Great News

I received an email from Grinnell College and the search committee wants to have a 20" phone interview with me this Monday. Hooray!

*takes deep breath*

OK now the hard part. I've been on the 8-10 hour interviews where you meet the search committee, other faculty members, administrators and deans, students, and then you give your talk followed by a lengthy Q&A session, followed by another short meeting with remaining faculty, and then dinner (somehow you forget to eat breakfast or lunch so having snack bars was quite handy) with more faculty or the same faculty. At any rate, by the end of the day you're just dead tired and extremely hungry.

But a phone interview? For about 20 minutes? I've never done that before. I know I have to be selective in what I say but in a phone interview I can't see their reactions, body language, or anything. I can't tell if something is not making sense or is making a solid impression. It's strictly an auditory experience. So I've got to read up on phone interview techniques, the kinds of questions asked, and the best answers to give in response. On the plus side, I can prepare answers in advance and lucky for me, my partner has given and been in phone interviews so I have an advantage. It's just a lot of work and even though I'm a bit unnerved at the thought of interviews, I am relieved that I at least got one especially from a pretty strong institution like Grinnell.