I do have to say, after being on the other side of the hiring process, that the thing that most often hurts a candidate is a lack of research about the job they are applying for. When we talk to a candidate who knows nothing about the institution, the people they would be working with, or the classes offered, it really hurts their chances of being invited out for an on-campus interview.
1. What is your dissertation topic and time line for completion?
- My dissertation is a secondary data analysis focusing on abortion and mental health, and how early risk factors and exposure to violence may explain the association that has been reported between abortion history and mental health.
- Because it is a secondary data analysis, the data has already been collected. I have recoded most of the data and conducted some pilot analyses. I have extensive familiarity with the data set at this time.
- My prospectus meeting is scheduled for the beginning of the spring semester and I plan to graduate in May.
- My committee members all agree that this is a reasonable time line for completion.
That was totally not a reasonable time line for completion, but I got it done anyway.
2. What is your teaching philosophy?
- I emphasize critical thinking and the scientific method in all of my courses
- I believe the goal of a liberal arts education is to create well-informed citizens
- I try to provide a solid foundation for future researchers, while ensuring that other students get useful information for their daily lives
- I try to present material in a wide range of formats
- I utilize different modes of assessment whenever possible
I feel pretty much the same way. My objectives haven't changed, but I continue to acquire new tools to achieve them. If you have experience with different methods of teaching, you should talk about this. Specifics are helpful.
3. What undergrad courses do you want to teach?
- Top choices: Introduction to Psychology, Research Methods, Social Psychology, Advanced Social Psychology, Any other social psychology course, Gender, Psychology of Women
- Comfortable teaching, but not top choices: Statistics, Health Psychology, Personality Psychology, History and Systems, HumanSexuality
- Could do if necessary: Cognitive Psychology, Learning
- Absolutely not: Physiological Psychology, Neuroscience, Biological Psychology, Sensation and Perception
This was a great answer and it was tailored to a specific institution because I had done my research. When they ask you what you want to or are willing to teach, they really want to here "anything". I went to their website and found out what courses they offered so that I could speak directly to those courses. I tried to craft an answer that was was honest about what I'm absolutely not qualified to teach, but also showed that I was open to stepping in to fill a need. I like teaching things that are outside of my comfort zone because I learn more in the process.
4. What graduate courses can you teach?
- Top choices: Any social psychology topics, research methods, courses on gender/psychology of women
- Could do with prep: History and systems, Univariate statistics, Brown-bag "crash courses" on quantitative psychology topics
I think these are still accurate. At the graduate level, you should really only teach what you are an expert in. I'd still like to do brown-bag seminars on statistics topics, but will all of my other service commitments, it would be hard to find the time.
5. What are your research interests?
- Aggression, especially gender differences and evolutionary influences. I am particularly interested in the role status plays in aggression for men versus women.
- Violence against women and early childhood risk factors on sexuality and reproductive health; abortion and mental health
- Stereotypes about pregnancy and motherhood
- Stereotypes about gays and lesbians
- Gender identity
These were great answers at the time. I just created a short blurb for my faculty listing on the psychology department website: Social and personality psychology: gender roles; gender identity; stereotyping and prejudice; aggression; evolutionary psychology. Not much has changed.
6. What experience do you have with grants?
- I applied for National Science Foundation funding as a first-year graduate student; it was unfunded.
- I applied for grants through the Graduate and Professional Student Association, but these were also unfunded.
- I successfully obtained a research assistantship through the university. This was a short application, but it required a budget estimate and a description of research to be conducted; this was funded.
- I applied for a pre-doctoral fellowship through the National Institute for Health (NIH) with the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) as the funding agency; this was funded.
That's pretty much all I could say at the time, and there's not much more to say about grants other than you either were funded or weren't.
7. What do you think your vita (resume) will look like in 5 years?
- A handful of abortion and mental health studies that utilize structural equation modeling
- A program of research that focuses on stereotypes about motherhood and pregnancy and the implications for quality of medical care and employment opportunities
- A few aggression studies that are follow-up studies to my Masters thesis
- Collaborative projects on gender identity
- Potentially some projects about gay and lesbian stereotypes
- Greater breadth of courses taught
- Additional extramural (grant) funding
This was too many answers, even if it was the truth about my goals. I was trying to play up my strengths and show that I had some big goals and some more manageable goals, but it was still too much. The emphasis on teaching was important for the job that I was particularly interested in, so that was good. If I could do this question over, however, I would split it up into what was most promising (the aggression stuff) and what I would like to put more time into after establishing a publication record (pregnancy and motherhood stereotypes) in a way similar to the way I split up my teaching interests.
