Thursday, April 22, 2004

Interviewing Adjuncts

We're currently looking for an adjunct to teach Zoology next fall, as I'll be busy teaching a newly offered diversity course and the current adjunct we have helping out with Zoology will not be returning. Unfortunately, by "we" I actually mean "I". The primary help my department head has given me so far is to suggest a few adjuncts that are currently teaching other courses at my campus, as well as dropping a number of CVs onto my desk.

This has raised an interesting problem. What do I look for? "How to screen CVs and conduct interviews" wasn't offered in my graduate program, at least not that I recall (but Biochemical Adaptation was!). As a first step, this week I'm trying to casually introduce myself to the instructors who are already teaching at my campus and schedule a followup meeting to talk more specifically about Zoology. I recently talked to the first person on my list, and we scheduled a meeting (translate: interview) for next week.

After scheduling the interview it suddenly hit me: I'm supposed to know what to do here. I need to come up with something meaningful to talk about, should ask questions that elucidate how this person teaches, and determine whether they're qualified to take over Zoology. How exactly I'm going to do all these things in a brief meeting is still a bit of a mystery to me (though I'm sure my colleagues will help out).

Not that long ago I was an adjunct looking for work, and now the tables are turned and I'm the one interviewing prospective adjuncts. How odd.

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