[Bri, moderator] All right. So hello everyone. My name is Bri Lafond, and I'm chair of OWCAÕs Virtual Events Committee. Welcome to today's Online Writing Centers Association webinar, ÒGenres of the Job Market.Ó We'll be hearing from two presenters today: Dr. Jill Dahlman and Dr. Andrea Hernandez-Holm. We'll be getting started in just a couple of minutes. In the meantime, please take a moment to introduce yourself in the chat. Let us know where you're joining us from today. You might want to share your interest in the topic of today's webinar. Are you, for example, going on the job market this fall? Or are you anticipating an influx of folks wanting help with their job market materials in your writing center? Feel free to do a brief introduction. I'm going to ask that folks keep their themselves muted and turn off your camera until we reach the interactive Q&A portion of today's presentation. If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar today, you can message the OWCA events account in the chat: that's me. Or you can send an email to our events@onlinewritingcenters.org email. Honestly, messaging me is the fastest way, so that would be my suggestion. And I apologize: my cat is already going crazy because he's heard me presenting a webinar, so you may hear scurrying in the background. Before we jump into things, I'd like to thank our presenters today, Jill and Andrea. I'd also like to thank our interpreters who are here for Morr Interpreting, LLC. If, again, you don't see an interpreter at any point, just message us and we'll get you set up. Here are some notes on the structure of the webinar today. Note from that robot voice we heard earlier that we are recording. We keep these webinars recorded for posterity on our website, so if you aren't comfortable appearing on camera, that's totally fine. Or you don't want to have your voice heard on our recording, that's fine, too. You can go ahead and put any questions or comments in the chat, and we will read them out loud. If at any time again, you can't see the interpreter, please drop us a message to the OWCA events account in the chat, and we'll make sure that gets set up. Again, please keep your mic turned off until it's time for our interactive Q&A portion. You can feel free to post comments and/or questions in the chat at any time during the presentation. We may not get to everybody right away, but we're all kind of keeping an eye on things, and we'll try to get everybody heard. And here's a quick refresher on the structure of Zoom. ZoomÕs chat, in case you need a reminder, you can find the chat button on the bottom of the screen and the chat window should appear either to the right of the screen or as a separate window on your computer. I'm going to go ahead and transition over our slides for presentation slides, and while we're doing that, I'm going to give you a brief introduction to our presenters. Jill Dahlman (she/her) is one of the directors of California Northstate University's Writing Center, the Media and Communication Studio. She may give you a little bit more background info as we get started, but that's the basics. And then Andrea Hernandez-Holm (she/her) is the director of the Writing Skills Improvement Program at the University of Arizona. I'm going to go ahead and hand things over to them. Take it away.

[Jill, presenter] Okay. Hi, I'm Jill Dahlman, and today we're going to be talking in a very broad sense about how to guide someone who is in the writing center, to go ahead and help them to write things such as a CV. We're also going to talk about some of the pitfalls and happy moments of procuring that job or applying for the job that you really want to achieve. Next slide, please.

[Andrea, presenter] As you're thinking about your role or your interest in our topic today, you want to consider: are you a job seeker? Or are you a support specialist? Because those positions are going to demand different needs out of the topic for you. If you are on the job market, we want to encourage you to think about the process as a research process that you are actively engaging in from beginning to end. Do your research throughout the process, be reflective about your experiences. This is one of those points that I think is most difficult when we're searching for a job, because most of us are at thatÉ maybe not panic point. But we are thinking about: I need a job, I'll be graduating soon. This is how I'm going to, you know, make money to eat. It's hard to be reflective about what our writing looks like, what our references said about us, how we did through the interview process, but the more reflective we can be, the better we are prepared for the next step. Get feedback; get feedback from peers, from tutors, from colleagues, from advisors, and mentors. It's never too early to begin gathering those materials or, certainly, reviewing applications, even if you are not on the job market. There's no harm in starting early and looking at the positions that are available in your field and starting to understand what the requirements are for those positions, discussing the process, again, with peers, with advisors with mentors, and attending any type of support that's available to you on campus or off campus. If you are on the tutor side, and you are preparing to help writers as they go through the process, I think it's important that we remember our role is to support them to encourage them to look at the job seeking experience as a process that they have control over. It's not just about providing the reader with what they think that the reader wants. ItÕs about thinking critically about their own goals and their own needs in the job search. Help them to learn to read job descriptions strategically, to understand how they're organized, and why things are listed the way they may be listed. I encourage them to expand their knowledge about the process, to always be seeking out information. And then I think it's also really important to remember: there are trends in job seeking, and those trends are constantly changing, even in academia. What may have been the standard for an application for a CV or a letter of interest twenty years ago is probably not the standard today. It's important that you're exposing them, and you're exposing yourself, to those changes so that you can help them prepare a competitive packet. Of course, remember that you don't have all the answers, and no one does. I think we all know as a specialist, that that's something that we are often trying to convey to the writers that we work with: that we're there to support them, to offer them advice and guidance, but we don't know everything. And that's okay: we can learn as much as we can together.

