If you are considering a career path as an academic instructor, probably you have already identified a list of reasons that drove you to this professional choice. Just to name a few: the lifelong learning opportunity, the enthusiasm of exchanging energy with new generations of students, the opportunity to learn from individuals’ diverse perspectives, and the creativity required to keep classes dynamic by adopting many different teaching strategies.
These motivations are key when candidates apply for academic positions. Identifying them early in the application process, and thinking thoroughly, help the candidate to demonstrate genuine interest for the job and to stand up for the challenges inherently involved in the journey. The motivation letter as well as the teaching statement in the application package should clearly reflect these inner drivers that led the candidate to apply for the position. Also, the responses to interview questions and presentation of the job talk strongly contribute to make the inner interests of the candidate stand out among the crowd of applicants.
If the first selections phases were successful, the candidate concentrates his/her efforts to prepare the job talk. In this phase, it is essential to own the talk, by tailoring the presentation contents according to the profile of the candidate, the job description, and interests of the institution. It is also key to highlight any prior experience in the domain in the talk contents, be it courses developed, guest lectures, research projects and/or publications. Lastly, the organization of the contents as well as practice are of utmost importance to ensure that the slides follow a logical flow, that important contents are not missing and that there is enough time to go through the entire presentation.
Triple U 