|
Nov. 14 Adventures in InterviewingAnyone who believes that academe offers a settled and peaceful life of quiet contemplation has never run the gauntlet regularly required on campuses all across the country and called the academic interview. Unlike job candidates in business, academics are accustomed to spending one and even two days absorbing and deflecting the rhetorical blows of various campus constituencies ranging from presidents and vice presidents to classified staff members and students. Related stories
In a career that has taken me from a service academy to a community college with stops at a state college and a private university in between, Ive had more than my share of running these gauntlets. But it hasnt been all bad. In addition to emerging relatively unscathed, and even with a job offer or two, Ive had some wonderfully existential experiences along the way. I first started wandering around, creating my own academic reality when I was ready to leave the English Department at the U.S. Naval Academy, where I had been serving my last tour of active duty as a career Marine officer. I managed to write and talk my way into an interview for a chairs job at a Glenville State College, a small campus in the West Virginia state system 15 miles in from the interstate and accessible only by a small winding road. Over the years, many a candidate, I was told, had taken one look at the area and turned back toward the interstate without stopping. I liked the people, however, and we soon found ourselves digressing, discussing Harrison Fords recent visit to the Naval Academy to film some scenes for the film Patriot Games. What was Ford really like, one person asked. I couldnt resist: His hair is perfect, I replied. When one of my soon-to-be colleagues, an ageless sort of guy with a Beatles haircut, caught that offhand allusion to Warren Zevons Werewolves of London, I knew I was in the right place. I stayed eight years. A campus visit that did not go so well, and will always stand out in my memory, was to a certain military academy and junior college in the Deep South. How did that one go wrong? Let me count the ways: The college invited my wife along, but promptly uninvited her after discovering how much it would cost. The colonel who first contacted me and made all the arrangements died before I could get there, and no one else knew what he had arranged. The retired general who took over for the fallen colonel, while giving me a tour of the campus, apologized for the unusually low placement of the door handles on the newest building on campus, the gym. It seems the contractor stuck the college with doors for a small persons facility. The general took me to meet the academic vice president of a nearby womens college with which the academy was hoping to affiliate. But we had no appointment, and the academic vice president was in a meeting. Before the day was out, this same general locked his keys in his car, and we had to wait for his wife to bring another set. No one was privy to the commandants vision, I was later told, because he had been there only six months. I withdrew from consideration. Not that I have always read the signs correctly or picked up on all the portents. On one trip, the hotel I was staying at caught fire, and I spent two hours out in the cold the night before my interview. I was later offered that job and made one of the great mistakes of my life in turning it down. Two years later, I was offered an even better job (in terms of salary and prestige at least) and took it, despite having attended a faculty meeting run by my predecessor that turned into an occasion for weeping and gnashing of teeth in the outer chamber. Three years later, I would find myself on the road again, heading toward fresh campuses and gauntlets new. And now it can be told: along the way, believe it or not, a committee in upstate New York really did ask me, If you could be any animal you wanted to be, which would you choose and why? They considered the question to be a great icebreaker and did expect an answer. Fortunately, I had a safe answer ready at hand a dog. They were quite amused to hear how my wife and I dote on our Jack Russell terrier. Would that academic job candidates were treated half as well. Then there was the state university in the Southwest that, in order to save money on my airfare, brought me in on a Thursday evening and kept me over that Saturday night. A different member of the department was detailed to take me out for each meal, and each of my hosts was intent on treating me to the best cuisine the area had to offer. Its a good thing that I like Mexican food. I had it four times in two days. Obviously, someone with my checkered past cannot afford to prejudge any opportunity based on the size or location of the institution. My motto has always been, If youre buying, Im flying. The academic job market being what it is, any old port in a storm too comes to mind. Thus it was that I accepted an interview at Kent State Universitys branch in East Liverpool, Ohio. It was there that would I spend the night with Pretty Boy Floyd. What I didnt know when I accepted the interview is that East Liverpool is the place where the authorities, in 1934, finally caught up with and killed Pretty Boy. Before being shipped to his mother in Oklahoma, Floyds body was embalmed and laid out at the Sturgis House, then a funeral home and now a very nice Victorian-style bed and breakfast. The college put me up there, and the attendant was kind enough to tell me all about the houses connection to the Floyd saga and to take me down to the basement preparation room where some of the equipment used to embalm Floyd and others can still be seen. All this before she left for the night, leaving me the only living person in the house and locking me in. If you go, know that Floyd always hated the nickname Pretty Boy. He goes by his given name, Charles Arthur Floyd. Third time, of course, is supposed to be a charm, and in my case, it was. I think Im finally settled in the right place and in the right job. I have vowed that I will interview no more forever. Still, travel is broadening. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ligia Parra-Esteban. Directora Fundación Voc de Investigación de la Comunicación Entre Científicos. http://mox.uniandes.edu.co/voc Luis H. Blanco. Secretario de la Junta Directiva. Laboratorio de Investigaciones Básicas. Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Camilo Torres. Bogotá. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. |
E-mail
Print