[Jill, presenter] One thing I do encourage everyone to do is to take a look at that ad. If you're going on the market, say, for example, next season, you should look at what's going on right now and understand some of the documents that people are looking for. Once you have an idea as to what things you will need. At the very least you will need a cover letter and a CV, which we'll talk about, but understand why you feel that you qualify for a specific position. Because that's really, really helpful when you're both trying to help a writer prepare and trying to prepare your own documents. Next slide, please. Here, what you want to do is have a very good understanding of what you want in a job. Sometimes the job is going to offer you something that you never even imagined you wanted or needed. But it's really cool, so you need to go ahead and have an idea as to what you want, and what you hope for other than a decent paycheck that allows you to survive, right? You want to know what your short term goals are. Perhaps this place you're applying for is really good for the now, but not good for the long term. Because eventually you might want to go back to family, you might want to be closer to where you're teaching right now. Anything like that would affect those goals. You have to you have to be excited about something You have to be interested in something. You have to be proud of what you've accomplished thus far. One of the things that I think is super important is allowing these written reflections to affect how you will- how you will write your cover letter. I think that that's super important. Different hiring committees look at things differently. I personally look at the cover letter first, but I know people on the hiring committee look at the CV first. Think about how you qualify for the job. Some people will suggest, and this is- to me this is totally and completely up to you, is to come up with different CVs for every job so that you emphasize your qualities that would fit the position. You also want to find out if the job, the institution, the city, the community will work. If you are- I am from Hawaii, for example, and going to a place that's ultra conservative doesn't fit with my value system, so I'm not going to go ahead and apply for a position in a super conservative area. But knowing why you want to be someplace and where you want to live is key. 

[Andrea, presenter] And writing through that thinking process can be so helpful, you know, because it not only gives you that opportunity to engage in that self-reflection, but it can also help you to prepare material that you might pick up and put into a diversity statement or personal statement or the cover letter. Being able to articulate what you're excited about ,what you're interested in, what you know, what your work is contributing to the field: those are all points that the reader is looking for in the application packet. Helping those applicants understand that, you know, we're not encouraging you to write just to add something else to your plate, but instead to give this, you know, a place in the process. It's like a brainstorming stage.

[Jill, presenter] Right, exactly. So next slide, please.

[Andrea, presenter] Okay: research everything. This is really an important piece of advice that we can offer students in all of our writing to support the documents that they're working with. But for job applications, it's so important, again, that they're thinking about looking into every aspect of the job. So as Jill was saying, where is this job? Do you want to live there? Is this the campus that you want to work at? That involves research, whether it's on Google or reaching out to colleagues, you're doing your best to understand the situation that you are putting yourself into, and that you're making yourself available to understand the campus that you're applying to. Review the missions, the values, etc, about the university, the college, the department. Most universities and colleges do have the basic information available to viewers on the website. There's an image here, a snapshot of the MSU Denver homepage, and as you can see, some of the information listed there includes the core values of the university. It includes messages from the President, their positions on diversity, equity, inclusion. It's really important as you're deciding that you're going to apply that you've read this information and you start to get an understanding of what that university supports and stands by and make a decision: does that align with who you are and what you want? Knowing your location: is this a state you're familiar with? Can you see yourself fitting in? Can you afford to live here, especially if this is your first time on the job market? And you're looking at that starting salary for a tenure track assistant professor. Maybe 60,000 looks great; if you're from Tucson, that's pretty livable wage. But is that a livable wage if it's 60,000 a year being offered in San Francisco? You want to do your research and check that out. There is this website SperlingÕs Best Places cost of living that allows you to enter that type of data, and it'll pull up those comparisons so you can understand the cost of living between different areas. ItÕll help you make some decisions about what is sustainable for you. And then again know yourself: are the place and the culture good fits for you? Oftentimes, we think about the fact that we need a job, right? I don't have a choice, this is the job that's available, so I have to apply to it. But it is really something that needs to be really grappled with, especially when you think about how strenuous and stressful the first year can be for early academic researchers. ItÕs your first year on the tenure track, you're in a new city, you're in a new location, everything is new: is this going to be the place that is going to help you grow? Is it a good bet for you for that first year?

