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Jana
Nidiffer (School of Education)
[Often people forget that the job talk is part] of the job
search process. And maybe that’s because it comes relatively
late. You worry about getting the dissertation done. Then
you worry about your letters of application, then your letters
of recommendation, and then you worry about getting called
for an interview, and then you worry about what you’re
going to do for an interview and after all of that, it’s
hard to muster up sometimes or to think a lot in advance about
the job talk. And I’m glad that Tom and his staff are
making it a separate conversation, because I think my primary
point is to say that they matter. I have seen people essentially
torpedo their candidacy by an inadequate or problematic job
talk. So despite everything that you have to prepare for –
and it seems like you’re doing all the preparation simultaneously
and it’s very nerve-wracking – it’s important
to pay attention to the job talk.
I’m going to offer a few thoughts about what I think
is a good job talk or good things to keep in mind as you prepare
for your job talk, but I would also encourage you to know
that the best way to prepare for a job talk is to observe
others and practice one for yourself. If your department or
a closely related department is doing any kind of faculty
search while you’re a student here, go to as many of
the job talks of faculty in your department as you can. And
then listen to the buzz on the street, whether or not this
was thought to be a good job talk or a problematic one and
take the time to analyze why, what the difference was. So,
let me offer a few thoughts, but please feel free to ask questions
or ask for examples.
I think that one of the most challenging aspects of a job
talk is that you are being judged on three criteria simultaneously,
and that is you are being judged as a scholar, you are being
judged as a future colleague, and you’re being judged
as a potential teacher in the department. So, when you think
about being judged as a scholar, I would encourage you to
make sure that your job talk conforms to the norms of your
discipline, and I would say that possibly one of the best
models to look at if you’re unclear about the norms of
the discipline are either job talks in your faculty or presentations
at professional conferences in your field. And by paying attention
to the norms of your discipline, I mean is it for example
absolutely required for a talk in your discipline that you
spend a great deal of time explaining your methodology. I’m
a historian of education and that’s not typically as
big a part of my own discipline as it is with some others.
We tend to talk more about what we found and its significance
and not spend much time, in verbal presentations, on our methodology
per se. But that’s a norm in my discipline that may be
different, so you should pay attention to your faculty norms.
The other thing that I would encourage – and I think
this is very important – only – absolutely, under
all circumstances – speak on a topic with which you are
very familiar. It is not a good idea to talk about a work
in progress or a beginning line of research. I think particularly
for recent Ph.D.s, there’s an expectation that you’re
going to talk about your dissertation work, and I think that’s
fine, but you may in fact as part of the job talk or in the
interview be challenged or questioned about your presentation
and you want to feel on very firm ground to defend your ideas
and describe your intellectual processes.
Now, most people when they think about a job talk are probably
most aware of being judged as a scholar, and that this is
a public presentation of your intellectual work, but I think
it’s also reasonable to understand that search committees
– and the panel before me may have spoken to this –
when search committees are interviewing people, they’re
not just interviewing scholars, they’re interviewing
people. And they’re interviewing people that are going
to be in the office down the hall from them for anywhere from
5-7 years and if you’re granted tenure for a lifetime.
So, they are interested in someone with whom they feel they
can be a colleague. Someone who would be interesting; someone
who will contribute to the department. So, as you’re
being judged as a colleague, make sure you convey a sense
that you want to be there. That you’re interested in
or invested in the people in the audience getting to know
you. Make it clear that you have read about and come to understand
the university where you are giving the talk, and particularly
the department or the school or whatever unit is supporting
your candidacy.
I would say that one of the times when I saw a candidate
torpedo himself with a bad job talk was someone who was coming
to a school of education as a historian of education and spoke
as though he was in a professional conference of historians
or only historians and he didn’t really know that his
audience was going to be ed school faculty, none of whom were
historians. He was going to be the historian of education
in the program, and he didn’t take enough time to understand
the school and the department to which he was speaking.
