Pffs Presentations At Idea Institute

January 21, 2009 Aaron Liepman – Assistant Professor, Biology Department Eastern Michigan University UM Preparing Future Faculty in the Sciences seminar series

“Preparation and guidance for an academic interview” // Ten tips for an academic job interview: 1. Relax - while an interview can be an intense, nerve-wracking experience, try not to let your nerves get the best of you. It is often very obvious when someone is nervous, and this can negatively affect perceptions of you. Remember that you have been invited to visit campus because the faculty/committee is excited about you – usually people are very friendly! Note that the first interview is likely to be the most difficult since it will present many new situations (e.g., meeting with a member of the upper administration), future interviews will be easier. 2. Treat each interview like you would an important experiment – just as you take careful notes about your experiments and research, take a few minutes at the end of the day to reflect on the interview, noting what worked well and any rough spots you may have encountered. Try to come up with ways to avoid such trouble spots in the future. Of course, an interview presents many more variables than a well-designed experiment, but this practice will enable you to minimize the likelihood of repeat problems. 3. Be yourself – if you take the job, you’ll likely be interacting with most of the people you meet for many years. It is important to make sure that you will be able to get along well with your future colleagues. 4. Make sure your presentation(s) is/are clear, concise, and audience appropriate – a lot is likely to ride on this portion of the interview – in lieu of teaching a class the job talk may be used as a proxy to judge teaching ability, and it will certainly be used as a measure of research skills/potential. Be sure to discuss with your host about the composition of the audience. Also, make sure to include sufficient background information to enable people who may not be experts in your area to follow along and understand the gist of your presentation. Remember, a little too much background information is typically far less problematic than not enough. Practice your presentation in front of an audience (time it!) at least once. While your lab mates and close colleagues will likely provide helpful comments, I also recommend including someone less familiar with your work in the audience. For example, I presented my seminar to my dad (psychiatrist, not a plant cellular & molecular biologist), and as awkward as this seemed at first, it was a very helpful experience to get questions/comments from an interested non-expert in my field. One other tip, keep track of time during the seminar, adjust timing accordingly and do not run over time. 5. Turn the interview around – Use probing (but tactful) questions to get the inside scoop about this department where you may end up working for many years. You’ll likely interact with junior and senior faculty members as well as students, and each will have valuable perspectives about life at University X. Asking questions is beneficial for a number of reasons:

~ You will likely get answers to your questions. ~ You can guide the conversation in directions most relevant to you and toward areas of particular strength. 6. Picture yourself working in the department – while you visiting the department/university and meeting potential colleagues/students ask yourself these questions: ~ What will my “typical” workday look like? ~ Will I have access to the equipment & resources, student help, etc. needed for success with teaching/research? ~ Will I enjoy coming to work? ~ Will I be able to maintain an appropriate balance between my work/home lives? 7. Try to anticipate questions you will be asked during your interview - while it is very likely that you will not be able to guess all the questions beforehand, you can probably predict some and prepare yourself by outlining answers & talking points. Some typical (super secret!) interview questions you might encounter (drawn from my interviews): ~ What sort of equipment/facilities will you need to be successful? ~ Are there colleagues in the department/nearby with whom you could collaborate? ~ What is it about this University X that makes you want to work here? ~ Will you be able to bring your research project, reagents/tools with you? ~ From what agencies/programs will you seek grant funding? ~ What classes do you want to teach? Are you prepared to teach Class X? ~ How would you approach teaching class X? ~ What are your research/teaching goals within the next X years? ~ How will you balance all of your responsibilities as a new faculty member? 8. Do your homework - these days, the internet makes it simple to get background information (often lots!) about the people in the department you’ll visit. Spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the names/ faces of the people you meet – becoming familiar with the people you meet will greatly facilitate interactions during the visit. Especially for those folks with similar interests to yours, skim the most recent publication or two and ask good questions. You will impress your hosts by asking questions that demonstrate familiarity with their publications and research interests. 9. Tailor your presentation for the institution – For example, in the future directions portion of the research seminar, rather than presenting a generic summary of future experiments that you plan to conduct, help your audience picture you as a member of the department and to understand how you will fit in to the department/university by mentioning specific ways you will integrate student researchers into your research program. 10. Enjoy being the center of attention – there are few other times when so many people will be interested in you and what you have to say! You’ve worked hard to make it to the front of the pack so take a moment to enjoy the attention you are getting. Interviews really fly by, so grab the attention while it lasts! If you enjoy yourself during your interview/visit, the feeling will likely be contagious, and you will leave a positive impression with the people you met.