[Jill, presenter] And I don't want anyone to discount a place where you're going to be like, I don't know, the fifth person in the English department or the very first writing center coordinator: those can be challenging positions, but they can also be very good positions, because it allows you to spread your wings and to apply what you've already learned through your course studies. You do want to make certain, though, that you can actually afford to live there, and not everybody can afford to live in specific places, as Andrea pointed out. Make certain that you avail yourself of SperlingÕs Best Places cost of living because it shows you what you need to live on what the salary might be. Sometimes it can be surprising, because you don't need as much to live there, and you're going to be able to sock some money away and get back to your favorite place, wherever that happy place might be. ThatÕs equally as important in knowing the location. IÕm going to go ahead and- next slide. There you go. Here are questions that you might want to concentrate on. When you are actually in the Skype or Zoom interview, you want to find out what's the teaching load? How much are you going to be expected to research? How much teaching? What's the publication expectations? Are they going to require that you have grants for everything that's important? What's your course load? Do you have to advise students, mentoring responsibilities, service expectations? And what is the allotted time for research? What resources and support are provided. I work with an individual who smartly sets aside 20% of her time each week to make certain she gets her research completed because that is how much she needs. You'll see it in the job announcement, it will tell you- it might be a 60/20/20: 60% teaching, 20% research, 20% service. Look at those things, check to make certain that you fit at least the minimum qualifications, and make certain that you have enough time to dedicate to applying for this particular position. Andrea: you want to take it away about that announcement?

[Andrea, presenter] Yeah, and I did also want to add that knowing this information is also going to help you craft the materials in your application, right? If, for example, if you just have a template letter of interest that you send out to every job, and you emphasize the research that you've done and the research that you're interested in doing, is that actually appropriate for every job you're applying to? You have to look at the job description to know if that job is requiring research emphasis or teaching emphasis. You want to make sure that you're understanding the job requirements. We did want to look at a job description. I'm going to paste the link in the chat and we'll also bring it up. I'll share my screen just so that we could go over it a little bit together as we practice reading it

[Jill, presenter] Okay, we'll give everybody a chance to take a look at this ad.

[Andrea, presenter] Okay, so hopefully you're able either to see the screen or pull it up on your own on your own dashboard. This is a recent advertisement for a position in the English and Literature Department at Metropolitan State University. We can see here at the beginning: it begins with the description. This is a tenure track assistant professor position in English Education. The nine-month appointment with full benefits will begin January 2024. The position carries a 3/3 teaching load, responsible for teaching English Education courses, as well as service courses in English for English majors and minors. Okay, so right away, we know this is teaching emphasis I think, too, something important is understanding what the language is: like, what does that mean? 3/3 means you're teaching three courses per semester for each of the semester they have

[Jill, presenter] Be mindful that some universities are on a quarter system. Now, take a look at your own syllabi and say, Can I condense this information from a 15 or 16-week semester into a 10-week quarter?

