Community college interviews, the process

So, yes -- the academic job market sucks, and so do the rest of the job markets around the country. This means that MORE people will be going to community colleges. Between the 'going back to school to get a degree' to the 'I'll go here to get my general eds done until my prents can afford to send me to a 4-year school', community college enrollment will probably grow significantly... ours already seems to be up quite a bit for Spring 09.

So, it is quite possible that you'll end up with an interview at a community college. It may be the case that our processes at BNCC are diferent --- so take that into consideration...

How the process is different from interviews at a research university or SLAC:

• Your interview will be 1 hour long, no more.
• You'll be interviewed by a group of 6-9 folks, only one or two will be from your discipline. The others are administrators and faculty from other disciplines.
• You will be given a set of questions about 30 minutes in advance.
• You'll have to do a 10 minute teaching demonstration.
• You are expected to pay for your own travel etc...

Notice -- there is NO budget for interview costs. You won't get a meal, you won't have any informal chances to talk to folks etc. In fact, we are instructed to be as uniform as possible -- asking the same questions (the ones on the sheet) and only asking individual follow-up questions if you open the door for us.

This isn't how we'd like to do it -- but, it is the way it is...

So, the thing is -- how to handle this sort of interview?

What not to do: -- know that I've seen all of these kinds of behaviors...

• Focus on your research
• Name-drop about your grad school mentors
• Waste our time -- this includes asking questions you could answer within a few minutes of snooping on the internet.
• Talk AT us instead of TO us
• Condesend to us, 'cuz WE have jobs -- and you don't, so talking down to us is a bad move.
• Read your teaching demo, or go over time
• Blab on and on without realizing you have lots of questions to answer...

What to do:

• Watch your time. It will tell us how you manage your classroom.
• Give a teaching demo you can finish in 10 minutes.
• Talk to us like colleagues, but understand that only a couple of us are in your discipline.
• Come with a couple of good questions, as you should have time to ask them at the end.

Later -- I'll do a post about the interview questions and other ways CCs are different from the schools you've attended.

and.. for when I complain bitterly later

Today was a good teaching day.

Most of my logic students understood some hard stuff.

My Intro to Philosophy students seemed to get the Cliff-notes versions of Descartes and Berkeley.

A couple of wayward students came forward and confessed their string of absences. I chided them, and then told them how to dig themselves out...

Death, illness and surgury...

In my e-mail...

One student who I know is fighting cancer... she's had a set-back. I know she'll do the work, but she's struggling in a variety of ways.

One student who has a mom in for surgury.... I wonder if she's really the only one who can take her and why she didn't listen to my announcement about how to get the take home exam if you aren't in class... makes me suspicious..

One student whose grandpa died... today -- the logic quiz is also today. Would it be unfair to expect him to come take the flipping quiz.... I was a softie and let him do some make-up with some sort of documentation -- but, I wonder.

I wonder -- especially about the last two. Today is Valentine's day and my class is late in the afternoon....