CJ Instructor Interview Tips

Hey guys,

I know this forum is for degree discussion but I hope you guys could help me with interview tips, especially those who are either in higher ed HR or faculty members.

So I've been applying for college instructor positions for over a year now, both in business and most recently in criminal justice. I have never been selected for an interview until today. I have 5 years of policing experience (3+ overseas and 1.5 in the U.S.) (2010 - 2016). I worked in intelligence, communication, patrol and mounted throughout my career. I currently work with my state's bureau of juvenile justice. I am 24 credits completed at Lamar with 6 credits remaining. I completed a 12-lesson, 6 weeks course in teaching adult learners at Binghamton University in August of this year.

I recently applied for a 2-year state technical college which application period closed yesterday. The minimum requirement for the position is a master's in CJ or a master's with 18 credits in CJ from a regionally accredited school. They stated that 3 years of criminal justice experience within the last 7 years is desirable. I received a call earlier scheduling me for a phone interview this Friday. I was told if I advanced, I would be required travel to the campus for a second interview with the president. I would be excited to fly out there either way.

Now to my question. Can anyone give me some pointers on how to prep for the interview?

Thank you, guys!

 

I have had 2 college teaching positions and this is what I learned.

They called because of my experience in the subject, but the interview boiled down to 2 things . . . . My teaching skills, like enthusiasm and clarity and how much I cared about helping the students. Never once did we discuss my knowledge of the subject matter.

 

That's interesting. I appreciate your feedback!

 

That sounds great. Wish I could give you some sage advice, but I've primarily been a failure at interviewing for academic positions. Out of about 110 full-time positions applied for over the years, got about 16 phone interviews, 12 campus visits, and only 2 offers. So you're hearing from someone who fails about 98% of the time to land a job and fails to get an offer out of an interview about 88% of the time.

Biggest thing I can think of, though, is the old cliche to be yourself. Don't try and talk up your experience into something it's not, be dead straight with them. I've interviewed several candidates for academic positions since I finally landed a position in academia and always have been more impressed with those who were just plain old people rather than some pompous turd who drops French phrases into tconversations (one interviewee in particular kept mispronouncing French phrases--what a ding dong!). Of course also have some questions to ask them, such as about the process for promotion and advancement, which you probably want to know about anyway.

Best to you, pray that all goes well and you get the right job.

 

D'accord. Que c'est affreux! Quelle horreur! Perhaps we have met before, n'est-ce pas? :smile:

J.

 

Oh yeah! At one point, this guy pronounced "ennui" "in - you - eye". There was another French word also, again mispronounced--can't remember what it was. I just cringed. He was interviewing for the chair of the department position! Could just have imagined him out there speaking with some hot shot partner in a big city accounting firm, a person who'd traveled the world, trying to convince the guy or gal to donate money for scholarships to the department, and throwing around butchered French phrases like a hayseed yokel. Fortunately, we went another direction and got a great chair.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I hope I will advance in the process but if I don't, I think this will be a great experience as this will be my first faculty interview. Hopefully, I can learn something from it and improve my future interviews. Nonetheless, I am remaining positive. Thank you also for your kind wishes. I will post an update to let you know how things turned out.

 

I beg to differ. You're not a failure in academic job search, because you have a position and therefore, by definition, succeeded. And I know, because I am a failure. (To be fair, I did get two offers, but had to decline due to visa issues).

In fact, you just described the way most people get jobs in the field. Apply broadly and widely, get rejected multiple times, rinse, repeat, until one bites. Remember that many rejections are not about you, or not because you're not "good enough" for the job. I was rejected by a technical college in Louisiana for a job paying $27K a year. Yes, full time. At least in monetary terms, I am better off losing out on that one.

 

Go get em. Big thing is to keep at it. Those 110 CVs I sent out were over the course of years, and it took a few years from when I started searching before I found a full time job. It's a matter of diligence. My son's hoping to play college soccer somewhere, and I told him, based on my personal experiences, if you get 99 "No's" and 1 "Yes", that's success.

 

You're right, it's about the right fit, at least per the opinion of the search committee. Sometimes you are, sometimes you're not, and as you point out, some "no's" are your best friend. The last rejection I got before finally receiving an offer was at a small college where they'd have paid me roughly half of the salary my university pays. Rejected by a community college with 2,000 students, accepted by a university with 20,000 (now over 27,000!).

 

Was it by chance a college in a town next to your university? Because I interviewed there too.

 

The HR fairy is here to make everyone feel better (and get you to sign a form).

