camera.
Speaker 0 This is a tough thing to do. How many of you have had experience, you know, Skyping or Face-to-Face with people or doing some kind of video conference? Okay. Most of you have, and, you know, 1 of the annoying things is, is most of the time when people are looking at the image on the computer, right, their eyes are looking where? Yeah.
Speaker 0 Either either down or they're up depending on what the camera is, but they're never making eye contact and you so you don't feel that kind of connection. This is where you can kind of manipulate your environment a little bit. If you've got a webcam that's separate from your computer, what you can do is set the webcam up so it's right in the middle of your computer screen, whether it's hanging down. Now, it means you may not be able to see people very well on the screen, but when you're looking at the screen, you're going to be creating the illusion that you're looking at them eye to eye, and that's a good thing. Alright?
Speaker 0 If you are looking at a fixed webcam and a laptop or something, what you want to make sure is you want to make sure you elevate that camera. You don't want to be looming over your search committee because your camera is shooting up. You know, put it on a box or something so that when you're sitting down, it's coming in at eye level. So consider the camera and consider the setting that you're looking at there and look into the camera, establish that connection. This is kind of a little bit different.
Speaker 0 Some of the research out there right now that if you really want to make an impression, it means that you shouldn't be just doing the headshot. If you're looking at engaging in a professional interview, make sure that you include, sort of, the half body up so you've got hands in the shot as well. This makes it a little bit more difficult to do it if you're doing something like with a smartphone or a tablet, also depending on the quality of the webcam that you're using, that if you start pulling too far away, if you start to pixel out a little bit there, that's not gonna work so well. But if you've got the opportunity and you've got the technology to be able to do so, set the camera up at a proper distance so that when you're interviewing with the folks that they are getting your head and your arms in your hands. Obviously, because that's going to allow you to make a more dynamic presentation when you're using the gestures and you're also making the eye contact the eye contact that's going to create better rapport and and a better connection with your search committee and the interviewers.
Speaker 0 So consider putting and including the hands in the shots there, just as the image is up here. Certainly, allow for response latency. 1 of the most, bothersome things about video conferences is the response latency. I wish I could tell you that there was a secret in how to deal with this. There really isn't.
Speaker 0 1 of the things that we deal with at Western Illinois University is, we are sort of 2 campuses, 1 program. The department of communication exists simultaneously in Macomb and also up in the Quad Cities. So all of our faculty meetings and everything else are also video conferenced. And it's always, you know, a problem when you got people start talking over 1 another and then you both wait to allow each other to start talking, nobody says anything, and so you both start talking at the same time. That's just, just recognize that's part of the, part of the challenges that go with the channel.
Speaker 0 Be patient. That would be my primary advice. Be patient. Allow for people to answer the question before you jump in to try to qualify something and just sort of allow, for a little bit more time for the the management of the conversation flow. And finally, practice the video calls.
Speaker 0 Call up mom, call up dad, call up brother and sister, call up wrong numbers just to talk to somebody. Get that practice in so you start getting comfortable looking at the middle of the screen, you know, we're looking at the camera rather than the middle of the screen, making sure that your hands are going, you know, where you want them to be, that the deep the background display, you know, you can look at the little inset window and see what they are seeing, make sure that that looks appropriate to what you're looking at trying to accomplish. Alright. So those are some considerations for the digital interviews. Finally, what about the phone Interviews, which are probably now the most common screening, tool that most search committees are going to be using.
Speaker 0 Most of them won't invest the time in terms of the video conferencing because it's too difficult to try to set up the video the video logistics. So people are going to opt for the phone. Some key things to keep in mind on the phone Interviews. First of all, prepare your environment, sort of like we're talking about the video conference, that in the phone environment, you want to be able to prepare your environment as well. Now they're not going to be able to see anything, but what you want to do is make sure you're preparing an environment that's free from selection.