[Andrea, presenter] And this application doesn't say. But most applications, or some applications will tell you if it's developing your own coursework. But you know, so in reference to what Jill was saying, looking at your own syllabi, and saying, I've already got a course on this topic. Or if they have a prepared curriculum, and you're just leading the instruction. You want to look for that type of information as well. Then we have a couple of paragraphs that are describing the university's philosophical positions, their social directives. [This advertisement lists] active in strategic initiatives, inclusivity culture of access, and diversity, equity and inclusion statement. This is clearly something that is very important at this university: it's at the top of the job description You want to read it to understand it, but you also want to read it to borrow the language. In your own documents, you want to be able to reflect the language that the job description is sharing. Being able to speak about how your work or your research or your teaching pedagogies respond to inclusivity and equity and align with what the university is explaining here. And then this paragraph does a combination: they're interested in applicants who have experience working with students from diverse backgrounds. We kind of got a sense that might be coming with the emphasis from these two paragraphs. It's a Hispanic Serving Institute, so that is something that is significant for them. You want to start thinking, how does my experience align with that? For example, if I were applying to this position, I could refer to my experience, also being at an HSI and the strategies that I use or the opportunities I've been involved with. Then they follow with the responsibilities, and we can see they have very clearly structured teaching and advising is leading. That means in your documents, you should lead with teaching and advising. Then we have scholarly activities. This tells us the research, and we can see Òbring enrichment to the faculty member and the profession that results in new material that can be presented to students.Ó We know that they're talking about both academic research, traditional empirical research, and might be community-based research, but it's something that is contributing to the profession as well as to campus climate. And then finally, service and notice the difference among these three paragraphs. Teaching and advising and scholarly activities have a pretty big chunk while service only has one full sentence. Chances are service is going to be less than I would say 10% of what's required. That just means in your application materials you're not going to lead with all of the committees that you've participated on or all of the events you've helped organize. Those are important and you're going to make reference to them, but those shouldn't be the bulk of your application materials.

[Jill, presenter] I had a very good friend from University of New Mexico tell me that they have rubrics with every single point on it, and if somebody mentions it, or includes it on a CV, we give them points. She suggested making certain that your cover letter follows the ad, almost exactly. We would put in required qualifications--that's something that is non-negotiable--you have to do it. Then preferred qualifications. I've heard two different stories about this, but the one that I was advised was that this is really, really nice to have, your the cherry on the top of our sundae. But I've also heard it as don't even apply unless you meet all of them. I am of the camp where put that cherry on the sundae and say in addition to. Andrea?

[Andrea, presenter] I agree. I think something that we also think about is that preferred qualifications can sometimes be signal language for internal readers. The required qualifications tell the general population, the person who applies for this field and gets the position absolutely has to have a PhD in English Education. But the preferred qualifications is an area that allows the human resources and the university to be more specific about what they would really like. Sometimes that means that they have somebody in mind. Looking at that information, think about, do I really have that? Here, it says preference will be given to candidates with a doctoral degree, that shows a concentration in studies supportive of teaching secondary language, arts education, undergrad and masters level courses, and college level composition, experience working with preservice teachers, demonstrated excellence in teaching, and ability to work correct collaboratively. You can see how they've really narrowed the field then, from just the required qualification of a PhD and a minimum of three years, now they're saying, we really want someone who perhaps is already doing this work. That's not to discourage you from applying, it's just so that you're aware that there are things that happen behind the scenes in the application process that you have no control over. You can address in your materials, like Jill was saying, if you've got that experience, put that in there: you speak to that, that's the cherry on top. But just know that these things are happening as well. Then, of course, the salary information, instructions on how to apply. This is so important, reminding ourselves and our students that they don't put the instructions there just for giggles. This is part of the process they use to weed out people. If you can't follow the directions to apply for the position, your application isn't going to make it through the system. It will forever be held up if they don't receive three references. You want to make sure that you follow those directions.

[Jill, presenter] The other thing you have to follow is it says to upload all materials to the resume submission field. They're not kidding around, if you decide to go ahead and take that automated system and just start scattering it around, then there's going to be a problem because they're looking for the documents in one specific place. It says alternatively merge all documents into one PDF for submission. ThatÕs another thing that you can do instead, but they're very serious about where to find that information. If you can make certain that the information is exactly where they tell you to, you stand a better chance.

[Andrea, presenter] I'm going to stop sharing and Bri I think we're ready to go back to the PowerPoint. Thank you.

[Jill, presenter] There are required materials, that goes without saying. Then at the very minimum they will ask for a CV, which in Latin stands for curriculum vita means Òthe story of my life.Ó They're not kidding. They want the story of your life. Not from what you did from age two on, but what they're looking for is information that will speak to the position. Go through that cover letter to hit all of those minimum qualifications and desired qualifications if you meet them. Sometimes there is a writing sample request, requests for samples of a syllabus, or crazier but which I totally completely understand is a teaching portfolio where they say what should be in a teaching portfolio: a teaching philosophy, writing sample, and sometimes an assignment sample. But some of the specific statements that they're going to ask for: diversity, teaching, research, position, and purpose. I'm going to let Andrea take that one away.

