tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1438289051411770399.post3556360692576836148..comments2024-03-28T09:51:55.365-06:00Comments on ECOLOGY WITHOUT NATURE: How to Get That Elusive Academic Job 16—the interview (the first five minutes)Timothy Mortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05067377804366363020noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1438289051411770399.post-2494531439770635702010-12-13T11:11:45.353-06:002010-12-13T11:11:45.353-06:00Hi--
"Chit chat" no--this is about your ...Hi--<br />"Chit chat" no--this is about your work<br />"Reflects on the interviewers" -- of course it does. Be sensible. They are wondering whether they will be able to stomach you for three + decades.Timothy Mortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05067377804366363020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1438289051411770399.post-35418386362468758942010-12-13T08:27:40.642-06:002010-12-13T08:27:40.642-06:00This is all good advice, but one of the important ...This is all good advice, but one of the important threads that runs through each installment of your advice columns is this: search committee questions are in many ways less about the candidate than about the committee. I simply mean this (and yes, it's a bit cynical): does the candidate reflect back to the committee the type of person/academic/colleague that they themselves want to be, or even, that they actually see themselves as? Does the candidate make the committee members feel witty, cool, successful? etc. <br />Again, a bit cynical, but kind of true, in my experience on both sides of the table, but I think these things are exacerbated at the cattle call interviews at the MLA, APA, AAR etc. I think it's helpful to remember that interviews are not one sided, by any means, so the advice to pretend you are chit chatting with peers in your graduate program hits the nail on the head.<br /><br />At the end of the day, virtually everybody is qualified and for better or worse (worse, most likely) it very often comes down to “intangibles.” These intangibles vary of course, e.g. “do I want to work with this person?”, “Is this person’s research plan threatening to mine?” “how was their lecture/teaching demonstration” “Were they wearing clothes that fit them properly?” (seriously) etc. And this is to ignore the internal politics of the search committee! In fact, I know someone who, once granted tenure, makes it a point to routinely blackball Ivy League candidates. <br /><br />--ShaharAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com