Speaker 0 No ambient noise. You don't want to be in the front room of the house if you've got a busy street going outside, or if you got an alarm clock or a cuckoo clock that's gonna go off during the course of your interview or phones ringing somewhere else or dogs barking outside, you've got to find some place that's gonna be quiet where you're not gonna be distracted and that your search committee members are not gonna be distracted. Okay. And listen as well as speak. Often times, we sort of feel like we're on an island on the phone.
Speaker 0 It's just ourselves in the room and we can have our notes and we can have everything that we want right there. They're never gonna see what we have there. You know, if you want to, you know, the I the the old advice in terms of, looking at halo effects, it doesn't matter. You could be interviewing in your bathrobe and pajamas if you wanted to, but on the other hand, dressing up professionally might help you to respond more professionally. When you're talking about, engaging in the conversation, realize that it is a conversation, so pause.
Speaker 0 Allow people to get a word in, especially if you're talking to multiple people at the same time Interviews of a telephone conference. So allow the time, say your piece, and then allow for silence and let them step in, and then you can see if there's nothing else being added. You can go you can, then you can start to elaborate a little bit on what you were just saying or give additional examples for what you're trying to do. And then finally, smile and gest you as you speak, Even though they're not going to be able to see it, it's going to come out in your voice, in your vocal quality. Alright.
Speaker 0 And that's going to help to create more of a personal, a persona for you that's going to be dynamic, that's going to be engaging, that's going to be memorable. So walk around and gesture and smile and do those kinds of things even though they're not there to see it. Okay? So there you have 3 different types of interviews, the face to face, you've got the digital interview, and you've got the phone interview, all of which are becoming more critical components to advancing up far enough to be able to get that that ultimate job offer. Having said that, I will now go ahead and, open this up for questions.
Speaker 0 If you have questions for me and then we can talk about those kinds of things. Yes? Yes. Would I recommend talking handheld phones or using, like, a conference call or a speaker phone kind of thing? A very good question.
Speaker 0 Depending on your abilities and what kind of tech you have, ideally, it would be better to have a speaker phone, so your hands are free and you don't feel like, you know, it's it's right up there. And, plus, sometimes when your phone is right up next to your face, you can hear people breathing or if you cough, you get some different ambient noise going on where the speakerphone may blur some of that out. But you bring up another good point too, in terms of the sound quality, if you're talking about digital interviews. Now, if you're really doing a lot of digital interviews, the better idea in terms of the audio, because 1 of the problems with making sure you're sitting far enough back so that people can see your hands, that you're getting more of a half body shot, sometimes the audio may degrade a little bit, and so that's where you may wanna be investing in a headphones, and headphone set, in order for them to be able to pick up the audio clearly in that case. So I'd recommend primarily a speaker phone.
Speaker 0 So the question is how many people how how how often do universities go the trouble of really sort of interviewing people through Skype? And how many typically will they will they do that? In many cases, those that you're using the Skype interviews as sort of a, you know, obviously with search committee rules and regulations, equal opportunity and access, making sure that all candidates treated equally. If you Skype 1 person, you have to Skype everybody. Right?
Speaker 0 And so that's gonna be 1 of the issues. A lot of the times, the way the universities use Skype interviews, if you've got a lot of applicants for position, they may start with phone interviews to screen, and then they may advance the next 6 or 7 to video Interviews, and so you may go to the digital interview there to identify the next, the 2 or 3 that you want to bring to campus. Now depending on the situation and depending on the university, and depending on your pool, if they go ahead and do the video, because the video does give us more information about who they are, how they're Interview, oftentimes, if you're talking about including a student member Interviews of the search committee, sometimes getting their reaction to what the, the interview applicant is, they can't really do that very well through phone, and so they'd like to see the video part too. I still think it is, not nearly as popular as the phone interviews are, but it is providing now a, an additional level of, of selection criteria that I think budget reductions have sort of mandated. Right?
