Another Interview, THE BIG ONE

Well, today I had the big interview at LACC. At first I thought I hadn't made it through the preliminary round and wouldn't be one of the three interviewed by the school president, but with much gratitude I was.

The interview went fairly well altough I have to admit the questions caught me a bit off guard. They started with wanting to know who I was outside of the resume. I struggled to come up with answers that went beyond my CV (which they had and is much longer than a typical resume) but were still on the strictly professional. Perhaps I should have mentioned sailing which is a physics inspired hobby, but I wanted to steer clear of family and such.

Next they asked how I dealt with conflict in the class. Well, any answer I gave that was more than broad generalization would require giving an example, and in any example of conflict I have made at least some mistakes. I used two examples where the mistakes were minor and the resolutions very positive.

Questions continued with why I'm applying at a community college when I have a Ph.D. and could apply to a University. (I focused on the strong interaction with students you get at a community college.) Why LA City College in particular. What I knew about learning outcomes and evaluation. How I behaved on commitees (I'm very talkative and free to give my opinion and like to work towards concensus.), etc.

When it was my turn to ask questions I asked about what the school goals were and what they wanted out of me. How consistant the goals were and how smooth and open faculty administration communication was.

On the whole I think it was a good interview. The only thing I'm nervous about is that there are two other excellent candidates. I saw one of them (who I had guessed would be there) and if astronomy is where they want to focus I would say he is the better candidate. (On physics I think I'm stronger.) At this point it is just time to hope and be glad that the school will do well.