This blog post was inspired by Prof. Austin Henley.

I know that the academic job search is an exhausting process especially, this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some schools froze hiring and canceled scheduled interviews though. But, it is a very exciting opportunity for me to meet new people, visit other schools, and get valuable feedback about my current and new research directions. I always appreciate the opportunities to get invited to on-site interviews. Especially, during interviews, questions you will ask and you are asked are critical so that I will write down questions I got asked and I asked interviewers (typically faculty members).

Typically, there are two types of interviews during academic job search: phone (or skype) interview and on-site campus interview. Usually, the phone (Skype) interviews are conducted before on-site interviews. The interviews are typically brief around 30 mins and multiple search committee members (typically tenure-track faculty members). Only qualified candidates who pass the phone interviews are invited to on-site interviews. (Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some on-site interviews were canceled and instead, job talks were done over Skype though).

Skype interview

Questions I was asked

Typically, four or five questions were asked to me about my bio, research, teaching, funding, etc.

  • Can you briefly explain your research?
  • Can you briefly introduce yourself?
  • Why are you interested in our school? or Why did you apply for this position and why our school?
  • What’s the most challenging of your research?
  • What are the main contributions of your research?
  • Who do you want to collaborate with? or what project do you have in your mind to collaborate with our faculty members?
  • Do you have teaching experience? if so, can you share it with us?
  • What is your teaching philosophy? or mentoring philosophy?
    • How do you efficiently teach in a large-scale class?
  • Do you have specific plans for the funding?
  • Do you have funding proposal writing experience?
  • What course do you wanna teach?
    • with minimal effort?
    • with more preparation?
    • What new course do you wanna develop?
  • How do you promote diversity and inclusiveness in your class or your lab?
  • What’s your timeline for an on-site interview?

Questions I asked

Typically, because the phone (or Skype) interview is brief, you don’t have enough time to ask many questions to them. Rather you may be allowed to ask a couple of questions at the end of the phone (or Skype) interview. I am not sure if

  • Can I collaborate with other departments? because I am interested in XXX.
  • Is there any mentorship for junior faculty?
  • Do you have a grant writing support since I don’t have many funding proposal writing experience?
  • Teaching loads (before tenure and after tenure)

Onsite interview

Questions I was asked

  • Why do you apply to this position and why this school?
  • Tell me about your research and what fundamental problems you were trying to solve?
  • What’s the core technique in your research?
  • What are the main contributions of your research?
  • What are the challenges you will face and how do you overcome them?
  • Do you have a specific plan in the next 5 years or 10 years?
    • What do you want to accomplish in the next 5 years or 10 years?
  • What are your future funding sources?
  • How many Ph.D. students will you plan to have?
  • Are you gonna keep working with your advisor?
  • How can you win funding over your advisor because your advisor and you are working on the same fields?
  • How is your research different from your advisor’s research?
  • Do you have any questions about this city?
  • What other schools are you interviewing with?
  • From the chair: if I give you an offer right now, will you accept it right now? What’s your priority in our school? What’s your timeline for accepting an offer?

Questions I asked

To chair:

  • Teaching loads (before tenure and after tenure)
  • Start-up funding (summary salary, travel, and equipment, students supports, etc.)
  • How many failed in tenure?
  • What’s the timeline afterward?

To grad students:

  • Are you happy with this school? (in terms of benefits and salary)

To faculty:

  • What’s the overhead fee for funding?
  • How do you recruit Ph.D. students?
  • How many do you have faculty meetings a semester?
  • What’s the tenure expectation? the number of papers or grant money?
  • How did you make a balance between research, teaching, and service?
  • How do you manage your Ph.D. students?
  • How much do I need to support a Ph.D. student? (Who pays students tuitions?)
  • Where do faculty typically live?