[Andrea, presenter] Not every position is going to ask for these. Sometimes theyÕll ask for it in the first round, sometimes they won't ask until the second round. But you can get a sense often of what university will ask for which statement. In the example from the MSU, diversity was at the forefront of the job description: it was very important to the position. My guess is that they would ask for a diversity statement. It was a teaching emphasis position, so chances are they're going to ask for a teaching statement. Statements are usually one to two single-spaced pages, and they address your pedagogy or your positionality in those areas. A diversity statement doesn't necessarily mean that you speak to your own identity or your own status, unless it applies to your research and your teaching approaches. You wouldn't necessarily need to explain that I'm the only Mexican American director in my field. However, if that is part of how you teach, how you lead, then certainly that's going to become part of your statement. The statements are essentially persuasive essays: you're explaining to the reader what your position is and you're making a claim about why you think your position is important. Then you're defending it with examples from your experience or from how you might engage a pedagogy or a research approach. One thing that you do want to remember is the information between statements, so if you have to write a diversity statement and a research statement and a teaching statement, there shouldn't be any cutting and pasting that happens among them. You want to make sure that you have new information that you're discussing in each of those statements. It might be the same topic: maybe you want to talk about how you how you facilitate inclusivity in your classroom: you just want to make sure that you speak to it differently in that diversity statement then you speak to it in the teaching statement.

[Jill, presenter] And I think what's key here is, is that you keep these documents unique, and have them all. Make certain that you have them all. The reason I say that is because you never know which position you apply for is going to require which statement. I know for myself, I see a lot of requests for teaching statements. When I look at these ads to help people, they're looking to find out how are you going to teach that class? Are you the sage on the stage? Are you the person who involves others? There's also an administrative statement, which if you're going to be applying for a writing center director or assistant director position, you're probably going to be asked about what's your philosophy in how you lead people and where does that come from? Having these things handy is going to help you, is going to facilitate this job market process. Next slide please. Okay, so please make certain that you write for the academics who you don't know, please make certain that you don't write in text message or in something that isn't quite fitting for an academic audience. Always just have somebody look it over, because sometimes there's a silly little autocorrect that nobody wants to deal with. If you think you put it in purposefully, if you think you put it in purposefullyÉ you put it one way and then it comes out another. Just check Microsoft at the door and make certain they didn't change what you intended. The other thing you want to do is create some kind of organization system early. Make certain that you have a copy of the ad. You can download it as a PDF to your computer and then save it and put it in into a folder specifically for that position. The reason I suggest that is because sometimes hiring committees don't get around to calling you right away. When that happens, you might have applied for that 10 or 15 positions ago, and you're like, wait a minute, what was that ad for? I don't remember. But if you have it in a PDF, you can go back and go, I remember that ad that was an awesome job. Then you can at least review the position, plus you can also keep in their cover letters and documents if you've changed them and things of that nature. One of the things I do when I went out on a mass job hunt, and I'm not going to say how many jobs I applied for because it's embarrassing, but- and I did get a job, just FYI. What you're looking for is to keep a log about all of this. You want to go ahead and know where you applied. When was the close date? Whether or not you heard back? What were your notes? The reason you're doing this is because not only does it help you to be better that next go around, but it also helps to remind you, oh, I never want to work there. That course cap is ridiculous. They want me to teach 45 students in five classes a semester, whoa, back up. You know, those are the kinds of things that you need to take notes about. It also helps you if you get called in for a campus interview, and they fly you out, then at least you know what you applied for, your notes about how the Zoom meeting went, your interviews. Then check them against your own personal goals. Andrea, do you want to bring up anything else?

[Andrea, presenter] No, I just want to say tha there's no reason to be embarrassed if you apply to 200 jobs, and you don't get any of them. That's okay. I mean, that's the state of the market right now. And academia, we know it's been heading that way. Right now it doesn't look like it's improving. But being organized in the process also gives you the opportunity to reflect on what you're doing. You get a sense of what type of institutions you've been applying to, what your thought process was in applying to them. As Jill was saying, did it go well? Do you want to work with them? What can you do to improve your process, your writing, your interview skills? Don't get down on yourself if that is your experience. Not everybody, and usually very few, will get the first job that they interview for. So that's okay.

