Job Talks Research Articles

PROBLEMS FACED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN PLANNING CAREER FURTHER STUDY AND WORK

The goal of this study is to describe the issues that students face when trying to plan their careers, both in school and at work. This study is field research, which means that several high school kids were watched and talked to. The study's results showed that most students had trouble planning their careers because they didn't believe in their own skills and had trouble coming up with ideas or ways to solve problems. Problems: not enough self-confidence, hard to be focused, and hard to take the lead. They don't know much about jobs and have a hard time getting information about jobs after they finish school. Lack of conversation experience, which makes it seem like job talks will be hard, and lack of foreign language skills. It's hard to come up with a list of things that can help with preparing a job. It's hard to get projects done on time, and it's hard for students to do jobs that need good results.

Look who’s talking: gender differences in academic job talks

The “job talk” is a standard element of faculty recruiting. How audiences treat candidates for faculty positions during job talks could have disparate impact on protected groups, including women. We annotated 156 job talks from five engineering and science departments for 13 categories of questions and comments. All departments were ranked in the top 10 by US News & World Report. We find that differences in the number, nature, and total duration of audience questions and comments are neither material nor statistically significant. For instance, the median difference (by gender) in the duration of questioning ranges from zero to less than two minutes in the five departments. Moreover, in some departments, candidates who were interrupted more often were more likely to be offered a position, challenging the premise that interruptions are necessarily prejudicial. These results are specific to the departments and years covered by the data, but they are broadly consistent with previous research, which found differences comparable in magnitude. However, those studies concluded that the (small) differences were statistically significant. We present evidence that the nominal statistical significance is an artifact of using inappropriate hypothesis tests. We show that it is possible to calibrate those tests to obtain a proper P-value using randomization.

Keys to a Successful Job Talk

Interviews for faculty positions in psychology often include a teaching demonstration or research talk, but there is little empirical data about what makes these job talks successful. Psychology faculty ( N = 303) described the job talks required at 4-year institutions and the attributes of a successful job talk. For both teaching demonstrations and research talks, being accurate and knowledgeable was of highest importance, but being practiced, open, and engaging were also important. However, significant differences between institutions showed that baccalaureate institutions emphasize teaching skills during job talks and doctoral institutions emphasize research skills. The results confirm that a polished job talk is crucial, but they also illustrate that successful job talks must fit the teaching and research mission of the institution.

Gender in Engineering Departments: Are There Gender Differences in Interruptions of Academic Job Talks?

We use a case study of job talks in five engineering departments to analyze the under-studied area of gendered barriers to finalists for faculty positions. We focus on one segment of the interview day of short-listed candidates invited to campus: the “job talk”, when candidates present their original research to the academic department. We analyze video recordings of 119 job talks across five engineering departments at two Research 1 universities. Specifically, we analyze whether there are differences by gender or by years of post-Ph.D. experience in the number of interruptions, follow-up questions, and total questions that job candidates receive. We find that, compared to men, women receive more follow-up questions and more total questions. Moreover, a higher proportion of women’s talk time is taken up by the audience asking questions. Further, the number of questions is correlated with the job candidate’s statements and actions that reveal he or she is rushing to present their slides and complete the talk. We argue that women candidates face more interruptions and often have less time to bring their talk to a compelling conclusion, which is connected to the phenomenon of “stricter standards” of competence demanded by evaluators of short-listed women applying for a masculine-typed job. We conclude with policy recommendations.

What's Love Got to Do With It? Stewarding a Healing Vision at the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center

J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 5 5 , I S S U E 2 99 Indigenous Policy Forum What’s Love Got to Do With It? Stewarding a Healing Vision at the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center malia villegas In the winter of 2010, I received a call from Sarah Hicks Kastelic, then director of the Policy Research Center (PRC) of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), headquartered in Washington, DC. I consider Kastelic a mentor, a trailblazer, and a second cousin twice removed, as we both have roots in the Native Village of Afognak in Southwest Alaska. We had collaborated many times over the previous years as part of her work at NCAI and my work with the Alaska Native Policy Center, both established in 2004 with similar missions, yet located thousands of miles apart. She told me she was leaving NCAI to take a role that would eventually lead to her serving as the executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association in Portland, Oregon. Shocked at first, because I had always associated the NCAI Policy Research Center with her leadership, I did not quite realize I had started to chuckle until she asked me why I was laughing. I told her that I pitied the fool who tried to fill the very large shoes she was leaving behind. She started to chuckle herself, so I asked her why she was laughing, and she said, “Well, because you’re that fool!” I was honored that she thought of me as she was preparing to transition to her new role, but I will admit this call came much earlier in my career than I might have anticipated. I had only just completed my doctorate earlier that year and was barely a year into my postdoctoral fellowship in Australia. With Sarah’s encouragement, as well as that of Greta Goto—a dear friend and former director of the Alaska Native Policy Center—I prepared my application for the position at NCAI. After two rounds of interviews , I was blessed to make it to the final round when dynamics with 100 J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 5 5 , I S S U E 2 my research team in Australia came to a head over issues of cultural difference and leadership—we were working as the evaluation team for the first national, Indigenous education reform in Australia. I notified NCAI that I needed to pull out of the process in order to give my all to my research team. Two weeks later, I was sitting in a trailer that doubled as a hotel room in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia when my cell phone rang, at 10 p.m. Australia time. The woman on the other end of the line identified herself as Jackie Johnson Pata, executive director of NCAI. I was stunned, as I was not expecting to hear from her; certainly not while I was traveling remotely. She asked whether I would reconsider putting my name back in the running for the position . The situation with my Australian research team had not improved , and it did not look as though the team would be able to address the critical issues of race and cultural difference that I was concerned were necessary to include in our analysis. I told Jackie I would throw my hat back in the ring, but that I also had been invited to give job talks at two universities since exiting the NCAI process. In May 2011, I embarked on a whirlwind tour to Phoenix, Arizona; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and Fairbanks, Alaska, to give job talks and visit with scholarly colleagues. On the last leg of my journey , I was sitting in Alaskaland in Fairbanks, Alaska, where they host a salmon bake outdoors for tourists. About 30 of us were being hosted at an international...