Following on that, just very succinctly, know who your audience
is. Understand them. Many department chairs or deans or whoever
is coordinating your visit to campus, may communicate to you
some specifics about your job talk and it can be buried in
the two-and-a-half page letter that the dean sends to you
about this, but do pay attention. Sometimes they will say,
“We will ask you to be in a seminar room” or “You’re
going to be in the something-something auditorium” or
whatever. But there might be information in there that will
let you know the setting and some specifics about who the
audience will be. If it’s only going to be your department,
then you can talk in some ways much more specifically to scholars
in your field than if an entire school or program is likely
to be part of the audience.
The other thing is that when you get to campus, the job talk
is usually not the very first thing. At some point in time,
particularly if a graduate student in the department is going
to offer to give you a tour, know where you’re supposed
to give the job talk and ask to take a look at the room so
you have a sense of how formal/informal, how close to the
audience, etc. you’ll be. And also some expectation of
the size of the crowd.
The last thing in terms of being judged as a colleague is
to communicate that you’re likeable. And I know that
can sound silly but how many times (changes voice to a low
monotone) have you ever heard somebody give a talk where they
just seem to talk like this and they go on and they drone
and they really sound like they’re very nervous and they’re
scared and you can’t really understand them and they
don’t seem to be very happy that they’re doing it
(normal voice) and it’s very hard to listen to an hour
and fifteen minutes of that so communicate that you are interested
in what you’re doing and that you are an interesting
person. You can contribute to the scholarly discourse and
you would be someone that it would be interesting to have
an office across the hall from.
Now, most job talks are relatively formal presentations –
not always, but it’s been my experience that most are.
And so it is sometimes difficult to imagine how you might
communicate your skills as a teacher in a job talk particularly
if your teaching style is not this formal presentation style.
However, you are going to be judged on your facility as a
communicator and therefore as a potential teacher. Now, we
all know that – particularly if you are going for a job
in a research-oriented university – one of the primary
interests is going to be your scholarship, but other kinds
of institutions may be just as interested in your skills as
a teacher. And even research universities are becoming more
and more interested in the teaching skills of the recent Ph.D.s
that they’re interviewing for new faculty jobs. So it’s
important to remember that you’re being looked upon as
a future teacher.
Now, the first thing, of course, that you want to do then
is to be understood. Because if you can’t be understood,
then they may wonder how students will understand you. So
speak clearly, speak logically and all that you’ve ever
learned about a good presentation is important to have in
this job talk. I think it’s perfectly acceptable –
particularly if it’s a norm in your discipline –
if you have a couple of overheads to make points clear, even
a handout or two. I think that anything that makes it seem
like you were prepared and invested and that you want people
to understand you is perfectly reasonable. Again, that may
be more of a social science norm, so you should pay attention
to the norms in your own discipline.
It might be appropriate, depending on the department or the
school, to even have a slightly more teacher-oriented job
talk and again this is where you would need to be very savvy
about listening to the signals that you’re getting from
the department chair or the dean or whomever is inviting you
to speak. By teacher-oriented, I mean something a little less
formal, something that might more closely match your teaching
style. Again, probably at a research one university this would
not be a good choice, but there are institutions where this
might be something that you would feel was appropriate. And
it would help to communicate to them your interest in being
a good teacher.
And the last thing about communicating your skills as a teacher:
even if it is a very formal presentation, you can sometimes
bring in issues of teaching into the formal presentation.
For example, if you devote some time – not the majority
of time, but a small amount of time – to some issues
of teaching related to the work that you just presented in
the content. Like for example if you talk about what are the
ideas and concepts in your field or discipline that are difficult
to teach to undergraduates, for example, if that’s going
to be your primary teaching responsibility. You might also
talk about somewhere in your job talk, the relationship of
your ongoing research agenda with your teaching. In other
words, how you were using your scholarship in your classroom
and vice versa.
And my last point before I pass the microphone on. Absolutely
stay within the time limits. No exceptions. If they say 40
minutes, speak for 38. If they say an hour, speak for 55 or
less. The last thing you want to see people doing in your
job talk is looking at their watches and shuffling in their
seats. So that’s telling people that you read what they
provided for you, and it’s also telling people that you
respect their time. They’ve come to give you this hour,
or this two hours, or whatever the cultural norm is for that
institution and you respect that and you’re not going
to hold them longer than that.
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