[Jill, presenter] It's one of the things that I did with my journal, because I had a job journal was I wrote down- I interviewed with, for example, where I am right now, California Northstate University. These are the questions they asked, this is how I answered them, this is what how I felt after each one, this is how I can improve my answers in future interviews. One of the things- when I was on the hiring committee, there was an individual who constantly made reference to the demographics of a particular institution where they were at and where they were trying to get out of. That doesn't come across real well. This is something that they might put into their job journal to say, okay, this is how I answered it. Maybe I shouldn't have answered it this way. I should answer it that way. Because, frankly, a lot of the questions are the same. When you have to prepare for these job interviews, you want to go ahead and review what you've done before, review what you've talked about before, all of that in order to become someone who is viable for a specific position.

[Andrea, presenter] And I think we have a sample from your one of your logs on the next slide.

[Jill, presenter] We do. Okay, so please excuse the WTFs that are in are there. But I went ahead and I mentioned where the position, the close date, and when I submitted and what happened. Do not be surprised if you do not get any answers. Because lots of times, people just don't answer. I wish that they would, but they just don't answer. It tells you, for me, keeps track of what I've applied for and where they are. I also color-coded things. Yellow for me meant, okay, I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I think that the pale blue- I can't remember what the pale blue was, to be honest. But the other ones, these periwinkle-colored ones, those are the ones where I interviewed via Zoom. Then I wrote notes to myself: Okay, they called requesting an interview with the same time as another place and then that was it. You can see how these notes are important. It also tells you whether or not you want to work there. Because if the interview didn't go, well, it's not a great thing. There was one time when a person answered their emails throughout my Zoom interview, and I was like, what's going on here? Why is this happening? Again, at the very least, put down the university name, the position, the close date, whether or not you submitted it and what the outcome is, because then you don't have to worry. You can also go ahead and send out an email and say, Hi, can you tell me whether or not I made it this far? That would be really helpful. Those kinds of information, those kinds of pieces of information. So next slide, please. Andrea, take it away. 

[Andrea, presenter] Okay. Preparing for the interview is part of the writing process. Again, this is an important idea to impart to the writers that we're working with and to remember in our own work as the specialists: that all of the preparation that is going into a job application is part of that critical thinking and writing process and it deserves the same attention that we would give to course papers or submitting the thesis or preparing the dissertation we're defending. What you write represents you, your needs, and your goals. On one of the slides way back, it says something about remember to be honest, be genuine, be confident. The same idea: that we want to encourage applicants to focus on telling the story of who they are in the writing and how they want to be in conversation with the organization and not to focus on trying to make themselves fit into what the organization wants. You might be able to do that, maybe you're really good at marketing yourself. Maybe you are very talented at telling a story that fits precisely into the mold that they're looking for. But if it doesn't genuinely represent you and who you are as an academic and who you are as a person, it's going to be a difficult or challenging experience once you're there. Allowing that honesty and that personal tone to bleed through is really important. Of course, researching the job, the department, the institution, everything should include that reflection and critical thinking. Again, we're not trying to add more to the list of things that need to be done, but to ask writers to be thoughtful about each of these steps for their own good. Thinking again about the institution. Is this where I want to be? One of the things that I encounter a lot when I'm working with students as they're applying is the desire to return to their hometown to teach at a university nearby mom and dad or near where they grew up. Sometimes, when they get into that, it's very loaded with disappointment if it doesn't go the way they want it to go, or they haven't thought about what it means to actually work for that institution. All they're seeing is that it's near home. We want to encourage them to think about the institution as an entity, and do they want to be a part of it? And then researching the process, again, understanding as much as you can before you actually get to the interview. Is it going to be via phone, via Zoom, via Skype? Is that the first round of interviews? What does that first round entail? In the past two years, what I have seen is a trend towards the first round being 15 to 30 minutes via Zoom, and it's mostly a review of your application materials. Then there's a decision about moving you on to the second round. The second round is not typically a campus visit: it's also Zoom, but you're going to meet with different people, and you may be asked to do some more preparation. If you get asked to the campus interview, what is that going to include? Will there be a teaching example where you'll be asked to lead a class, to teach a lesson to a lecture hall? Or what will that be? Will you be meeting with the deans, with undergrad students, graduate students, department faculty? I know I've done interviews where it's included all of those. It's been a public presentation, a classroom presentation, meetings with student clubs associated with the department, meetings with the dean, meetings with department heads, meetings with affiliated departments. Just getting an understanding of what will be expected of you and what those meetings mean: what is it? What do you talk about when you go see the dean? And then, what are some common interview questions? Asking your advisors, asking peers who have been on interviews. Google will tell you what some common questions are. Learning that language to help prepare. We don't know the exact questions for most interviews, unless you get an institution that sends you the questions. But we can get a sense of what they're going to ask. And we can often learn that from reading job descriptions as well. And then what happens if you get an offer? What do you do? Do you just accept the first offer? Do you accept it without negotiation? Do you know how to negotiate? This is a real challenge, especially for those of us who are like, yeah, it's a job offer, I'm going. But remember, you want to think about: is that cost of living something I can do? Is the salary negotiable? What are they offering me? Is there a course release for research? All of those things: you want to learn the language so that you can have those conversations.

