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Academic job interview questions
Nov 7, 2022
Between 2014 and 2019 I went on the North American academic job market for 6(!) cycles. I applied broadly to jobs in theoretical syntax and semantics, experimental/psycholinguistics, SLACs as well as research institutions. I also applied to a handful of jobs in Europe and the UK. I had quite a bit of success, with a total of 29 long-lists and 12 short-lists. I have written separately about my experiences on the job market; I have a lot to say.
Me being me, I took contemporaneous notes from the majority of interviews I did. I’ve been sitting on them for years and I’ve finally decided I should just put them out there for others to use. The academic job market is an absolute horror show (again, the topic of another post), and if this can help at least someone not feel so overwhelmed, I will count that as a great success.
Below are 25 distinct lists. I don’t provide the names of institutions but instead summarize the type of job and department. In the majority of cases the questions are paraphrases rather than verbatim what was asked, since I took notes after the fact.
Long list questions
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- what is a result of yours you are particularly proud of
- describe an empirical discovery of yours (a data set)
- what’s something you’ve changed your mind about since starting to work on it
- where is syntax going in the next 5-10 years
- what’s a “pet” theory you like that isn’t as appreciated as you think it should be
- where do you see yourself in 5 years
- what seminar topics would you offer
- what other areas would you be comfortable teaching in
- how would you help a 1-2nd year student find a research topic
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- tell us what work you want to be doing in 5 years
- what are important issues in syntax today
- what courses would you teach
- what is your experience advising PhD theses
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- tell us about your research and where it is going
- what is the state of syntax
- what do you want to teach
- what should a student know after taking intro syntax
- what makes you excited about joining our department
- how do you see yourself fitting in, extending current strengths
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- tell us about yourself
- where do you see yourself in 3-5 years
- what sources of funding are available for your research
- are you still interested in experimental work
- what is the most important thing to teach graduate students
- same for undergrads
- question about my experience teaching diverse (weaker) students, given my experience teaching at strong departments
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- tell us about your research program and one result you’re particularly proud of (to get the conversation started)
- where do you see the field going (perhaps but not necessarily in relation to your work)
- we teach a year long graduate syntax; PERSON X teaches one, the new hire would teach the other. How would you structure it?
- what seminars would you offer?
- what’s your approach to undergraduate syntax
- what fun course would you offer
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- research: open ended: what are you most excited about in your current research, with follow up questions about what I said; overall a 20 minute conversation on this; we discussed my dissertation and one newer project related to but different from the dissertation
- teaching:
- how would you approach grad intro syntax, given different background levels in the class?
- what seminars would you teach?
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax (these questions were sent ahead of time)
- Please tell us briefly about yourself as an academic, focusing on how your strengths can contribute to our program
- Please describe both your short-term and your long-term research goals
- Briefly describe your view of the theoretical landscape of the field of syntax. What are some of the major approaches, and where do the controversies lie? And where does your own work fit in to this landscape?
- The person we hire must be able to teach our advanced undergraduate and graduate syntax courses. How would you go about organizing and teaching these courses? What other courses might you want to offer as part of a core curriculum in syntax?
- What graduate-level seminars in syntax would you like to offer in the next few years?
- Would you be able to teach a course on formal semantics and/or our Intro to Morphology if the need arose?
- What kinds of facilities or support do you consider important for the work that you and your likely advisees would be doing here at SCHOOL?
- In what ways can you see your teaching and research foci linking with those of other faculty in the department to contribute to and enhance the research done here by students and faculty?
- Our Graduate Student Committee has asked that you comment in particular on what you bring to students. What do you think you could do or would want to do to help guide students in career development in linguistics and to prepare them to find gainful employment?
- How would you foster student involvement in research and help students to develop their own research projects?
- What questions would you like to ask us? Is there anything we have not asked you about, that you would like to tell us?
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- Tell us about yourself
- research related questions concerning my research area
- diverse methods: how do you view experimental work - when do you use it - what’s one new thing we learned from experimental work
- more research questions leading to a general conversation about A-bar syntax
- what would you enjoy teaching at the graduate level
- how would you teach grad intro syntax
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- how do you fit with the department
- who would you collaborate with within and outside the department
- experimental methods
- the new hire will shape the syntax curriculum: what’s your approach, what would you teach
- specifically, how should syntax inform language documentation, computational MAs
- question about an ongoing research project of mine that came up in a previous answer
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in syntax
- teaching:
- what is your approach to teaching undergrad syntax and would it be different than how you would teach graduate syntax
- what other classes could you teach?
