急求英语对话4人版 口语考试用

Jana Nidiffer (School of Education)

[Often people forget that the job talk is part] of the job search process. And maybe that’s because it comes relatively late. You worry about getting the dissertation done. Then you worry about your letters of application, then your letters of recommendation, and then you worry about getting called for an interview, and then you worry about what you’re going to do for an interview and after all of that, it’s hard to muster up sometimes or to think a lot in advance about the job talk. And I’m glad that Tom and his staff are making it a separate conversation, because I think my primary point is to say that they matter. I have seen people essentially torpedo their candidacy by an inadequate or problematic job talk. So despite everything that you have to prepare for – and it seems like you’re doing all the preparation simultaneously and it’s very nerve-wracking – it’s important to pay attention to the job talk.

I’m going to offer a few thoughts about what I think is a good job talk or good things to keep in mind as you prepare for your job talk, but I would also encourage you to know that the best way to prepare for a job talk is to observe others and practice one for yourself. If your department or a closely related department is doing any kind of faculty search while you’re a student here, go to as many of the job talks of faculty in your department as you can. And then listen to the buzz on the street, whether or not this was thought to be a good job talk or a problematic one and take the time to analyze why, what the difference was. So, let me offer a few thoughts, but please feel free to ask questions or ask for examples.

I think that one of the most challenging aspects of a job talk is that you are being judged on three criteria simultaneously, and that is you are being judged as a scholar, you are being judged as a future colleague, and you’re being judged as a potential teacher in the department. So, when you think about being judged as a scholar, I would encourage you to make sure that your job talk conforms to the norms of your discipline, and I would say that possibly one of the best models to look at if you’re unclear about the norms of the discipline are either job talks in your faculty or presentations at professional conferences in your field. And by paying attention to the norms of your discipline, I mean is it for example absolutely required for a talk in your discipline that you spend a great deal of time explaining your methodology. I’m a historian of education and that’s not typically as big a part of my own discipline as it is with some others. We tend to talk more about what we found and its significance and not spend much time, in verbal presentations, on our methodology per se. But that’s a norm in my discipline that may be different, so you should pay attention to your faculty norms.

The other thing that I would encourage – and I think this is very important – only – absolutely, under all circumstances – speak on a topic with which you are very familiar. It is not a good idea to talk about a work in progress or a beginning line of research. I think particularly for recent Ph.D.s, there’s an expectation that you’re going to talk about your dissertation work, and I think that’s fine, but you may in fact as part of the job talk or in the interview be challenged or questioned about your presentation and you want to feel on very firm ground to defend your ideas and describe your intellectual processes.

Now, most people when they think about a job talk are probably most aware of being judged as a scholar, and that this is a public presentation of your intellectual work, but I think it’s also reasonable to understand that search committees – and the panel before me may have spoken to this – when search committees are interviewing people, they’re not just interviewing scholars, they’re interviewing people. And they’re interviewing people that are going to be in the office down the hall from them for anywhere from 5-7 years and if you’re granted tenure for a lifetime. So, they are interested in someone with whom they feel they can be a colleague. Someone who would be interesting; someone who will contribute to the department. So, as you’re being judged as a colleague, make sure you convey a sense that you want to be there. That you’re interested in or invested in the people in the audience getting to know you. Make it clear that you have read about and come to understand the university where you are giving the talk, and particularly the department or the school or whatever unit is supporting your candidacy.

I would say that one of the times when I saw a candidate torpedo himself with a bad job talk was someone who was coming to a school of education as a historian of education and spoke as though he was in a professional conference of historians or only historians and he didn’t really know that his audience was going to be ed school faculty, none of whom were historians. He was going to be the historian of education in the program, and he didn’t take enough time to understand the school and the department to which he was speaking.