[Jill, presenter] And one of the things I'm going to bring up when it comes to a campus interview was some wonderful, sage advice that I got from a mentor of mine. She said from the second you get on that plane to the second you get home, you need to be prepared to be- not watched, but you need to be prepared to be on cue. One of the things that I do want to caution is with Zoom interviews: please dress all the way because I have been involved in Zoom interviews as a hiring committee member where the individual only wore- there was a man who wore just a shirt, a tie, and a suit jacket, and nothing else and then stood up to get a door. Somebody's at the door or something like that. I thought to myself: these are things that no hiring committee should ever see. If you're fully dressed, you don't have to worry about that. But when you're getting on that plane, try not to wear sweats: wear something that looks casual and comfortable, but still professional. The other thing that happens often on campus interviews or that I have experienced are you're going to go ahead and meet from eight o'clock in the morning- so they may serve you breakfast, they may not. They also may serve you lunch, and you may have lunch with graduate students. The agenda can be so jam-packed that there's no time for a bio break, but you need one. Don't be afraid to ask. And it continues until the final dinner, so to speak. When everybody's- when the faculty are going out with you to go ahead and get to know you a little bit better. Try to keep everything professional. Don't talk about personal life: please don't talk about personal life. Nobody needs to know that you have 60 cats that you're trying to move across the country. This is just- keep it strictly to the business end. And I think that that's probably the best advice I've ever gotten. Andrea?

[Andrea, presenter] That's really good. I think something else that you want to know is that oftentimes at campus visits, you might be invited to tour the city with a faculty member. You might even be invited to meet with a real estate agent. Those do not mean you're being offered the job. Be aware of that. Keep that in mind. You also want to think about, where are they taking you? What are they showing you? If you're only going to, the side of town where all the fancy malls are? What does that mean? Is there something else going on? What are the conversations happening? Being aware of those things, I think is important. 

[Jill, presenter] Right. Next slide, please. Thank you. Okay, so now we can open it up for questions.

[Bri, moderator] Yes: we did have someone ask in the chat if the slides will be made available to folks, and yes: you will get access to this information. Typically, we send out an email once the recording and captions are complete. That will also include any supporting documents like the slides. And there was a question in the chat about position statements. But both Jill and Andrea have responded with some clarification. Do other folks have questions? Feel free to unmute yourself, or if you want to raise your hand or put that question in the chat.

[Jill, presenter] There is a question about minimum versus required. Minimum and required pretty much mean the same thing. This is what you absolutely, positively must have. You can also see preferred qualifications and desired qualifications: those are the ones that are the cherry on the top.

[Andrea, presenter] I see there's a question about what kind of advice would you give to international students about the job market? That's a great question. I'm assuming you mean that if they're applying to positions in the US, at US institutions. First, you want to make sure that you have your paperwork in order, you understand what your visa is, and what your documentation allows. You can also determine with the university what they provide. Most job descriptions will include information about international applicants. It may say we cannot hire someone with the such-and-such visa. If it doesn't, and that's a concern for you, then make sure that you reach out. There's usually a contact person, an HR person that you can reach out to. For example, on that job description that we looked at together, they don't have any information about international applicants, but they do have a contact for a posting representative. You would reach out to them just to determine. In the application itself, they may have a form for you to fill out. In terms of your information, you're really not going to share anything different I don't think. I mean, you're going to focus on your experiences. How do you qualify for this position? And what are those nuances from your teaching or research or learning experiences that help make you a strong candidate? You're going to share those. The only thing I would say is that in most applications for the US, you don't include photos, you don't include your birth date on your CV or your statements. That tends to be the biggest difference I experience with international students and non-international that are applying: that many international applications actually request photos. But in the US, it's illegal to request those.

