Danielle Blog

Excitement!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEELL,

My interview day went extremely well. So well, that they called me yesterday and offered me the job! I accepted with pleasure and excitement.

So, here’s how it went down.
The position is available (it is a 1 year position), because one of their faculty members is leading a study abroad the spring semester. He normally teaches a molecular biology course and some intro bio. Also, they are perpetually short on teachers for intro bio. They can have about 500 students that take intro bio and since the classes are 25-30 students, they need a ton of teachers. So, a full work-load is 2 lecture sections and 3 labs. Fortunately, for the fall, my 2 lecture sessions will be intro bio – so I can do one prep. And the 3 labs are also intro bio – again, one prep. Which will be awesome. In the spring, I’d do the molecular biology class with 2 lab sections (12 people apiece), and then an intro bio session with 1 lab.

!!

The molecular bio class is _right_ up my alley. It is an excellent, excellent fit. I initially thought it was more of a genetics course, but that isn’t the case at all.

So, the day – I found all of this out as we walked over to lunch. I had lunch with the guy I’d be replacing, the director of the intro bio course, and the department chair. I wasn’t sure if it was time for me to ask _them_ questions, or if it was for them to ask _me_ questions – so I started asking them questions. After I got a feel for the coursework, the level of abilities of the students (which is quite varied in the intro course), teaching methods, that sort of thing – they asked me a few questions about my experiences. It was not nerve wracking at all and I was very comfortable talking about myself.

Then I spent some time being shown around the laboratories and seeing all of their equipment. It will be a change from being in a super well-stocked molecular biology lab, but it isn’t like they are in the dark ages either. They’ve got more microscopes per student than the U of M has, where they have to share some of the time. The lecture rooms are all outfitted with digital projectors and podiums with computers, so they are all set for teaching via powerpoint and that sort of thing.

I met with the director of the intro bio course briefly. We were actually running out of time to talk. But he is the one that my mentor for whom I’ve been guest lecturing, called up and told him he should hire me. So, the wheels were greased for that one.

I then met with the Dean/Associate Provost. That was actually very easy as he was there to tell me about the school and doesn’t make any hiring decisions, so there was no “interview-like” process. The only thing about it is that it went for a full hour and we had to rush back to the building where I was giving my talk.

For my talk, we basically walked in at the time it was supposed to start – plugged in my flash drive, waited for powerpoint to come up – it came up, and he introduced me and I started. It was a little fast, but worked out fine.

My talk was very well received. There were fewer faculty than I was expecting, and about 20-30 students (they are required to attend a certain number of seminars for class, I think). Everyone seemed to be following it and I appeared to hold their attention. I think it helps that I link what I do back to Parkinson’s and drug addiction – which are more exciting than not mentioning them at all.

Then supper. The drive to supper was with the most senior and respected member of the department. The chair actually “warned” me that his word carries a lot of weight – which was extremely nice of her to tell me that. The other person had been dean of the school for 7 years, so was also more senior and was the one who asked the pointed questions. I won’t go into all of the questions, but suffice to say that I didn’t eat much of my soup, bread or salad. As we got into the main part of dinner, I was able to ask them some questions and have time to eat.
I kinda expected it to be like that. The questions were mostly telling them about my experience. Or at least, that is what I turned them into. My questions for them were mostly (again) hearing more opinions about styles of teaching, methods for helping the students stay on top of the material, expectations of the students, that sort of thing. And some about their feelings toward the school and students – which is just amazing.

I asked the chair about more permanent opportunities and she said 2 things 1) they always have a shortage of faculty to teach, so there will likely be positions in the future 2) they have a few people who are getting close to retiring, which would open up some tenure-track lines. SOOOOOOOOOO, very encouraging.

I have to commute pretty far. But it won’t be any longer than what I did in MA. And if I get something more permanent, we’d move up that direction.

I couldn’t believe they called me the very next day! At dinner, they told me that would be the case. So, I knew I didn’t have long to wait. Which was awesome.

Oh, and evidently my letters of recommendation were (probably) what got me in the door. They asked me why “some other school hadn’t snatched me up”. And I basically told them that I thought it was because the other schools only asked for names to contact and were using CVs (resumes) as a way to weed out people – and that my letters were (probably) very strong. And they said “oh yes, very strong” with lots of nodding. That and my presentation were the key, I think.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO. All in all, I’m VERY excited! Pretty soon, I’ll be “Professor Danielle X”! wooo hoooooo.