🎙️ Podcast Link 🎙️

Interviewing well is a key skill that will serve you well for your entire professional life, both for interviews themselves but also for a range of related activities like presenting.

In this new two part video series in my hacking academia line of tutorial videos, I cover the key considerations to interviewing well – including understanding the context, the interview structure and related areas, key things panels may ask you or be looking for, and broader principles.

This page pertains to Part 1, which covers the context and interview structure considerations.

Part 2 covering the interview process itself and general principles, can be found here.

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🕒 Timestamps are as follows:

📌 (0:00) Interviewing Well Part 1: Context and Structure
📌 (0:21) The Start of Many Academic Careers
📌 (0:32) Many Interview Tips are Broadly Relevant
📌 (0:42) Broad Principle: Accurately Portray Yourself
📌 (1:10) Understanding the Context
📌 (1:38) Single or Batch of Positions
📌 (1:55) You’re Likely One of Two Types of Candidates
📌 (2:17) The Conventional Candidate
📌 (2:46) The Wildcard Candidate
📌 (3:20) Wildcard Candidate Example
📌 (3:59) Implications of Being a Wildcard Candidate
📌 (4:32) Understanding What The Organisation Wants
📌 (4:51) Roles Building Critical Mass in Existing Areas
📌 (5:21) Roles Establishing a New Area of Capacity
📌 (5:36) Open-Ended Roles
📌 (5:53) Finding out information
📌 (6:56) Structure of the Interview Process
📌 (7:05) Typical Components of an Interview Process
📌 (7:46) Order and Attendance Can be Chaotic
📌 (8:19) Practise Concisely Briefing People
📌 (8:44) Combining Vision and Effectiveness
📌 (9:23) The Research Talk
📌 (10:15) Teaching Talk
📌 (10:51) Knowing the Area You’d Be Working In
📌 (11:32) An opportunity for you to find out more
📌 (11:51) Part 1 Summary and Part 2 Preview

Full Video Notes

• The Start of Many Academic Careers: many entries into academia, but going on the job market and doing faculty interviews is one common one that many go through. This series of videos is about all that process.
• Broad principle:  the same as all interview processes: you want to pitch a compelling case for yourself, but be authentic and representative. If you overpitch, and somehow manage to get hired under false pretences, it will come back to bite you! The whole idea is to get hired (or not hired) based on an accurate portrayal of what you bring to the table.

Understanding the Context

• What Being at the Interview Stage Means: you’ve gone through what is usually a highly competitive process, with an initial application, possibly some pre-interviews. You’re likely one of a small number of candidates for the position or positions.
• Single or Batch of Positions: Sometimes a university is hiring for a batch of roles and the interview process is also about finding who should go in which role.
• You’re Likely One of Two Types of Candidates: panels will typically look for both conventional “fits” to the position and also consider wildcards. You need to be aware of the likely candidate category that you fit into. 
• The Conventional Candidate: you broadly fit the criteria for the position, there are typically no “red” flags. There may also not be any particulary “green” flags – you’re a solid fit for the position. This means you’re in the running, but also that you need to work to distinguish yourself from the presumed other conventional candidates.
• The Wildcard Candidate: selection panels will sometimes find a somewhat unorthodox candidate for a position interesting and shortlist them. A wildcard candidate typically has two key characteristics: there is a seeming hole in their track record, and/or they may have some interesting unorthodox strengths. 
• Some Wildcard Candidates: for a traditional academic teaching, research and service role – what most call an all-round academic – a wildcard might be someone who has spent most of their time in industry and has relatively little teaching experience in a university context. Or it might be someone who has primarily worked in one discipline – physics would be  a common example – and has switched disciplines relatively recently and is rapidly building what is so far a relatively early stage track record in that new discipline.
• Implications of Being a Wildcard Candidate: You need to convince the panel that any perceived “gaps” in your suitability for the role aren’t that big a concern, and that your strengths add substantial complementary capability to the group you’re joining. Following my previous example, a primarily industry-based applicant who has a lack of university teaching might be able to point to industry-based courses they’ve created and led as evidence of a similar skillset.
• Understanding the Context of Your Hire: every organisation is looking for something slightly different, and the more you can understand about what they’re looking for in terms of this specific role, the better prepared you’ll be for the interview
• Roles Building Critical Mass in Existing Areas: some positions will be looking to increase the critical mass of talent in an already established area. For example, there may be a machine learning group in the university, but they’re lacking a computer vision specialist, which is what the role is trying to hire for.
• Roles Establishing a New Area: some positions will be looking for the candidate to establish what is essentially a brand new research area or capability at the organisation.
• Greenfields role: one where there aren’t many particular constraints, they just want to hire good people to do good things.
• Finding out information: lots of people you can talk to. The recruiter, bearing in mind they are representing the organisation not you. The professional and academic staff you talk to as part of the process. Other current or past employees.

The Interview Process

• Structure of the Interview Process: most will have some or all of the following components: a panel interview, a research talk, a teaching talk, one-on-one meetings with certain individuals, small group meetings with people ranging from Deans to undergraduate students, and a tour of the organisation. Some of these processes may have already started.
• Order and Attendance Can be Chaotic: not everyone will attend every one of your talks and interviews, and these will often be out of order – like doing the interviews before the talks, which isn’t ideal. One consequence of this is that you should be prepared to concisely and rapidly fill people in on details to give them context if they haven’t seen your more detailed talks. This is an art in of itself and if you do it well it can add to your appeal as a candidate.
• Combining Vision and Effectiveness: modern academia needs inspiring individuals with big visions, but equally well it needs academics who are very effective at the “business” of being an academic. Throughout all your interactions, you want to convey that you have both of these characteristics, and lots of it!
• Research Talk: the basics apply here: show that you have deep understanding of the theory and technical aspects of your research discipline, the greater context in which this research occurs and why it is, or can be, useful for society. Compared to a normal research talk, these talks should typically be a little more forward looking, rather than just what you have done. The university is typically making a very long term financial bet on you, so lay out an exciting and relatively grand vision for what your research career going forward will look like, and make sure that you present enough evidence and detail to show that it’s feasible. 
• Teaching Talk: combining vision and effectiveness is particularly important here. You might choose to present some or all of a lecture you already give. Make sure you highlight the key learning outcomes expected from the material you’re presenting, consider giving some context as to where this individual material fits into a larger subject or course.
• Knowing the Area You’d Be Working In: a compelling applicant will be able to talk, in detail, about some of the potential collaborations they’d be able to establish were they to get the role. You’d often name specific individuals already at the organisation, talk about why the collaboration makes sense – never just “collaboration for the sake of it”. 
• The interview is also an opportunity for you to find out more: while you’ll have done some background research, you can find out more information about the role and expectations in the interview process as well.
• In part 2 of this video, I’ll talk through the actual interviews themselves in more detail, as well as some broader considerations and concepts for the overall interview process.