55:08
Right. There is a question here from Christy: can we get examples of three or so questions we would expect for the first round of interview? Common questions. Okay. Initially, most people, most institutions will run their questions by legal to make absolutely certain, or by HR, to make absolutely certain they are not asking questions that are illegal. However, that doesn't mean that a question can't get by. Because there are some people who say: I don't care, I want to know how many kids do they have? And do they play soccer? It happens. I would recommend brushing up on the university. One of the questions they might ask is, tell us about how your teaching style would fit in with our institution. There, you're going to have to know something about their institution, and how your particular style of teaching is actually going to fit in. Those are things that I think are very important to know. Other things areÉ I did get a question from a Nevada institution where they said, this is located in this location, can you tell us why you want to move here? And there, they're not looking for personal reasons, but they're looking for: I love the institution, I would like to be a part of it, I like to work with professor so-and-so who is has always been somebody I've admired. You can also stateÉ well, I did. I know it's not something that they're looking for. But I stated, hey, this particular location is an hour away from my family. I really would like to work there. But stick to professional if you are able to. The third one would probably be talking about how you your research interests fit in with our institution? Or would you require special arrangements for that? Fr example, do you need a special lab, those kinds of things. That's what I would recommend kind of brushing up for. But bear in mind: they're not looking for personal information. They're looking for how you personally would fit your pedagogy and your research into their institution and how it would complement. You might even say something like, I noticed that you have a budding Film and Literature department or concentration, and I feel that I would fit in this way. The next question, Andrea says in a tight job market, what advice do you have for students who do not procure an offer for a full time position? 

[Andrea, presenter] Yeah. I think you have to decide, are you committed to staying in academia or are you open to jobs outside of it? If you are determined to stay in academia, then look for positions like lecturer positions, adjunct positions, roles that allow you to continue having that foothold. You want to be careful, because the longer you are away from your PhD defense, the older you are in terms of viability for applications for the tenure track. By that, I just mean you wouldn't necessarily want to be in an adjunct position for 10 years and then start applying for PhD-required roles for tenure track. At any rate, go for those. If you're okay with leaving academia, look outside of academia. Look towards industry, look towards fields that are hungry for the type of expertise that you have. I have a student, for example, her degree was in sociolinguistics. She had a postdoc for a year, and then she didn't get a position. She wasn't able to get a tenure track position, but she did get an offer from Universal Studios, and she's now head of their department that does cultural and language education. She's very happy, she still gets to teach. She's still working in the field. But it was something unexpected for her. I would say just be open to the possibilities.

[Jill, presenter] Right. And don't be afraid to adjunct. Because the more experience you have as a teacher, sometimes that will help quite a bit. It's just more you have to offer. And then the next question is, would you say you disclose that you are international? Maybe in diversity statement? Would it harm in any way in terms of a work visa sponsorship? I'm going to be totally transparent. I know nothing about it, because our school does not accept international applicants. However, Andrea, do you know anything?

[Andrea, presenter] Yeah, what I would say is that it does not help you to not disclose it for a couple of reasons. One, those applications are you. Those are legal documents. You're asked to confirm that all of the information you're sharing is truthful. You're signing it off. Disclosure is not going to harm you. The other thing is that if you're applying for a job, and it turns out that they don't hire international applicants, but you make it along in the process because you haven't shared that you're an international applicant, it's not that they're going to change their mind because you're so wonderful, and they want to hire you. They can't. They don't have that capacity. All that means is that now you've wasted your time. And youÕve wasted their time. I would say always be honest, disclose.

[Bri, moderator] I think we're going to have to wrap up because we've went a little over the hour. But thanks very much to our presenters today, to Jill and to Andrea. And thank you to our interpreters. And thanks to everyone for attending today. Reminder that we will again be sending out the recording and the materials for this in case you have additional things you want to check in about. And just a quick plug for the organization. We recently sent out the OWCA 2024 Virtual Conference CFP. If you're looking for a professional development opportunity, you might want to check that out. Thank you again for attending and have a lovely rest of your day. And good luck on the job search for those of you who are on the market this fall.

[Andrea, presenter] Thank you all so much.