Following on that, just very succinctly, know who your audience is. Understand them. Many department chairs or deans or whoever is coordinating your visit to campus, may communicate to you some specifics about your job talk and it can be buried in the two-and-a-half page letter that the dean sends to you about this, but do pay attention. Sometimes they will say, “We will ask you to be in a seminar room” or “You’re going to be in the something-something auditorium” or whatever. But there might be information in there that will let you know the setting and some specifics about who the audience will be. If it’s only going to be your department, then you can talk in some ways much more specifically to scholars in your field than if an entire school or program is likely to be part of the audience.

The other thing is that when you get to campus, the job talk is usually not the very first thing. At some point in time, particularly if a graduate student in the department is going to offer to give you a tour, know where you’re supposed to give the job talk and ask to take a look at the room so you have a sense of how formal/informal, how close to the audience, etc. you’ll be. And also some expectation of the size of the crowd.

The last thing in terms of being judged as a colleague is to communicate that you’re likeable. And I know that can sound silly but how many times (changes voice to a low monotone) have you ever heard somebody give a talk where they just seem to talk like this and they go on and they drone and they really sound like they’re very nervous and they’re scared and you can’t really understand them and they don’t seem to be very happy that they’re doing it (normal voice) and it’s very hard to listen to an hour and fifteen minutes of that so communicate that you are interested in what you’re doing and that you are an interesting person. You can contribute to the scholarly discourse and you would be someone that it would be interesting to have an office across the hall from.

Now, most job talks are relatively formal presentations – not always, but it’s been my experience that most are. And so it is sometimes difficult to imagine how you might communicate your skills as a teacher in a job talk particularly if your teaching style is not this formal presentation style. However, you are going to be judged on your facility as a communicator and therefore as a potential teacher. Now, we all know that – particularly if you are going for a job in a research-oriented university – one of the primary interests is going to be your scholarship, but other kinds of institutions may be just as interested in your skills as a teacher. And even research universities are becoming more and more interested in the teaching skills of the recent Ph.D.s that they’re interviewing for new faculty jobs. So it’s important to remember that you’re being looked upon as a future teacher.

Now, the first thing, of course, that you want to do then is to be understood. Because if you can’t be understood, then they may wonder how students will understand you. So speak clearly, speak logically and all that you’ve ever learned about a good presentation is important to have in this job talk. I think it’s perfectly acceptable – particularly if it’s a norm in your discipline – if you have a couple of overheads to make points clear, even a handout or two. I think that anything that makes it seem like you were prepared and invested and that you want people to understand you is perfectly reasonable. Again, that may be more of a social science norm, so you should pay attention to the norms in your own discipline.

It might be appropriate, depending on the department or the school, to even have a slightly more teacher-oriented job talk and again this is where you would need to be very savvy about listening to the signals that you’re getting from the department chair or the dean or whomever is inviting you to speak. By teacher-oriented, I mean something a little less formal, something that might more closely match your teaching style. Again, probably at a research one university this would not be a good choice, but there are institutions where this might be something that you would feel was appropriate. And it would help to communicate to them your interest in being a good teacher.

And the last thing about communicating your skills as a teacher: even if it is a very formal presentation, you can sometimes bring in issues of teaching into the formal presentation. For example, if you devote some time – not the majority of time, but a small amount of time – to some issues of teaching related to the work that you just presented in the content. Like for example if you talk about what are the ideas and concepts in your field or discipline that are difficult to teach to undergraduates, for example, if that’s going to be your primary teaching responsibility. You might also talk about somewhere in your job talk, the relationship of your ongoing research agenda with your teaching. In other words, how you were using your scholarship in your classroom and vice versa.

And my last point before I pass the microphone on. Absolutely stay within the time limits. No exceptions. If they say 40 minutes, speak for 38. If they say an hour, speak for 55 or less. The last thing you want to see people doing in your job talk is looking at their watches and shuffling in their seats. So that’s telling people that you read what they provided for you, and it’s also telling people that you respect their time. They’ve come to give you this hour, or this two hours, or whatever the cultural norm is for that institution and you respect that and you’re not going to hold them longer than that.

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