There are very few applicants who have double digit success rates with applications. The ones who totally kill it are usually subject matter experts in an incredibly niche field who only apply to positions where their expertise is unquestionable. It happens more than you might think especially in engineering and CS.

The majority of people send out a lot of applications and resumes, hear back from some, interview for fewer and, if they are lucky, score gold. Even then, however, there are many times when you just don't accept the offer. The money might not be there. You might not feel it is a good organizational fit. The logistics don't make sense. Or anything like that.

Fresh out of the Navy the response rate to my resumes was something like 12%. It didn't matter in the end, however, because I got a job in my field. It doesn't matter if you do that with the first application or the 1000th.

Of the last few years, my application response rate is somewhere around 90%. When I send out resumes these days, roughly 90% result in a call for a phone interview at a bare minimum.

And yet, here I am at the same job. First, why my response rate is up:

1. I'm way more selective about jobs I apply for. I don't stretch qualifications. I'm at that fun place where, for any job posting one step up, I will generally meet all of the minimum qualifications without having to exaggerate or employ alternative math.

2. I'm a more experienced professional with all of the certifications, the check the box education, the years of experience, some solid companies under my belt and I network like a fiend.

3. I write a custom cover letter for every job, starting from scratch each time, and pour my heart and soul into it. It's the same level of work I put into my law school admission essay that scored me a place in Syracuse Law that I opted not to take.

So why am I still where I am?

1. I am very comfortable. I make enough money. I have good benefits. I'm also vested in a defined benefit plan in which my retirement benefit grows each year. When an offer is made I need to examine total compensation. There have been some smaller companies willing to hire me, give me the VP title and more money. But when they don't offer profit sharing, as strong a 401(k) match, the tuition benefits, the educational scholarship for your kids (as my company does) that pay raise, you realize, isn't as much as it looks on paper.

2. I would likely have to move. I like my house. My kids like their schools. My wife likes her job. Would we move if someone tripled my salary and we got to move somewhere amazing? Quite possible. But I'm not selling a house and uprooting everyone for a $20k pay raise and the privilege of moving to rural Kansas (as was one such offer).

3. Some of these places just seemed like not a good fit for me. I went to one company and they did the open office concept. No one had an office or a cubicle. Everyone works at giant standing tables and wears jeans. I'd rather wear suits and have a door. Another place was really big on feedback, so every day they sit in a circle (think group therapy) and give one another feedback about how someone else's actions did things like "diminished my inner light" or "made my soul cry" (words of my interviewer). I'm sure they found someone who fit into that culture. It wasn't for me.

At the end of the day, it doesn't mean you suck at interviewing if you don't get a lot of offers. If, however, you are chronically unemployed because you are, to quote Cousin Eddie, holding out for a management position, then maybe you have some issues to work through.

 

Actually, no, it was four small colleges: two in the Midwest, one in the D.C. area, and a third not far from the Rocky Mountains. I was kind of combining four interview failures, all of colleges between about 1,000 and 2,000 students, into one failure story. Initially, I got only one offer out of over 100 CVs shot out, so lots of turn down stories to relate. Later I interviewed when it looked like we might want to move on, and got one offer out of about 10 CVs shot out. I think the higher percentage had to due with me already having experience.

 

The thing that diminishes my light and makes my soul cry is students lining up to bargain for higher grades after everything's done and in the books.

"Is there anything I can do to get a passing grade?"

Uh, you already took the class and I submitted grades to the registrar, and you're 300 points short of a passing grade.

"Yeah, but can I write a paper or anything?"

Amazing that you would try this maneuver, has it worked before--I mean, do other profs overlook an entire semester of getting 38% in their course and then let you slap together cut-and-paste plagiarism that takes about 20 minutes to produce and then give you 300 points for it, then petition the registrar to change your grade after the semester is complete?

"But if I don't pass your class I'll lose my scholarship!"

I had no idea passing White Collar Crime/Intro to Accounting/Business Law was written into the criteria of any scholarship in the world--what power those who set up scholarships put in my hands!

 

I'm not sure what else I can add, but as a CJ adjunct, I can tell you that CJ is a very competitive field to break into, as far as college teaching. To be completely honest, your lack of a completed Master's in CJ is going to hamper you, because your competition will likely have completed degrees, rather than a Master's in another subject, and 18+ hours in CJ.

Most schools also look for practical experience in addition to education, so I would emphasize that during your interview.

Good luck!

 

The Life of David Gale.