- what’s your approach to teaching semantics?
- what’s your approach to teaching experimental linguistics?
- research
- tell us what you’re working on now
- where do you see yourself in 5 years
- advising
- tell us about advising experiences
- fit
- how do you see yourself fitting?
- who could you collaborate with?
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in semantics
- tell us about your current work, exciting results you have obtained
- how does your theory/thinking engage with SOME OTHER THEORY
- if you could teach anything, what would it be?
- semantics is sometimes separate from other fields, not as integrated, how do you think about that
- what is important for students to know if they take semantics
- do you have experience advising students, what have you learned from your past experience
- how do you see yourself fitting with our department, extending strengths and bringing new ones
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in semantics
- describe your two most important research interests
- how does your research affect your teaching
- how would you involve undergraduate and graduate students in your research?
- how might you contribute to the university’s mission to create and sustain diverse perspectives and an inclusive environment?
- what is your experience teaching diverse students, and how would your teaching philosophy help diverse students succeed in your classroom?
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in semantics
- tell us about your research in the context of linguistic representations
- where do you see your work in 3-5 years
- what is a big issue/question in semantics
- how would you teach intro to linguistics and intro to semantics?
- what is an example of a good practice in graduate advising, and what is a bad one?
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in semantics
- what are your current/future research plans
- teaching: what all can you teach? (give full list)
- how would you teach UG semantics?
- how about grad semantics?
- questions about one of my published papers
- questions about a choice I made in my teaching demo
- what are your strengths and weaknesses (by teaching, research, service)
- how do you fit with DEPARTMENT
- question concerning research on endangered languages
- what course would you teach that philosophy majors might take
- question concerning living in CITY (fit)
- what are your hobbies
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview with a UK-based university for a lecturer (TT-equivalent) job in psycholinguistics
- why SCHOOL
- what research overlap do you have with other faculty
- what methods do you know, how did you learn them
- what can you teach of those techniques?
- what do you consider to be your most important paper
- what course would you propose for undergrads
- how would you help undergrads come up with topics for papers for this class
- some of our MA students enter the program with little/no background, and they need to complete a project within 6 months; how would you help them choose a topic
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job in theory
- tell us about your work
- what are you working on now
- what’s one paper you’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years
- what’s one topic where you’ve changed your mind about since you started working on it
- what do you need to succeed in this position
- what courses would you like to offer
- how would you involve undergrads in your work
- what is something you’ve come to understand better after teaching it
- do you have any questions for us
Long-list interview for a TT job at a liberal arts college, broadly syntax
- how would you teach intro syntax (what would you include)? how would you evaluate students
- if you could choose to teach sociolinguistics or computational linguistics, which one would you choose? if you’ve never taught either before, how would you approach this
- what are your data collection methods? how would you bring them over here
- what are your projects for next year? how would you combine your research and your teaching
- no questions for us now, if there is a campus visit then I get to ask questions
Short list questions
Very few of my campus visits included an explicit panel interview.
Short-list interview with a UK-based university for a lecturer (TT-equivalent) job in syntax
- talk-specific questions
- if you had to choose a topic in syntax to teach to 500 people with no background, what would it be (then, teach it)
- if you had (very large sum, $500 million?), what would you use it for?
- how does your research impact society?
- what are important issues in syntax
- why do you want to be in CITY, what attracts you here?
- what courses would you teach?
