Help please lovely MNetters for Lecturer interview!

[PhysiologicalResponse]

Regular poster but NC for obvious reasons.

I've landed myself an interview of a Lecturer position, i'm very excited about this but I'm so scared! Having been through the process badly unsuccessfully elsewhere I know the challenge ahead - I don't interview very well, but I do look good on paper.

I have to give a 20 minute talk then the interview.

The talk is about how I'd add to the teaching and research at X (post-'92) university. I'm absolutely fine talking about the research part (I think!) - I'm just not sure what to put with regards to teaching. Can any experienced MNetters help me, please?

Since my work has been purely research, I've minimal formal teaching experience (delivered the odd lecture) but have done lots of supervision. I've identified the courses/modules they run that fits with my previous research experience. I've done my PGCert so know a bit about teaching & learning and can waffle abit about flipped classrooms etc... is that the kind of thing they'd be after? I feel like anyone can list those sort of things in a talk and that I won't stand out.

Finally, does anyone have any good tips for preparing for the interview? I know the sort of questions to prepare for, but struggle with preparing 'strong' answers, and to top it off in the interview itself and under pressure my mind goes blank, and I have a tendency to waffle uncontrollably. Previous feedback was that this distracted from the minutiae of what I was trying to say

Sorry this is so long. I'd be so grateful for any help and advise you can give me! TIA

Advice

Be well versed on the TEF and the REF

Agree mention the new TEF environment, and know what the institution got in the TEF (let's hope it was gold!) If not, then having an idea about how you personally can deliver high quality teaching would help- so new modules if they are expanding courses, give high quality feedback (this is one area lots of unis struggle with), I am not mad on flipped classrooms but you could mention if it if you have actually done it. Also mention your solid track record of supervision, it means there's likely to be less issues come up with your PG students.

Remember though, if you are great on paper and a bit weak in interview, that's more important than the other way around, everyone is looking for good REF/impact stuff at the mo, so if you are strong in that area, that may be enough. Don't witter! Good luck!

We ask about 'teaching philisophy', and about how you engage students who don't seem terribly bothered. In a post-92, you might be teaching some large classes, and I'd be interested to know how you plan to engage everyone (or can you?) Do you use technology? How do you make sure people are keeping up?

Stop yourself from waffling. If you waffle in an interview, how will you manage teaching? (is what I would think on the panel) Take a breath before you start answering and organise your thoughts. Your panel might be interviewing a lot of candidates over the day, and really - waffling is so dull (and hard work) to listen to. Do the hard work for the panel, and tell them what they need to know.

And good luck! It's great to get an interview, because the job market is more competitive than ever - so you just have impressed on paper!

Congratulations!!
Be aware that as always it is a crap shoot, even though everyone likes to think it's a meritocracy.
Focus more, even most, of your time on research.
You could start with the teaching part and then move into research, summarising both at the end - though it's more usual to do research first.
So - what do you say about teaching? I think it's great that you've identified the best-fitting courses for you there. You could have some general comments about your style of teaching and your approach, your interests, what you have enjoyed about teaching in the past (on the occasions that you've lectured), what you'd be keen to develop, maybe? If you pm me I might be able to be more specific, depending on the field...

I completely agree about organising your thoughts and avoiding waffle. That goes for the presentation too - as one example, don't say that you publish in a range of journals. Say that your most recent x papers were in leading journals a, b and c whose audiences span fields 1 and 2. if there is something highly cited, don't say 'highly cited', say 'cited k times since 200x'.

for teaching you could say you gave lectures to n students in field y, you engaged the students with [whatever approach], you enjoy teaching and would look forward to teaching [course1] and [course2]. then move directly to your strong supervision experience which is a plus for sure.

just saw something about cover letters online that applies here - it said not to repeat words like 'interested in' , 'passionate about' 'excited about' etc but more point to specifics of what you have done or would like to do - this is a particular way to avoid 'waffle'.

I actually wouldn't expect a new lecturer to be massively up on the ref and the tef at interview. but if there is a teaching-related conversation and you would like to engage in it, you could for example ask how they think the tef will impact on teaching there, or what they will change given the tef etc.

Some things to think about:
Innovative teaching ideas you have used/are interested in, and especially how they relate to the institutions learning and teaching strategy
How your research and any funding you have brought in would fit in to the departments research groups- most departments are keen to get more research grant funding.

Make sure you illustrate by giving specific examples e.g. don't just say you are a good lecturer, say that student feedback from x & y lectures on the 2nd yr core module stated that you were clear and interesting and scored 4 out of 5 for intellectual stimulation.
And my hod would expect you to know about the TEF as well as the REF, so do check what the institution got when the TEF was published recently.
Good luck!

