An academic job interview is similar to any other job
interview. The job goes to the person who is able to
best convince the interviewer that he or she is able
to come in and do the job. In an academic job
interview, like any other kind of job interview, that
can come down to learning as much as possible about
the target job. To create a mental image that shows
the importance of knowing about the target job,
imagine that you would have to interview for the
current job you have. Going into that interview, you
are prepared to excel, since you know the duties, the
cultural values, the desired results and the
personalities of the target organization. As you
answer the questions in the job interview, you can
strategically portray yourself in the way that will
match what you know the target organization wants.
An academic job interview is very similar. Before you
go into the interview, you should know as much as you
can about the organization and personalities as
possible. Exactly what are the duties that the job is
expected to do, both formally and informally? What
kind of people does the target school tend to hire?
What kinds of activities and accomplishments does the
school consider indicative of success? As you prepare
for that interview, you should make your presentation
of yourself match these desired characteristics and
results to the best of your ability.
More Academic Job Interview Secrets
The key to success in an academic job interview is
packaging your job and personal experience in a way
that matches the requirements and preferences of the
target organization. One great way to do this is to
tell personal stories that highlight the attributes
and results that you know that the target organization
is interested in. Create miniature narratives that
address the important requirements and results of the
target job. Work on being able tell those in a
natural, organic and vivid way when you are asked
about your experience. The goal is to allow the hiring
decision maker to visualize you performing those
duties successfully as you tell the story. Since you
have formulated the story to match the required job’s
duties and results as exactly as possible, that means
that the interviewer is also imagining you performing
the target job as well.
One area where the academic job interview is different
is the level of personal discretion that can be
applied. In the private industry, performance is
measured and graded on factors that ultimately can be
expressed with business results, and money that is
either generated through business activities or spent
on business activities. In the academic world, that
metric is not applicable to the tasks of research and
teaching. Consequently, individual decision makers
take on a more powerful role to decide who is a good
hire and who is not. For that reason, a key piece of
the research of the academic job should be to discover
who will interview and what their personal preferences
and tendencies might be.
DID YOU KNOW? There's a new "Secret Career Document" you can quickly and easily customize for your next important job interview that literally forces the hiring manager to picture you filling the position. This simple, powerful formula guarantees you'll automatically stand out from the competition and shoot straight to the top of the "must hire" list for any position … any field. This brand new strategy was created by Jimmy Sweeney, one of California's top marketing professionals. To discover Jimmy's breakthrough "secret" go to: Amazing Job Interview Secret
Email This Page!