Professionalization: Quick Questions for Job-Seekers

The academic year is over or winding down in most parts of the US and with it, so is the job market for the 2014-2015 academic year. Job postings are still popping up, at a slower rate than, perhaps, earlier in the year, but last year at this time I was still applying all over the place, hoping to hear back from somewhere—anywhere. This year I'm lucky that I’ve got a new position already accepted for the coming fall, so I thought I’d share a list of the questions that I’ve gotten in interviews in the hopes of helping out fellow job-seekers.

The questions below are compiled from four different interviews, all non-MLA & for teaching positions (1 interview was community college, the rest were for positions at small state schools). I’ve listed them from the most common to the most specialized/specific to the position.

Good luck!

1.      Tell us about your teaching. OR What is your teaching philosophy?

2.      What has been one of your successes in the classroom? What has been a challenge?

3.      How does your research relate to your teaching? OR How has your research prepared you to teach…[insert what the position is searching for]?

4.      What experiences do you have teaching diverse groups of students?

5.      What other classes could you teach for us? OR What upper-level courses would you propose for our department?

6.      Why would you like to come here?

7.      What else would you like to tell us about yourself?

8.      What questions do you have for us?

9.      How does your research relate to your teaching? OR Is there an assignment you do that relates to your research?

10.  What are some of your favorite texts to teach?

11.  What books or scholars have particularly influenced your research?

12.  How do you grade a student’s paper? What do you focus on?

13.  How do you grade the student at the end of the semester? How do you weight the grades?

14.  How do you engage in teaching large groups?

15.  For community college job: Why would you like to teach at a community college?

            What do you believe is the role and the mission of a community college?