My First Interview: Lessons from the Job Search
Over the winter break, I had my first job interview for a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric. The search committee reached out to me and asked me to do an online interview via Blackboard Collaborate (which wound up not working, and we went with Skype). This worked well for me, seeing as I was out of the country. It was quite an experience. I don't know the results of the interview yet, but I still learned some things that I thought were worth sharing with those who are about to set out on the job search. Lessons Learned Lesson # 1: Murphy's Law Still Applies: Things will go wrong. It happens, and you will survive. For example, I landed in Brazil, only to realize I left my professional clothing home. Then, on interview day, I couldn't find an internet connection strong enough to host video-chatting. It took me 5 different wifi locations before I succeeded. The one I finally got was in a bedroom with nowhere to sit, so I had to kneel...