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10/12/2013

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Rachel

Utterly nail down your "elevator" speech. Be able to explain your research in each of the following lengths: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 5 minutes.

15 seconds: You have 2-3 sentences to give someone the gist of what you do.

I work in epistemology and language on the norms of assertion: essentially, when I tell you that the meeting starts at 4 p.m., do I need to know that it's at 4 p.m.?

30 seconds: Add some exposition of your own view onto the 15 second version.

On my view, what it takes to properly assert depends on the context. In some low stakes conversations over dinner, for example, the quality of evidence that I need to properly assert is lower than in higher stakes conversations like high stakes court testimony. In fact, I argue in some contexts speakers can assert what they know to be false.

I think it's useful to have an "eyebrow raising" finish to the 30 second version. You want them hooked and interested to hear more.

2 minutes: Expand on the 30 second version by pointing to some of the literature that you're engaging with (who are the big figures in your field?). And talk a little about what you're doing with your project. You have papers at...you've fashioning them into a book manuscript...

5 minutes: Expand on the 2 minute version and connect your research program to where you see your research in the next 5 years. You're going to push your research in direction A, and then transition into your next project on B, which connects to your current research because...


The first two are critical for your shorter interactions. You should have those ready for any conferences you attend and certainly for any on-campus visits. The 2-5 minute versions only come up in interview situations.


DO NOT RAMBLE

Practice. Have it down. If someone called you up *right now* and asked you, "So, what do you work on?" You should be able to slip into the answer without thinking.

eyeyethink

Awesome comment Rachel.

While we're on the topic of interview-ish questions...

I have been asked the following question in two different interviews, and in both cases, I felt somewhat unsatisfied with my answer. Advice?

"Our university has a large percentage of such-and-such minority group. How would you engage such a group in a philosophy class?"

Rachel

Well, don't lie. How would you engage a diverse student body?

Part of how one answers this question depends on the specifics of which 'such and such' group they're asking about (religious, social, racial, queer, etc).

For me, answering that question is pretty easy for two reasons. First, I think about pedagogy a lot. Second, I started my teaching (during my PhD) in a school with a diverse student body.

E.g., one thing I often use is clickers (or some version thereof), which allows me to engage students by putting up a wide variety of voting options that gives people a voice and ability to participate if they otherwise might not. I also use this activity (http://www.newappsblog.com/2013/10/teaching-activity-complete-turn-taking.html) in my teaching, which gets everyone involved.

My examples that I use in class are taken from a wide variety of social and cultural contexts. So I encourage diversity in the examples that I use.

My reading materials are generally pretty cheap (on purpose), so my classes are accessible to those on a limited budget, which helps all sorts of underprivileged students.

Many of my course assignments give students wide latitude to write about what's important to them, and this often includes the ability to bring in their life experiences. That's a way to engage under-represented groups.


You don't need anything more specific than that. The committee just wants to see that you've thought about teaching, and have hopefully developed a large enough tool kit so that you can handle their relatively unique teaching needs.

elisa freschi

Rachel, this brings me to a question I have been pondering about for a while: How exactly do you use IClickers? I am interested in all ways to have more fruitful classes, but to an outsider like me the system seems only to be able to record a yes/no like/dislike choice. How can you integrate it into a fruitful philosophical discussion?

eyeyethink

Many thanks again Rachel. I have hit on the points about examples and about readings. But I like very much your idea of letting them decide what's important--thanks!

Rachel

Elisa, that is not a short conversation (I've run workshops on it). At a minimum, we'd need an hour to talk :)

The very short answer is 'No' there are many things we can do with them beyond yes/no and likert scale questions.

elisa freschi

Rachel, I see. Let me/us know if you happen to run a webinar on the topic!

Helen De Cruz

Some tips I have heard from others:

- I have heard a website really helps. People whom I know who went on the market and had one, had very positive feedback (the SC do google you when they are creating the shortlist or longlist, and they refer to the website) It needn't be hugely complicated, but just something that puts your research agenda (in the concise, coherent fashion Rachel described earlier), an up-to-date CV, a summary of your dissertation if it is not too long ago, and some publications that can be downloaded, some syllabi etc.

- Practice your first-round and on campus interview thoroughly. Don't be afraid to ask more senior people with relevant experience for a mock interview. Many candidates are just utterly crushed after their first job interview experience. They've never done anything like it. They didn't expect the questions. "How would you teach X?" The answer is NOT "But, I didn't list X in my AOS/AOC" or "Wait a minute, you didn't put that in the job description!" Being well prepared means the difference between a job offer when you are ABD or fresh out, or not. I have seen brilliant candidates not get to the second round because of this.

