Positive Interview Stories

A long while back, Plato Potatoes wrote in to ask for a post on interviews that went well.

It would be interesting to read some short narrative stories of job interviews that went great. The specifics would be appreciated. Say, how X answered the question about Y with a reference to Z, in a manner so impressive that the interviewers simultaneously fell off their chairs. It would be interesting to hear, too, what the successful interviewees themselves thought was particularly fetching about their own answers; the time they "clicked" with the committee and so on.

I don't have much experience with successful APA interviews. My best interview was over the phone, and was for the job I have now. The interviewer called me and wanted to interview right then, but I was on the highway driving home from a weekend out of town. She asked if it was a good time; I asked if she could call me back in a couple of hours. (I don't know why I said a couple of hours--I was way more than two hours from home.) I found a coffee shop with WiFi in order to look up the job ad and did the interview in the car in the parking lot.

One thing that helped me with that interview was that it was not my first interview. I'd had some practice answering interview questions in an actual interview setting. Another thing that I strongly suspect was helpful was that I didn't have my materials handy. On the phone, where they can't see you, there is a tendency to make excessive use of your notes. I couldn't make use of my notes at all in this one. I suspect that, as a result, I came off as more natural.

A final thing that helped, and I suspect that this is the most important, is that we saw eye-to-eye on how to teach intro. I have a sort of philosophy of philosophy that I picked up from my teachers at college and grad school, and this philosophy meshes well with the culture of my department. I am a pretty good fit here. You try to represent yourself in the best possible light, but at a certain point, you just have to say, take it or leave it. Also, it was getting pretty late in the VAP hiring season, and I think they were a little desperate.

How about you guys?

--Mr. Zero