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pennswoodsI had my third and probably final job interview just this past weekend. Despite the nonsense with the weather and a typical case of jetlag, I felt much more at ease with this one than I did with my second interview. My itinerary is behind the cut, as is a bit more detailed outline of the nonsense I went through with my flights there and back home. I'm just thankful I didn't get stranded in an airport and that my luggage made it through with me.
WEDNESDAY, March 14
*Arrive Newark Scandinavian Airlines at 4:15;
*Depart Newark on Continental Airlines at 7:25 Spend four helpless hours in the Newark airport uncertain of whether the darned flight was or was not cancelled.
*Finally arrive at large midwestern airport at 1:30am to be met by Professor A
THURSDAY, March 15
*9:30 Pick up from the Bed and Breakfast from Professor B for of Campus with Professor B
*11:30 Lunch with Professor C
*1:00 No holds barred interview with full search committee
*3:00 Research Presentation to faculty and graduate students
*5:00 Teaching demo: Graduate TESOL Methods Class
*6:00 Dinner with Professor B and Professor D
FRIDAY, March 16
*9:30 Pick up from B&B by Professor B
*10:00 Meeting with Department Head
*11:00 Meeting with Dean of Arts and Sciences
*12:00 Lunch with Professor A and Professor E
*2:00 Tour of neighboring midwestern university town with Professor C
At this point, I was supposed to then be taken to the airport, to catch a 5:30pm flight back to Newark, but as I mentioned in my previous post, Mother Nature decided to kick up a last minute winter storm, so plans had to be revised.
*6:30 Impromptu dinner with Professor A
SATURDAY, March 17
*5:00am Pick up from B&B to go to airport
*7:30 Flight to Cleveland
*9:30Depart Cleveland for Newark FLIGHT CANCELLED (I was fortunate to have gotten the last seat on the 1:30pm flight to Newark because all other flights to Newark and Philly were booked solid and I would have been forced to go standby.
*1:30Depart Cleveland for NewarkFLIGHT DELAYED
*2:00Depart Cleveland for NewarkFLIGHT DELAYED
*2:30Depart Cleveland for NewarkFLIGHT DELAYED
*3:01Depart Cleveland for NewarkFLIGHT DELAYED
*4:01Depart Cleveland for NewarkFLIGHT DELAYED
*6:00 Depart Cleveland airport for Newark, which had FINALLY gotten its shit together enough to receive incoming flights.
I have to say that the interview session here was probably the most difficult one I've had. All five faculty had prepared a list of 20 questions which they apparently used on all three finalists for the position. They took turns grilling me and writing down their responses to everything I said. Some of the questions were fun to answer: How had I incorporated technology into my own teaching, and what role did I think it played in language pedagogy? But others really pushed me: What did I see as the major differences between teaching English to children in primary school versus children in high school? That one I really didn't answer that well, I fear.
My job talk went rather smoothly though attendance was low - only about 6 people came, and 2 had to leave before it was over. There also wasn't any time for questions, which saddened me a little as I was ready to wow people with my brilliance. ;)
What went really well, and what I really enjoyed, was the model lesson. I had the chance to teach am hour-long graduate course on TESOL Methods for Writing. Because I'm all about the technology, I had requested doing the lesson in the computer lab as I wanted to do something a bit more hands-on and practical though still grounded in solid language learning theory. The risk with doing a lesson in an unfamiliar setting, with unfamiliar students, and a whole bunch of unfamiliar technology is that things can really breakdown. There might be technical issues, people get easily distracted or frustrated, and it's sometimes hard to stick to a lesson plan.
However, this group was a complete joy to teach. I have to say that I think I'd really enjoy working with the types of students who would enroll in the graduate program. I didn't get a crack at any undergraduates or any of the ESL students that were there, but the graduate students might be enough to make this position worthwhile.
It's interesting to see just how different schools can be. This one has a very active union, and I was advised repeatedly by members of the faculty that if a job offer were to be made that they would pass on the contact information of the union president to help me know what to ask for. I've never belonged to a union before, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I've turned into the type of person who likes to embed herself inside the system to make it work for me as opposed to banding together with others to fight for power.
I think this is also the poorest of the three schools I've interviewed at. All faculty share their offices, there is very, very little funding for conference presentations (max $330 per year), and benefits seem rather tight (the faculty went on strike last fall over issues surrounding health insurance). As this school is located a mere few miles from the flagship school of the particular state, which is just swimming in too much money, the discrepancy in resources available to the faculty is rather upsetting. What's particularly upsetting is that this particular university produces a lot of teachers and that teacher education is not handled by the wealthy flagship school up the street. (And people wonder why education is such a problem...)
On the morning of the second day there, the faculty member who picked me up said that they really wanted me to stay - that they fell in love with me. And that they hoped to make an offer either Friday or Monday. This made me feel so happy. Of course, Monday has passed, and I haven't received an official offer, so perhaps she spoke too soon.
In any case, I'm sort of keeping my fingers crossed that somebody out there wants to hire me. I'm also hoping very much that my intended gets an offer soon from the school he interviewed with. I think he really stands a better chance, and I also think that particular school might even be able to hire both of us. But we'll see what happens.
