Some advice re. candidate for lectureship job

[ZeroFucks]

My department is currently recruiting and we've got candidate interviews/teaching tasks/research presentations coming up in a couple of weeks.

One of the candidates has contacted me to ask if we might meet for a coffee over the three days she's around because our research overlaps a bit.

The problem is that I won't be around for any of the time she's here because of a workshop I'm at.

So I want to offer to Skype her but is it massively inappropriate to Skype her before her interview/presentation/teaching?

I can try to avoid giving her tips or giving her the lie of the land in the Department so it doesn't feel that terrible.

However, though I feel a bit conflicted about this because I suspect (I don't know, but I strongly suspect) that my male colleagues have been in conversation with some of the male candidates before their interviews/presentations/teaching. All of the other candidates for this particular lectureship are male, all are very 'academic male' types, and the existing team is all men (seven men) apart from me. So I actually do want a woman to get the job but I know I shouldn't give her any advantages but then I also strongly suspect that my male colleagues are giving support to the male candidates.

I'd really appreciate thoughts on this

I think it would be. Afterwards is fine, but before raises questions of impropriety. If it is genuinely about research, on the candidate's part, after still meets the needs. Tbh, though, I am a bit at a candidate making this request - I just don't think it's appropriate.

I would raise it with the HoD, though, and ask whether there's a policy - and do you have any evidence that your colleagues are priming other candidates, or is it just that you think they would if they had the opportunity? If some reason to think this, rather than just a suspicion they would, I would raise this at the same time, not in a tatting way, more in a disingenuous one!

*tattling

Thank you Hefzi. To be fair, the candidate did say she wasn't sure of the etiquette or whether her request was inappropriate. She's not worked in academia in the UK before so she's not sure of the way things operate.

I'm reluctant to talk to the HoD as I really want her to get the job and I would hate any kind of question or mark against her name at all for anything.

I don't have proof that the men are priming the male candidates but I very strongly suspect they are because they've all collaborated with the candidates in some capacity or another in the past and are buddies. I don't have proof though and I can't really go to HoD and say 'I think the men are doing this because they're academic men and all academic men are tossers'. Though I'd bloody love to

'I think the men are doing this because they're academic men and all academic men are tossers'. Though I'd bloody love to grin

I'm a female working in academia and you are way out of order with that last comment.

Aha. Then actually, based on your post, I have changed my mind completely!

If she's not worked here before, then it's probably a wholly genuine request, plus, if the men have collaborated before, there's likely to be nudges and winks at the very least, if not out and out priming (there probably is... See your earlier comment about academic men )

As you are at a workshop, you can't influence the process at all, so in the unlikely event anyone finds out and pulls you up on it, you can plead innocence--and hopefully, you will get a new collaboration out of it too. You would hope that they'd be looking to hire women quite actively, but as this is academia, I suspect any hope of that nature would end in disappointment

TL:DR Go for it!

Thank you @Hefzi I hadn't thought of that actually about me not being there for the presentations/interviews themselves. Excellent point!

@PhoneLock It was half joke hence the grin though as I'm getting on in my academic career I'm noticing that even the most on-message/supportive/woke male allies are actually trash riding the wave of their privilege and helping their closest friends (usually men of course) to do the same.

Wow, totally different perspective here. So long as you're not on the selection panel and/or interview committee, discussing the job and the department with applicants is perfectly okay where I'm from (UK, research intensive university).

Normally, you would already know any person you were talking to about such things, and may even have encouraged them to apply, so a cold contact like the OP describes seems a little odd but not unheard of.

Being part of the audience that sees a candidate's presentation isn't considered a conflict because it's a large crowd and everyone's comments are collated by someone from the selection committee. One cheerleader amongst a host of lukewarm opinions won't influence the rankings much.

It's interesting to see it's so different in other departments. It was the same in my last dept as in my current. I wonder if it's a discipline thing? I'm in STEM.

just this last week, i've had an informal chat with 2 candidates for jobs in my dept. I'm not on the selection committee and have no input on who is hired, but i can give the candidates info on working at my Uni / what opportunities are available here etc. And I'm happy to do so.

Social Sciences here. At Chair level I would absolutely expect candidates to have informal chats/meetings with plenty of people in the department- initiated by both them and us. When applying for Chairs I definitely contact people. Moving is a big decision and you want to find out about the people, the department, the way things work as much as you can beforehand. She's being sensible. It doesn't happen much at L/SL level - though candidates should be calling the HoD for a few chats - but it is really not inappropriate if she wants to know about teaching, the workload model, research time, new initiatives, departmental nutters and all of the important things that really affect work. Skype with her and, if appropriate, feed in your impressions. Neither you nor she gains anything if you treat the way the department works as a state secret until the moment someone signs a contract.

STEM here. I always encourage folk to contact people in the department before their interview as well afterwards if they get an offer. It's part of understanding the place they are applying to work in, as well as helping you to understand how to pitch the interview talk. There's nothing worse than someone who turns up merely with info they have scraped off the uni website. To me, it shows commitment to the post to contact the department and find out a bit more.

As long as you're not on the panel there's nothing inappropriate at all. I recently was on a panel that one of my ex-PhD students interviewed for. So I suggested they speak to another staff member rather than me.