Is there any one you can practice with beforehand, like a senior academic you know?
The waffling can be an issue, so concentrate on controlling your nerves (I know, easier said than done, especially as academics are not very nice interviewers).
Write out responses to the questions you think they may ask you, and learn them by heart.

Definitely do a mock interview if at all possible, with people who will take the time to go through your slides in depth and who will also be able to note any waffly areas in the interview and any body language etc. Interview skills are really important so it's worth it.

I've been on the other side of the table very recently. You really don't need to know about the TEF, as nearly all institutions realise it's total bullshit; it would be useful to know whether the institution got gold, silver, or bronze, but that's about it.

REF on the other hand -- be prepared to be able to answer the question "which 4 outputs would you be submitting", even if they haven't been published yet, and even though it's not clear we'll all need 4 anymore. (You get an output off for every baby, and the outputs are fewer for early career too). They want to know you have plans and think strategically about your own research. Don't, whatever you do, say like one of our candidates "I have this really great review article", when everyone knows they're not usually REF-able...

For the presentation, do what they ask you to do, and if at all possible, focus it on your current research, but as if you're teaching it to, say, third-year undergraduates, and DON'T read out a prepared paper.

Every candidate will be asked exactly the same questions if it's done properly. They will be: 1) something in depth and possibly provocative about your current research, based on your published work (and expect at least one member of the panel to have read it all!); 2) a follow-up about your research plans, including what grants you are planning to apply for, and definitely REF planning; 3) a question about what courses you would teach and/or would like to teach; 4) maybe something about your approach to teaching (e.g. "how would you approach x tricky situation in the classroom"); 5) something about administrative experience and, basically, whether you would be a good colleague that carries your weight; 6) probably something about impact; 7) a blue skies question, e.g. "what makes a good academic", "where do you see yourself in 10 years time".

They are interested in the following, in the following order:

1. quality and productivity of your research
2. ability to bring in money
3. willingness and basic ability to teach (don't be that arsehole who insists they can only teach fruit-fly genetics and will not do mice)
4. your general collegiality and willingness to pull your weight -- are you a nice person? will you do stuff? will they be able to get along with you for years on end

Even in a post-92 they will care more about research than about teaching, so don't make the mistake of enthusing considerably more about the latter. Hideous and wrong, but true.

Pirate that is great advice for the OP!

Wow so many answers! Thank you all so much for taking the time and effort to reply. Particularly Pirate's post which is excellent advice. I have gone through all of the responses from everyone and have written lists (and lists of lists) and am going to work through them and have 5 or so bullet point answers - I'm hoping that this will help me to cut out the waffle and as a PP put - make it easy for them.

Cordelia my username gives an indication to my (very general) field...

I'm a bit worried about my publications and maternity leave... Specifically, I had a good trajectory, then I took two periods of maternity leave very close together, and although I published during this time (work which was already done) there was the inevitable lag of publications afterwards, apart from the odd review. I've just had a big paper published though and have co-authored another, and I have another 4 in the pipeline (but anyone can make that up, right?!) so that's my Ref question answered... but I'm worried that they'll see this big 5 year gap and think that my productivity has taken a nosedive in recent years... Can anyone advise on how to address this? Or am I perhaps overthinking this?

Mock interview is going to be difficult as no one at my current uni knows about the interview. I can ask my DH to do it though.

I must get on and write my talk now. Very good advice about pitching it to 3rd Yr UG - that is exactly what I'll do...

Will check back later and thanks again

Okay am a HoD in a post 92, though I suspect quite far from your field.

Some random thoughts

• they are likely to ask why this job or why this institution. It is a very common starter Q and an amazing number of people don't have an answer. And fgs if you are coming from a RG don't make out like you're here to instill a research culture in the dept. We had someone basically say that to our panel - which consisted of all 3/4* researchers, 2 of whom had just won big grants. It didn't go down well..... so an actual non-patronising reason like you want to collaborate with x research cluster.

• you can find detail about their research environment on the Hefce website, it has 2014 environmt statements there. Will give some detail about the dept's priorities.

• make sure you follow the presentation brief to the nth degree. So if it is contribution to res and tchg make sure you cover both. It will be obvious if you don't have much tchg experience so I would make sure you say enough to reassure them on that score.

• remember the pres is not just about content, it is about assessing presentation - ie teaching - skills. Have multiple copies of your PowerPt, have print outs in case the tech fails, keep rigidly to time, do NOT fail to time yourself and ask the panel chair how much time you have left (er none, you ran out 3 mins ago), don't read from a prepped script, face the panel and talk to everyone, and if something happens unexpectedly then don't plough on desperately regardless, but acknowledge it, make a joke and adjust.