Speaker 0 If we can't go through and bring as many people out to campus that we have in the past, now we're talking about many universities, you're only being allowed to bring 1 or 2 candidates actually in person. You know, it used to be 3 or 4. So 1 way you get to that point is to do the phone interviews, then the digital interviews, and then the face to face. Correct. Correct.
Speaker 0 Because if if every other interviewer candidate was not being afforded the opportunity to do the Skype interview, then the individuals only doing the phone interview, could have the basis for a discrimination suit, and that they weren't given the same opportunities or consideration to be able to share who they are, what they were, and Interview the same way. Yeah. So that's 1 of those, you know, the equal opportunity rules sort of mandates what happens to 1 in that pool has to happen to everybody in that pool. Hi. Yes.
Speaker 0 Right. Sure. So 2 questions. The first 1, how do you go about finding out something about the department and institutional history? Okay?
Speaker 0 Part of that can be done by website. You know, sometimes they've got some history you do a little bit of searching through. You can find, when there have been changes in majors. Part of it can be doing some preliminary interviewing of some of the faculty in the program who may not may not be in the search committee. There's nothing preventing you from calling ahead and asking a little bit about those kinds of programs saying, hey, how the you know, how has the program changed?
Speaker 0 Yeah. I I noticed that it's saying, in some of the websites that the new major consists this. Oftentimes, we recently, changed our major, and we went from sort of what we called our our Strategies sequences to now we're going to options. And on our website, we have 2 tabs. We've got 1 for students who have enrolled prior to this date, who are under the old program, and then the new students.
Speaker 0 So sometimes that can be a clue about various kinds of changes that are going on. You might also find out, faculty who may still be there or may not be there, that may have been at that position, earlier and now a different institution, you can find out a little bit about the department institutional history there. K? As far as questions to ask, questions to ask, are probably the ones that search committees appreciate most are not so much the ones about teaching load, about the kind of individual responsibilities that you're going to have, but rather about the philosophy of the program, or about the university, or options. Certainly, you've got questions for you've got and you will have questions about what kind of research support does this university have for you, but when you start asking questions such as, do you allow new faculty members to design new courses?
Speaker 0 You know, or how often are you allowed to teach as a if you become a how long until you become a graduate faculty member to when I'm gonna be teaching my 1st graduate seminar? What are you looking for in terms of, the ideal, the ideal candidate, to work with this student population? Anything that really sort of focuses on the department and not and and their role, the ones that are sort of future casting, the ones that say, if I'm in your department, how am I going to be able to add value? How am I going to be able to help? What kinds of restrictions do we have?
Speaker 0 Are we gonna be growing? Are we gonna be shrinking? Those kinds of things. Okay? And actually those are some good hard questions to ask.
Speaker 0 Questions such as, is current is the current enrollment in the program growing, stable or declining? You might ask the questions such as, especially this day and age, what kind of responsibility does the faculty have for engaging in recruiting for the major and for the university? Okay. Good. Yes.
Speaker 0 I think either or, as long as it isn't distracting, and that's the key thing. Now if you've got a bookcase that's filled with lots of colored volumes or, you know, some people, it's weird. I I my daughter of all things, I've got a daughter who's a senior in high school, and now bookcases are apparently things, you know, that designing and organizing bookcases are things. And so, in some cases, rather than organizing by series, you organize the books by color. How you find a series, I don't know, but now you've got a shelf of red, and you've got a shelf of blue, and then green, as long as it's not distracting, I think is the key thing.
Speaker 0 If it's, if it's rather, if it's if it's rather subtle, I think an academic background like a bookcase is is absolutely fine. Sometimes the white background looks a little bit sterile, but as soon as you start getting different kinds of painting or wallpaper prints or art that's on the wall, sometimes that gets a little, a little distracting. So the key thing there is just like presentation, non distraction. Good. Any other questions?
Speaker 0 All right, folks. I wish you all the best in your future searches here for the interviews.