- Related to this, take a look at the department's website before taking the interview, learn the names of faculty members, memorize their faces, look up what the university is like etc. Do your homework. By practice thoroughly I do not mean to be prepared for every esoteric question they could ask (I am skeptical of the value of large repositories of possible interview questions), but knowledge of the dept is an advantage. Also an advantage in crafting the cover letter, which you need to customize for each job.

Jason Brennan

1. Preparation for success starts in your first year of graduate school. Learnt to manage your time so you can be successful with only a 40-hour work-week. If you're barely getting by with a 70-hr week as a grad student, you'll be in big trouble as a faculty member, when you have real responsibilities.

2. Be prepared to talk for an hour about any line on your CV. If you put something on your CV, you are saying you are willing to be interview about it. You might think some presentation was a one-off thing of little importance, but the search committee might want to spend your entire interview discussing that presentation.

3. Don't pad your resume with bullshit, and don't lie. For instance, I often see applications with a "Publications and Presentations" section, but then the person turns out not to have any publications. (I might as well put a "Nobel Prizes, Patents, and Publications" section on my own CV.) Or, I see applicants who have a publications section, but who have no publications, and instead only have papers under review. When I see that, I almost always put the person's application in the discard pile.

4. Every document that's part of the dossier should be written on the assumption that people will read only the first few paragraphs unless you hook them in.

5. When the interview committee asks you, "Do you have any questions for us?," ask, "In your view, what does it take to be an good colleague in your department?" When I was interviewing, I was complimented on the spot many times for asking that question, and the question always reveals useful information, both good and bad, about the school. For instance, a professor at a top-40 Leiter-ranked school told me, in all honesty, that he considered a good colleague someone who read and commented on his work but who didn't ask for the same in return.

6. Be nice. Don't try to win every argument. You'll come across as a jerk.

7. Write your research summary not for experts, but for your barber. Most research summaries are incredibly boring. Have a hook.

8. Have a hook in the first paragraph of your writing sample. Otherwise, the reader might not get past the first page before moving on the next application. When search committee members get 400 applications for a job, they aren't going to choose to read 12,000 pages of writing samples. You have to work hard to get them to read *any* of yours.

Marcus Arvan

Rachel, Elisa, and Jason: thanks for all the advice! I, for one, am very appreciative.

jmugg

Does an academia.edu website count as a website? I only have an academia.edu page (because I am not web savvy!), but I wonder if job search committees will look down on this. Thoughts?

Anonymous

Thanks to Rachel @ 11:47. I already do most of those things, but I never thought about how it relates to a diverse student body. So in addition to helping in any interviews, this advice will help me to improve my teaching!

@ Jason, thanks for this valuable advice, but did you ever have any problems with your #5? You report having had positive experiences, but I would be terrified to ask such a question. I'd worry that someone would think I should already know what makes a good colleague or I'd be worried that the SC members would have very different answers.

I suppose one could take the view that if the SC doesn't like that question, then one wouldn't want to be a member of that department anyway.

Jason Brennan

@Anonymouse 5:28 AM

I shared this on the Philosophy Smoker, and someone wrote this:

"Anonymous said...
Jason Brennan (whom I once interviewed -- he did very well indeed) has nailed this question.

"Do you have any questions for us?," when asked at a first interview, is not an opportunity for you, the interviewee, to figure out how much you want the job. Rather, it is yet another opportunity for you to sell yourself as someone to hire.

Btw, it strikes me as paranoid to worry that someone who asks this question -- note the clause, in your department -- doesn't know how to be a good colleague. Anyone reasonable understands that departments differ in their expectations. And trying to placate the unreasonable, when you don't know in what respects they are unreasonable, is a mug's game. Please note that I don't mean this as an insult to an anonymous commenter who worried about this; the process is designed to feed paranoia.

I'm just saying: this is the best answer to the question that I've ever heard. I will admit that I don't take this sort of thing very seriously myself, and don't mind if an interviewee just punts it. But then I don't read letter of application, either. Others do.

FEBRUARY 13, 2011 AT 4:07 PM"

Rachel

Of course, its value is probably proportional to its rarity. If everyone starts asking that question, it might actually start to hurt candidates. This year is probably safe, though :)

...that's the thing with sharing 'underappreciated job market secrets' ;)

Helen De Cruz

JMugg: I am in two minds about academia.edu. Its design is alas, so-so and a bit lackluster and not very organized, and to make matters worse, it now requires you to login (which you can do with fb, google+ or an academia account) before you can download any papers. This is a step in a bad direction, and one reason why I asked my web-savvy sister to make a website for me. So if you cannot get help from someone and want a website quick, here are some suggestions:
- Worldpress and Google sites provide templates that allow you to make a reasonable-looking website in a relatively short period of time.
- You can pay someone to design a website that you can update and maintain yourself. Most people who have done this go by word-of-mouth.
- Your philpapers profile can be filled in with info about yourself, it's quick and many philosophers use it.

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