8. What skills do you bring?
- Broad training in social psychology
- Familiarity with learning, developmental psychopathology, clinical psychology
- Background in Women's studies
- Strong quantitative background
- Experience with secondary data analysis of large scale data sets
- Integration of social and clinical psychology--early risk factors that influence life-course trajectories
- Openness to work with students who have a wide variety of interests; enjoyment of student-led projects
- Openness to collaboration
I would emphasize that I really, really, love working with students. If you are applying for a Research 1 job, that's a bad answer. They want to know that you have a line of research ready to go, and that your students will be working on it. I, however, really enjoy student-driven research even when it's outside of my main areas of interest. This is a major plus for liberal arts jobs, or the unique position I have at UND where research does happen, but teaching is valued. It also turns out that I have way more statistical knowledge than the average faculty member, so I am perfectly happy to analyze data, write up the results, and take a 2nd author position. This may not be a plus in some interviewing situations (like an R1 job), but it's a plus to other faculty once you have arrived (especially in smaller departments).
9. What makes you unique/diverse?
- Non-traditional educational trajectory
- First generation college student; comfortable working with a diverse range of students
- Raised in rural area; sensitive to needs of rural students
- Background in Women's Studies and social psychology with a heavy evolutionary focus has enhanced my ability to consider diverse perspectives
- Training in experimental methods, survey methods, quantitative methods, large-scale data sets, some qualitative methods
I made sure for the interview with UND to mention that I came from a rural area because I had done my research about their student population. This may not be a plus for some jobs, but I think it was a good thing to mention for this job. I would now add that I am approachable--students seem to be comfortable with me and I think that's a good thing, and it probably stems from me feeling like an "impostor" in academia :)
10. What are your weaknesses?
- Physiological/biological/neuropsychology
- Passion for teaching--it's often easier to focus on the immediate gratification of teaching at the expense of finding time for writing
These are still my greatest weaknesses. My love for teaching and the fact that students approach me means that if I am not careful, teaching and working with students sucks up all of my time. I still struggle to get writing done, which is why I don't mind taking a 2nd or 3rd author position on a paper if it means that I just wrote little snippets and analyzed data. However, if I ever want a promotion, I will need more first-author publications. Publish or perish. Publish or perish.
11. What is my theoretical orientation?
- Broad interdisciplinary framework
- Multi-level approach that integrates the power of the situation and the broader social context that gives meaning to a particular situation
- Background in psychology of women as well as social psychology and evolutionary psychology
I'm not even sure what that answer means. After being out of grad school for a short period of time now, I have to say that the theoretical framework that I find myself most often bringing up in conversation is an evolutionary social psych framework, but that's in part due to the fact that I'm the only person in our department with any real expertise in evolutionary social psychology. When I was surrounded by evolutionary psychologists at ASU, I often brought up sociocultural perspectives. I don't think they are at odds with each other--I think they compliment each other. The big trend that's surfacing now is how to merge evolutionary psychology and cultural psychology. Maybe my personal theoretical orientation is "devil's advocate" or "shit disturber".
12. What is your teaching experience?
- Instructor: Research methods lectures and laboratories; Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Statistics
- Teaching assistant: Social Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Statistics
- Tutor in high school and as undergraduate
- Recruit research assistants from courses taught
- During first semester, research assistants have light duties to prove they are reliable (pass/fail grade)
- Increased responsibility with experience--supervisory roles, training on data analysis, etc.
- Willingness to mentor student-driven projects with students who are motivated and interested in doing so.
I would now emphasize that even though I could probably get most of my research done with very few research assistants, I will work with almost anyone who wants research experience. I start the questionable students out on tasks that are less important so that I can determine whether they are reliable. I think one of the greatest things that happens in psychology departments is that undergraduates get research experience--that's where they really learn about psychology. In this regard, I try to make research a teaching activity. I would now emphasize the importance of training a chain of leaders and delegating responsibility. If you have a job where you are supervising grad students, you can pretty much put them in charge of your lab. If you are using undergraduates, you need to find the real stars who function as well as grad students, get them trained, and then delegate. The delegation part is hard, and it takes some time, but hopefully it means that they will then train their replacements. If you are applying for a liberal arts job or a teaching-intensive job, they want to know how your research is an extension of your teaching. I cannot help but make my research an extension of my teaching because I cannot help but want to teach students how to be researchers. Even if they don't pursue careers that have anything to do with psychology research, I hope that they at become better consumers of information and better citizens as a result of the time they spend in my lab.
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