Job Talks and Interviews: How to Stand Out and Fit In: A Report from the American Society of Preventive Oncology Junior Members Interest Group.

The mission of the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) includes fostering the continuing professional development of its members. One major activity of ASPO is to prepare the next generation of cancer prevention and control researchers for successful careers. The process of applying for

Entertainers or education researchers? The challenges associated with presenting while black

How black faculty experience presenting their research in educational venues within the context of historical objectification of black people as sources of entertainment is an underexplored topic in higher education research. Presenting research has far-reaching implications for black academics’ advancement, such as future employment and opportunities for research collaboration. Thus, how black faculty are perceived while presenting has significant implications for their career trajectories. This study is concerned with understanding how black higher education faculty perceive, interpret, and respond to how they are perceived while presenting within a context of racialized academic scrutiny. Thirty-three black professors were interviewed about their participation in a number of presentation contexts, including national conferences, symposia, and campus job talks. Study participants discussed encountering multiple layers of racial stereotyping and bias, and also how their keen racial awareness enabled them to develop strategic coping mechanisms to manage audience reactions. These strategies also represented the self-sacrifices they made that altered their racial identities. By examining black faculty members’ struggles to be valued personally and professionally in white-dominated academic sites, the study findings can enrich critical interpretations of racism in higher education.

From Both Sides Now: The Job Talk’s Role in Matching Candidates with Law Schools

In the heavily competitive law school teaching job market, the so-called “job talk” has assumed increasing importance in the ultimate hiring decision. Nevertheless, there is little published information to assist a law school faculty in structuring or evaluating the job talk and a similar paucity of information for candidates to guide them in creating and preparing for the presentation of their talk. This article is intended to fill that void. The article guides the preparation of faculty and candidates for both the job talk itself and for the crucial Q&A period that follows the talk. The article represents the authors’ collective 87 years of experience seeing both successful and unsuccessful job talks, as well as the experience of 15 colleagues around the country who reviewed our initial draft and commented on it from the perspective of their various law schools.

Tips for success: Giving an effective research talk

For many scientists, their working life can be charted as a series of talks: lab meetings, journal clubs, research seminars, and job talks. Based on the sheer volume of attended and given talks, one might think that nearly any scientist should be an expert speaker. As we are all painfully aware, that's not so. Giving an effective talk is a learned skill, built largely on preparation and practice. Presented here are tips from five panelists, each known for their informative, well-organized, and engaging style: Nicole King, PhD, Michael Levine, PhD, Susan McConnell, PhD, Denise Montell, PhD, and Sean Morrison, PhD. While their advice focuses on improving research seminars (departmental seminars, society meetings, and public lectures), they also offer many helpful tips for enhancing general public speaking skills.

Uncle Wuffle's Advice on Job Talks

Giving a job talk has multiple aims. Most important of these: to get a job. But, it also makes sense to think about a job talk as (a) practice that will improve your skills for future job interviews, making it more likely that you will eventually get a job, even if not this one, (b) a kind of initiation ritual into the profession, and (c) a way to broaden your academic network and make new friends. It is your chance to persuade your peers (and perhaps your future colleagues) that you are a promising/accomplished scholar, a potentially good colleague, and a good teacher—not necessarily in that order. Priorities attached to these desiderata will vary from department to department (with major differences to be expected between research-oriented departments and those with a more liberal arts focus), but even within any given department, different members of the department will undoubtedly attach different weights to each of these three concerns. Such relevant information will be conveyed in a job talk.

The leap II - making a splash

The leap II - making a splash

Practicing What We Preach

SUMMARY This paper describes the creation of a “Job Club” at Michigan State University to facilitate employment searches in Community Psychology. The goal of the Job Club was to provide a setting where graduating Ph.D. candidates could gain the skills necessary to be successful in both academic and non-academic job searches. The Job Club was student-driven, and emphasized principles of community psychology such as collaboration, network development, social and instrumental support, and empowerment. The importance of small group size and the ongoing commitment of a senior faculty mentor are highlighted. A curriculum for Job Club was created that included: resource allocation; network development; document development (vitae, resumes); practicing job talks, teaching demonstrations and interviews; and accepting the offer. Successes, lessons learned, and suggestions for creating Job Clubs in other settings are offered.