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Questions to Ask

‹ First Round of the Process | Job Search Advice.Home Page | On Campus Interviews ›

A question I always found useful when given the chance to ask questions during a campus interview, as much for what people didn’t say as what they did:

• How would you characterize the relationship between faculty and administration?

Along those lines—two questions I asked during the “what do you want to ask us” part of the interview:

• What kind of community is your department?
• What is required for promotion and tenure? (If you can’t find this information on the web site)

These questions will tell you something about the culture of the program, and they will suggest to your interviewers that you plan on staying around for awhile, so they won’t have to go through this process again in a year or two because you’ve left.

Finally, my favorite two interview questions to ask back to committees:

• Why was this position created/opened now? (Don’t settle for the short answer, if possible; ask a bland follow-up to see what else comes out.) A corollary question in a mid- to large-sized dept: what other hiring is likely in this area in the near future?

and, if you haven’t already been told,

• What was it about my application that made you think I was a good fit for this job? (I know it sounds self-aggrandizing, but committee members have an answer, and it’s often really interesting. It’s a good one-on-one, walking-to-lunch question, if launching it in a roomful of people at MLA seems too weird.)

‹ First Round of the Process | Job Search Advice.Home Page | On Campus Interviews ›