Academic Job Market Success Series PART 2

The campus visit is the final round before a job offer is made. While it might seem that the visit is all about delivering a job talk or teaching demo, the campus visit is actually a highly-choreographed marathon of an interview. From the moment a candidate leaves their house to the moment they return, the entire visit is part of one long process of determining whom a department wants for their colleague. Whether it's from formal interviews with deans and chairs to informal ones with students over a lunch, knowing the different audiences you have to engage, what things you are allowed to—and expected to—discuss, and how to behave is essential for landing a job offer. This presentation will walk attendees through all the components of a campus visit to ensure they thrive on their visits.

Chalk talks are a vital part of the campus visit for certain disciplines (often STEM and certain social sciences) because they demonstrate how a candidate thinks on their feet. However, this element of the job visit is often only open to faculty—leaving many students in the dark as to how to give one (or that they exist!). As a result, many candidates' first experience with this genre is when they are asked to prepare one despite the fact that this talk can make or break a candidate's visit. In the presentation, attendees will learn the fundamentals of chalk talks—what they are, what they look like, and how to prepare one.

The teaching demonstration is where a committee glimpses your teaching efficacy. And with only one class period to display your skills, there’s little margin for error. In this workshop, participants will learn about what goes into a strong teaching demonstration from a pedagogical perspective. From there, the workshop will inform candidates about various modes to engage an audience through spoken, visual, and written communication. This workshop will provide participants with a sense of what lesson to teach and how to teach said lesson. While this presentation is aimed at teaching demonstrations, students who are looking to better their teaching, in any context, are welcome to attend.

One of the most important elements of a campus visit is the job talk. This is where you present your scholarship to a room of potential colleagues and students. Sounds simple, right? Many a promising job talk has failed because the candidate did not prepare properly. Maybe the talk was too technical. Maybe the visuals were not executed well. In this workshop, participants will learn strategies behind how to communicate their research, appropriately, through spoken, visual, and written communication. While this presentation is aimed at job talks, students who are looking to better communicate their research, in any context, are welcome to attend.

Candidates who impress a hiring committee with their written materials are advanced to an interview round. Here, committees take a closer look at the remaining candidates--with the intent of inviting a handful to a campus interview. But this is no ordinary interview. Committees are looking for particular answers, and often the question you hear (e.g., Tell us about your dissertation) isn't the question being asked (e.g., Tell us why your research is important). Knowing everything from the type of answers to give to how long your answers should be is critical for performing well. In this presentation, attendees will learn about the structure of interviews, what questions to expect, what answers they should give, and how to present themselves.