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Interviews

I am on a job search committee for my department. We have read through written applications and are following up with interesting applicants through video chats. We have at least two department members on each chat to lessen the responsibility for evaluating them.

We ask a couple of questions that are probably commonplace. One is to articulate the applicant's perceptions of their own strengths and weaknesses. We are not expecting to make a judgment based on the content of the answer but are looking for self-reflection prior to the interview. Amazingly this is a substantial filter; many candidates can't articulate their strengths and weaknesses in a meaningful way in an interview.

The other question that many other employers probably ask is some version of "Why do you want to work for us?"  Like most institutions my university prides itself on filling a niche, and boasts about that niche in loving detail over many pages of its website. Our department does this with more specificity. It seems reasonable to expect that applicants will research us and find meaningful questions that go below the surface. Again, many applicants do not.

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