Upon my return to Philly, I was greeted with two more official rejection letters. The revised update on my search for a university job is thus:
*Jobs applied for so far: 16
*Conference Interviews: 1
*Phone Interviews: 4
*Requests for Campus Interviews: 3
*Completed Campus Interviews: 3
*Outright rejections:5
*Indirect rejections: 4
*Job offers: 0
WEDNESDAY, March 14
*Arrive Newark Scandinavian Airlines at 4:15;
*
*Finally arrive at large midwestern airport at 1:30am to be met by Professor A
THURSDAY, March 15
*9:30 Pick up from the Bed and Breakfast from Professor B for of Campus with Professor B
*11:30 Lunch with Professor C
*1:00 No holds barred interview with full search committee
*3:00 Research Presentation to faculty and graduate students
*5:00 Teaching demo: Graduate TESOL Methods Class
*6:00 Dinner with Professor B and Professor D
FRIDAY, March 16
*9:30 Pick up from B&B by Professor B
*10:00 Meeting with Department Head
*11:00 Meeting with Dean of Arts and Sciences
*12:00 Lunch with Professor A and Professor E
*2:00 Tour of neighboring midwestern university town with Professor C
At this point, I was supposed to then be taken to the airport, to catch a 5:30pm flight back to Newark, but as I mentioned in my previous post, Mother Nature decided to kick up a last minute winter storm, so plans had to be revised.
*6:30 Impromptu dinner with Professor A
SATURDAY, March 17
*5:00am Pick up from B&B to go to airport
*7:30 Flight to Cleveland
*9:30
*1:30
*2:00
*2:30
*3:01
*4:01
*6:00 Depart Cleveland airport for Newark, which had FINALLY gotten its shit together enough to receive incoming flights.
I have to say that the interview session here was probably the most difficult one I've had. All five faculty had prepared a list of 20 questions which they apparently used on all three finalists for the position. They took turns grilling me and writing down their responses to everything I said. Some of the questions were fun to answer: How had I incorporated technology into my own teaching, and what role did I think it played in language pedagogy? But others really pushed me: What did I see as the major differences between teaching English to children in primary school versus children in high school? That one I really didn't answer that well, I fear.
My job talk went rather smoothly though attendance was low - only about 6 people came, and 2 had to leave before it was over. There also wasn't any time for questions, which saddened me a little as I was ready to wow people with my brilliance. ;)
What went really well, and what I really enjoyed, was the model lesson. I had the chance to teach am hour-long graduate course on TESOL Methods for Writing. Because I'm all about the technology, I had requested doing the lesson in the computer lab as I wanted to do something a bit more hands-on and practical though still grounded in solid language learning theory. The risk with doing a lesson in an unfamiliar setting, with unfamiliar students, and a whole bunch of unfamiliar technology is that things can really breakdown. There might be technical issues, people get easily distracted or frustrated, and it's sometimes hard to stick to a lesson plan.
However, this group was a complete joy to teach. I have to say that I think I'd really enjoy working with the types of students who would enroll in the graduate program. I didn't get a crack at any undergraduates or any of the ESL students that were there, but the graduate students might be enough to make this position worthwhile.
It's interesting to see just how different schools can be. This one has a very active union, and I was advised repeatedly by members of the faculty that if a job offer were to be made that they would pass on the contact information of the union president to help me know what to ask for. I've never belonged to a union before, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I've turned into the type of person who likes to embed herself inside the system to make it work for me as opposed to banding together with others to fight for power.
I think this is also the poorest of the three schools I've interviewed at. All faculty share their offices, there is very, very little funding for conference presentations (max $330 per year), and benefits seem rather tight (the faculty went on strike last fall over issues surrounding health insurance). As this school is located a mere few miles from the flagship school of the particular state, which is just swimming in too much money, the discrepancy in resources available to the faculty is rather upsetting. What's particularly upsetting is that this particular university produces a lot of teachers and that teacher education is not handled by the wealthy flagship school up the street. (And people wonder why education is such a problem...)
On the morning of the second day there, the faculty member who picked me up said that they really wanted me to stay - that they fell in love with me. And that they hoped to make an offer either Friday or Monday. This made me feel so happy. Of course, Monday has passed, and I haven't received an official offer, so perhaps she spoke too soon.
In any case, I'm sort of keeping my fingers crossed that somebody out there wants to hire me. I'm also hoping very much that my intended gets an offer soon from the school he interviewed with. I think he really stands a better chance, and I also think that particular school might even be able to hire both of us. But we'll see what happens.
Upon my return to Philly, I was greeted with two more official rejection letters. The revised update on my search for a university job is thus:
*Jobs applied for so far: 16
*Conference Interviews: 1
*Phone Interviews: 4
*Requests for Campus Interviews: 3
*Completed Campus Interviews: 3
*Outright rejections:5
*Indirect rejections: 4
*Job offers: 0
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 12:22 am (UTC)Oddly enough, I was in the Cleveland airport for about an hour at the same time you were. My flight from Cancun arrived late and they were holding the connecting plane to Philadelphia; I got through customs fairly quickly then was shuttled to Terminal D-8 by one of those zoomy airport go-cart things. :D It was cool. I wish we had seen each other; that would have been trippy.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 12:37 am (UTC)If you do get this job, my guess is that the union is more to protect your basic rights and interests as an employee than to fight the power.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-21 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-22 09:59 am (UTC)Crap, my dog is trying to chew my power cable!!
Okay, sorry, back. Anyway, yes, I am sending many good thoughts for your job success! :-) Also, I am so sorry I suck at commenting lately! I just got over a huge amount of school work- I think I worked out that in a week and a half I did about 10 assessment pieces, not to mention the fact that I have weekly tests for Cisco. Argh! Anyway, it's no excuse, but I have been reading your posts- just haven't been commenting. Miss you terribly, though. *huggles*