Interviews

It's academic interview season, so here are a few words on the process.

Last Saturday, I came into the office for a few hours to work on some lecture material.  In the hall I ran into one of our about to be a PhD students.  I haven't been here long enough to know him really well, but he is our student rep at the faculty meetings and I only hear good things about him from other faculty, so I assume he is top notch.  This was confirmed by the fact that he came by and said: "Can I ask you something?" and then told me that he had an interview for a TT job at a MRU this week!  To not have a PhD in hand yet and get an interview like that definitely means top-notch.  (This is the second of our PhD students in this situation this year - it's really great to be in such a great department!!!!).

In any case, his main question was "What's the purpose of meeting with the Dean?"  Which is a good question.

Here's my take on it.  I'm hoping some other academics may have some further advice in the comments that I could pass along.

The purpose of meeting with the Dean is to get any questions answered that the department actually has no control over, or questions the department won't answer for you.  In nearly all my interviews the meeting with the Dean was near the end of day 2, and there are a couple of things that happen here.

1) The dean just wants to meet you, ultimately they are your boss, so they want to make sure that you are a sane, functioning individual.  They have veto power over what the faculty decides, so making bad impression could harm you.

2) The $$.  The Dean has control over the money, so things like startup funds, salary and the like may come up.  My approach was always to feel this out.  They may ask outright for what kind of numbers you are thinking about, or they may put limits on the table.  Ultimately these funds are decided at the Dean's level, so I think they like to know in advance what they might have to prep for should you be the Department's top pick.

3) University wide policies.  The deans are usually the ones who implement things like spousal hirings, tenure clock stopping policies, tenure decisions, etc.  So if you have questions or concerns about these things, particularly if you haven't found them written down anywhere or they haven't been shown to you already, this is a good time to ask them.

4) Anything someone tells you "this is a good question for the Dean" during the rest of your interview.  Remember it and ask it.