- do you have any questions for us
Short-list interview for a TT job in semantics for a small department in a state school that doesn’t have a graduate program
- what do the next 5 years of research look like for you
- what languages inform your research in semantics
- how would you structure an undergraduate class in semantics
- how would you structure a graduate class in semantics
- how might you contribute diversity and inclusion at SCHOOL
- how does your teaching accommodate students who are low-income, first-generation college students, and English language learners
Short-list interview for a TT job in semantics for a department with a large undergraduate offering and a small graduate program
- talk-specific questions
- tell us about your research
- who is a formal semanticist who you admire
- what is a major debate in semantics
- what is an exciting trend in semantics
- what is your proudest professional achievement, what is a setback that you’ve overcome
- tell us about your advising experience
- the person hired will be the primary semanticist, do you see that as an issue for advising? imagine a student who wants to work on lexical semantics, what would you say
- how would you teach:
- undergraduate intro semantics, textbook
- intermediate semantics, intermediate pragmatics
- higher level seminars
- general education class, propose something
- we are hoping to start a comp ling MA, is that something you are interested in or could help with
- do you see opportunities for co-teaching within the department and beyond
- do you see your research pursuing external funding
- if you come here what would you need in terms of support to start your research
- how has your teaching changed over time
- why are you interested in SCHOOL
- what would you tell a Dean about what you do and why it’s important
NTT jobs questions
In all the cases below, there was a single Skype/LSA interview with no campus visit or second round. An offer was made (or not) based solely on this interview.
Interview with for a NTT job in syntax
- tell us about your current work and how it fits in with the field
- what is a place where the field has changed over the years, that you could point at to convince students that they should learn new things
- where do you see yourself in 5 years
- how would you teach a graduate seminar
- what kind of experimental work do you do? Would you be interested in co-teaching a graduate acquisition course?
- how would you teach undergraduate intro syntax; we also have a syntax zero class for students who’ve taken undergraduate syntax but might not be ready for graduate syntax yet – how would you teach that
- would you contribute to diversity on campus
Interview with for a NTT job in syntax
- tell us about your research and how it relates to the state of the field
- one place where research has changed since you started grad school and it’s important for students to know about
- something you’ve learned/changed about your teaching
- what new things would you bring to the department
- how you would interface with faculty at SCHOOL
- what most attracts you to SCHOOL
- questions for us
- do you have any questions for us
Interview for a TT job in syntax
- teaching: what seminar would you teach?
- research (all from here out): a long conversation about several of my papers and my dissertation
Interview with for a NTT job in syntax
- tell us about your work
- what is one place where you’ve changed your mind from when you started working on it
- what is a paper that you read recently that you enjoyed
- how would you teach syntax 1? follow up: could you include your own work in the class
- what are seminar topics that you could teach
- what are topics in intro that students enjoy
- what do you most enjoy about teaching
- is there anything that you would want to improve about your teaching
- advising: what is important when advising students
- how would you help a student, say in syntax 1, who comes to you having trouble finding a topic for a final paper
- do you have any questions for us
Interview with for a NTT job in semantics
- tell us about your work and what you’re excited about
- concerning the use of experimental methods, specifically Turk – what is it good for, what are the limitations; what is the needed effect size?
- how would you teach intro to semantics sequence
- what general interest course would you pitch (must interest non-linguists)
- do you have any questions for us
The gist
Congrats, you’ve scrolled through 25 lists! I hope you’ve started to notice some similarities across the questions being asked, plus some of the unusual questions that are more interesting and harder to come up with answers for on the spot. If I were using this to prep for an upcoming interview, I might try to have answers at least to the following:
Collection of prep questions
- tell us about your research
- where do you see your work in 3-5 years
- how would you teach {intro to Ling, intro to SUBJECT, advanced SUBJECT}
- what seminars would you teach
- why do you want to work at DEPARTMENT (incl identifying faculty with related interests)
- how would you involve students in your work
- do you have any questions for us
Collection of less expected but very good questions
- what’s the state of FIELD
- what’s a major open debate in SUBFIELD
- who is a scientist in FIELD that you admire
- what’s a paper you’ve enjoyed in the past 2 years
- what’s a topic you changed your mind about since you started working on it
Notice that I’ve proposed no answers to anything here. My only piece of advice is this: always have questions for the committee. Two questions you should always ask are: (a) is there anything I haven’t told you that you’d like to know more about (this on occasion leads to important clarification questions that wouldn’t have come up otherwise), and (b) what is the timeline for next steps (so you’re stressing less if you don’t hear from them for some time). Aside from that questions depend on specifics, but someone once told me to make sure you ask things that make your interlocutor feel good about themself. So don’t ask about things you know are problematic or broken in their department; maybe focus instead on things that you think they’re proud of.