Applying for a community college job: Series introduction

[This is post 1 of 9 in a series exploring how to apply for a full-time community college teaching position. See this page for links to all the posts in the series.]

Back in the spring I was on a hiring committee for a new full-time, tenure-track biology faculty member at my campus. The experience was eye-opening, as prior to serving on the committee I'd only seen the application process from the other side of the table (as a nervous, stressed-out applicant).

In this series I'll primarily discuss what occurs during the application process prior to the interview, a step that most applicants never see. I am (obviously) barred from discussing specifics of what occurred on the committee, but I can talk about the general process, and will do that here. Keep in mind that my experiences come from serving on one committee at one California community college; I am certainly not an expert on the process, and my generalizations may not be applicable to all situations. I do hope, however, that getting a glimpse of what can occur on the other side of the table will be of some help to those applying for full-time jobs.