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Preparing for the Job Interview

QUESTIONS THEY ASK

1. Why are you interested in joining our department?

2. Your background is mostly in XXX (e.g. physics) and our department focuses on YYY (e.g. bioe). How do you see yourself fitting in?

3. Describe your research (problem, conclusions, significance).

4. What are the limitations of your work?

5. What research projects have you planned for the future? How much money/equipment/space do you need? How will you fund these projects?

6. Describe the specific aims of your first grant proposal. Do you have another proposal in the planning stages?

7. Describe your teaching experience for me. What’s your philosophy and/or style of teaching?

8. Do you have any questions about our undergraduate program?

9. What courses are you prepared to teach?

10. Could you teach XYZ? (Don’t lie, but don’t jump in with “no, I couldn’t teach that,” if you could teach it but feel that your expertise is elsewhere. You can always negotiate your courses after being offered the job.).

11. How will you balance research, teaching, and service in order to get tenure?

12. What will you contribute to ._ (department/institution)?

13. What are you looking for in an offer/start-up package? Any concerns?

14. Where do you see yourself in five years?

QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK

1. What are your department/ institution’s main goals?

2. How is the institution structured?

3. How would you describe the departmental culture? What’s the Chair’s leadership style? How are decisions made?

4. What kind of core facilities do you have (e.g., imaging, mass spec, sequencing, primer generation, etc)? (implied: I want to make my grant money go as far as possible)

5. Can you describe the computer networking facilities and support for this department?

6. What are the challenges and rewards of this position?

7. What will my responsibilities be?

8. What’s the curriculum like? What courses do you expect me to teach?

9. How would you describe your student population?

10. Is it hard to recruit good graduate students? How are they funded?

11. Can I see the credentials of your current graduate students? Where do they go after this?

12. How many postdocs are in the department/ institution?

13. How many training grants for graduate students are there?

14. Am I expected to arrive with research funding? What happens if I have trouble getting grants to extend my initial funding?

15. In what ways am I a good candidate for this position?

16. How will my performance be evaluated? How have your recent hires fared in the tenure process?

17. Do you have a formal or informal mentoring process for assistant professors?

18. What’s it like to live in ______ (city)? What’s the cost of living?

General Questions for You to Consider as You Prepare for Any Interview

What are your long range and short range career goals? How are you preparing yourself to achieve them?

What do you see yourself doing five years from now?

What do you really want to do in life?

What are the most important rewards you are seeking?

Why did you choose the career for which you are preparing?

What do you consider to be your greatest strengths and your greatest weaknesses?

What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?

Why should we hire you?

How would you describe yourself? How would a faculty member describe you?

How do you determine or evaluate success?

In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our organization?

Describe your most rewarding educational experiences.

Describe your most rewarding non-educational experiences.

What have you learned from your mistakes?

What accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction?

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