• what else.... oh yeah, for each interview answer make sure you do a headline at the start with main points. Then if you do waffle, you'll at least have saved them the task of extracting your real answer from the verbiage. But in an ideal world, don't waffle.

Good luck!!

So fruit-fly vs. mice might be a thing for you then ;-)

yy to Johnny's post, especially the bit about keeping rigidly to time!

Regarding your maternity leaves, and what looks like a big gap to you, they may or may not notice it, and may or may not mention it. The good news is that your CV got you to interview, which means that you're competitive on your CV alone, so you're probably worrying about nothing.

But if they do ask, be honest: I took two maternity leaves. They are absolutely not allowed to discriminate against you on this basis, and it's a real answer that everyone acknowledges is real and understands -- it's not that you were sitting around on your arse twiddling your thumbs for two years.

My money though is on you already having cleared that bar.

Nothing to do with the interview (I can't help there) but if you want to be a good lecturer to your students, you must make sure that:

You know your material to deliver a good and informative lecture. Students do not want to hear "I will get back to you on that" they don't mind if you don't know but just say so.

Try a different approach if you find your lecture delivery isn't working for the students, ask them for feedback but remember you won't be able to please them all.

Regardless of nerves, please do not read off the screen. I have been in countless lectures where the lecturer has read the entire lecture, word for word, off the screen.

Good luck with your interview

You've had some fantastic advice here. Just one more idea for the teaching section: do you have any thoughts on research-led teaching? Could you get your students involved in research as part of the teaching? Have you done anything innovative in your teaching?

Do also do your homework on the panel. If you can tailor your research funding application plans so that they make sense to the interests of at least some of the panel (or if you don't know the panel, the department) that will make you see like an obvious fit.

Thank you for the responses - the advice I'm getting here has been brilliant.

Thanks Johnny - I've got my answer to "why here" sorted, I definitely won't be patronising them!!! I still need to find out about the research environment on the hefce website. Very good idea about headline answers to interview questions - thank you.

My presentation is 99% done (bar practising it). I'm a bit concerned that the teaching bit is boring and visually unstimulating... It's reads a bit like a list of examples of things I've done etc. Any tips on how to make it more interesting?

I've had a nosy at last year's NSS results for the courses I would be teaching on and the lowest satisfaction was in the feedback categories - should I mention this? As in: this is how I'd contribute -by focussing on improving feedback satisfaction by doing X, Y and Z? I don't want to be seen as criticising them, though.

Thanks for reassuring me about the mat leave Pirate.

I'm very big on research-led teaching imposter, especially at honours and Masters level, and students do research projects with me at these levels. Is that what you mean? Can't think of anything particularly innovative that I have done regarding teaching though... what sort of things would be classed as innovative??

Thanks again everyone

I wouldn't say 'I would improve feedback satisfaction...' (as the subtext is you are crap), I'd just say 'one of my strengths is very thorough feedback, the approach I used is X coupled with Y, and the evidence this is appreciated by the students is Z'. They will pick up and match it to what they need.

Similarly, with research-led teaching, I'd say 'I have a research-led teaching approach' and give concrete examples taken from your research projects at Masters/UG level (also anything within the modules themselves?) Have any outputs come out of these as well, presentations, pubs, really good theses?

Ahh ok thanks Summer - that's a far better way to put it! Will do that.

Yes, I have a publication that an honours student is also on, I will mention that.

Oooh, that would go down well at my place.

I think you stand a good chance with this one, crossed fingers for you!

Thank you summer!!
I just don't know what the chances are of me getting it ... competition is so very fierce at the moment.
I'm trying to go along with the philosophy of "whatever will be, will be". Of course I will be very disappointed if I don't get it though! Options like this are few and far between and are beginning to run out - just as I feel my research is about to take off...

good luck!
there's also a lot of interest in "active learning" -- where students aren't passive recipients of information (which incidentally they are increasingly aware that they could in principle access online), but instead they are doing things, guided by you, and experiencing things ...
update us when you know how it's gone!

Sorry for not updating sooner, I haven't stopped!

So positives - my talk went ok I think, it seemed to be well received and I could answer all the questions. I also really liked the dept and everyone seemed really open and friendly, which is a big plus in my book!

As for the interview itself - I'm just not sure. I tried my best not to waffle, but inevitably did a little bit. I struggled with a couple of tricky questions I wasn't prepared for. I don't know if I answered all questions adequately - I just don't what they're after and therefore what the correct answer is! It definitely wasn't the worst interview I've ever had, but on reflection, I could've answered a lot of questions better... aargh!

So the wait is on now. My fingers are firmly crossed, but for now it's out of my hands ...

Have they rung OP? I remember The Wait.....

Not yet Johnny - there are several posts that they are interviewing for and this is going on all week - they said I wouldn't hear until after it's finished.