| |
Reg
Williams (Nursing)
There is no perfect job. Now I know that this comes to you
as a shock, and I am sorry to be the one to deliver that message,
but you really need to know that. Now, what you are going
to find is that when you get out there interviewing you're
going to find that…there's two institutions or even maybe
three institutions that if you could have the ideal world,
you'd put them all three together and that would make the
perfect job. Because, I'll tell you, you'll get out there,
you'll find a job, you'll think, "Ooh, this is great."
Then you find out that the housing cost in the area that you
would move to, you could do it but you'd be living in a pup
tent or something like that. Or there’s politics that
are going on in the school that are so horrendous that you
don’t even want to be part of it. You never know what
can go on when you get out there interviewing, but that’s
one.
The other is that you want to know what you could add to
the institution. And are you a good fit because that’s
what all search committees want to know about you. That’s
what they’re looking for: to see are you going to be
a good fit and what are you going to add to the institution
that they don’t have or that you’re going to build
on what they have – that kind of thing. And remember
that search committees will never lie to you, but you have
to ask the right questions and that’s important to remember
as you deal with any search committee. And then everyone that
interviews you will form an opinion of you, and the search
committee will hear about it. So they’ll know how you
came across to other individuals in that institution who interview
you. Now this is all assuming that you even get to the institution
to get interviewed and my colleagues here will probably tell
you some different ways that people get interviewed, but I
more often have dealt with situations where I’ve served
on a search committee or I’ve even had the opportunity
to interact with a search committee being interviewed myself.
So, I’m now about to share with you what I call the
five “Ws” of search committees. I can tell you uniformly
this is always what I see go on with search committees, no
matter where I’ve been and no matter what search committee
I’ve served on. It’s “who,” “what,”
“why,” “where,” and “when.”
Have you not heard those before somewhere? Now, let me walk
you through each one of them.
“Why?” – let’s start with that. Well,
they want to know why you want to come to this university,
this school, this college, this department. And I tell you
I have yet to see a search committee that didn’t ask
that question, and most often that question is the first question
they ask you. And I’ll tell you why. Partly, it is because
most search committees are made up of faculty that are overburdened
with too much to do and the dean came to them and asked them
to do one more thing. And like fools, we say, “Yes.”
So, then we’re feeling like, “Oh, Lord, I've got
so much to do, how am I going to fit this in? I don’t
have any time to prepare for this, so I’ll just ask whatever
question that comes to mind. And that’s what search committees
do. You’ll walk into the room with a search committee
and they’ll all look at each other, not knowing what
they’re going to ask. That’s typical. Now there
are search committees that do prepare, but it’s been
more my experience the exception than the rule.
Nonetheless, it’s always, “Why do you want to come
here?” So be prepared to answer that question. Why do
you? An answer that is not acceptable is “Because you
were the only person that was willing to interview me.”
Don’t say that! But beyond that, be honest about why
you were attracted to that particular institution. I think
it's important that you sell yourself, but don’t oversell
yourself. That’s an important thing to remember when
you’re talking to the search committee. And for goodness
sakes, don’t be full of yourself. If you come off as
cocky and that you got the world by the tail, the search committee
will be sure to show you that you don’t. So, don’t
be too into yourself about how great you are, because the
search committee may not think that’s the case. A little
humility helps, so use that on occasion. Do not become an
evaluator of their program. Tell them what you have to offer.
Don’t sit there and criticize what they’re doing.
Now, certainly, you can tell them what you might have to offer
that’s going to be above and beyond what they’re
doing, but if you start criticizing their particular program.
They’re not going to be too warm to you.
“Where” – that’s the next one. “Where
are you going in the next five years?” That’s always
a question they are going to ask you. “What do you want
to do when you grow up?”-sort of message. Have some ideas
about that. What is it that you want to do in the next five
years? But be realistic. Don’t be more than you can be.
I’ll never forget one search committee that I was on,
and that question was asked of this individual that was interviewing
and she said, “In five years, I want to be a dean.”
I thought, “Well, that’s not bad.” However,
there was a problem. She had never had any administrative
experience before. She was actually interviewing for an administrative
position, but that in itself wasn’t going to prepare
her to be a dean in five years, but that’s where she
thought she was. She was so full of herself. Let me tell you
what happened. What do you think happened? You know. She didn’t
get hired. So, just keep that in mind as you interview.
Now, let’s talk about “Who?” They’re
going to want to know who your mentors are. Who did you work
with? Don’t name drop. It’s a turn-off to search
committees when you do a lot of name-dropping, but mention
people you worked with. They want to know who you’ve
made contact with. Who are the significant people that you
have had real work with. And tell them what you have accomplished.
Don’t be hesitant to let them know what it is that you
have done. Search committees really want to know what it is
that you have accomplished.
“What?” What do you want to know about the school
and from them? Because they want you at some point in that
interview to talk about what it is that you expect of that
school and what is it that you’d like to know about them.
So ask some very good questions about their particular program.
Ask the same questions of different people while interviewing.
Look for consistency. One of the things that I’ve always
done when interviewing is to make sure that I’m hearing
that this is an issue in that school and I’m hearing
that consistently from person to person. If I hear a lot of
discrepancy, that’s an immediate tip off that I need
to explore that issue further to find out what’s going
on in that institution since I have one group of faculty telling
me this and another group of faculty telling me that and the
two don’t make sense. So, check that out. That’s
always important. Every organization has politics, has some
sort of crazy dynamics going on. Try to understand it. Try
to get to the bottom of what’s going on there. It could
be something that you could live with. Could be something
you couldn’t live with. So find it out. Don’t be
naïve and think that there are no politics going on in
that particular institution. Ask what kind of supports there
are for junior faculty. Assuming that many of you are going
to seek a faculty position, find out what kind of supports
they provide junior faculty. You could be going to an institution
where they say, “Oh, yes, we value research,” but
you’ll have time to do that only between the hours of
one and two o’clock in the morning. Find that out.
“When?” Another important question. When will they
proceed? In other words, after you’ve left, what are
they going to do next? Ask the committee how they will proceed.
Are you going to hear from them? Are you going to hear from
the dean? Are you going to hear from the chair? In other words,
when are you going to hear? Find out how many candidates they
are considering. Often, they’ll tell you. They’ll
tell you, “Well, we have twenty candidates that are vying
for this position. You’re just one of them.” Or,
“You’re the only one.” And that happens, too.
An important thing to do – after you leave, write a note
to the search committee, or members of the faculty that you
met with, or other key people after you’ve gotten home.
And thank them for the opportunity to have a visit with them
and so forth. Well, those are just a few of the tips. There’s
more, and I’m sure that my fine colleagues will tell
you even more, so I’ll shut up now.
. |
