How The Interview Went

So the interview went well. It was long - about six and a half hours, but not as grueling as one might think.

I showed up a little before ten, checked my tie, hair, and teeth in the mirror and then presented myself at the front desk. George Needs (which I think is a hilarious name) from HR came downstairs and vigorously shook my hand. We headed upstairs to the HR office where I got the lowdown on benefits, retirement, etc. Not much on salary yet because they only really start figuring that once they've committed to you. I've got a Master's degree plus over 30 hours of credits from a major state university toward a PhD, plus four years of high ed experience, and two years of YDB (how they'll count that is a mystery.) So hopefully, if I'm hired, we'll have sufficient for our needs.

Anyway, from there I was taken to the testing center where they gave me thirty minutes to write an impromptu essay on my teaching philosophy and how it intersects with the mission of a comprehensive community college. I used the Goethe quote that I have posted on my sidebar as a starting point and wrote a bunch of stuff about how community colleges are the place for humane and compassionate yet rigorous instruction. I came to a comfortable stopping place in the essay with one minute to spare on the egg time they left sitting on the table next to my keyboard.

An English faculty member took me around on a campus tour from there. Suzanne, the girls, and I had walked around the night before and gotten a sense of the place so the tour was more about learning the names of places more than about seeing them for the first time. The campus is really interesting and I've never seen a college put together in exactly the same way. The buildings are all connected and form a ring that circles a tree-filled courtyard. The buildings are pretty maze-like but open with lots of windows. The campus is situated on a hill that leads directly down to the Illinois River and is surrounded by woods.



After the tour came the lunch which was pretty informal - pizza and pop with members of the division. (English, Math, Early Education, etc.) The division members were nice and polite and the pizza was okay. I ended up doing most of my chatting with a math teacher named Wes who is originally from Mississippi. We talked about the differences between northern and southern MS and those sorts of things.

I went from lunch straight to a meeting with the VP for academic affairs. We sat in her office and she asked me a series of questions about my teaching methods, my plans for professional development, etc. Once that was over, she walked me to the President's office. The President is a slender, bald man in his mid-fifties who doesn't seem to have much use for beating around the bush. Nice guy, straight talker. I thought the two of us got along swimmingly.

The last two events were sort of the big finish - a formal interview with all six members of the division hiring committee and a teaching demonstration. The interview consisted of the committee members reading off their list of prepared questions and me doing my best to come up with useful, intelligent answers on the spot. For the teaching demonstration, I presented what I would do in a classroom on an average day. They had given me an essay to work with, "Life of the Closed Mind" by Anna Quindlen, so I used that as a jumping off point and then just did my thing.

Once that was over, each committee member shook my hand and wished me the best of luck and that was it. I splashed some water on my face in the bathroom and then wandered outside to wait for Suzanne and the girls to come and pick me up.

I felt like it went as well as it possibly could have gone. There isn't anything I look back on and think, "Jeeze, I should/shouldn't have said/done that." If they don't pick me, it will be because they just liked someone better, not because I dropped the ball, I don't think.

We'll know one way or the other soon enough. They promised me they'd let people know by the end of this coming week - so no later than Friday. I'll hold them to that and I'll be sure to keep you updated as things develop.