Pick-A-Day

June 2008
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Greetings from Michigan!

Hello all, I am IUMike, or just Mike, and will be guest blogging for Adam as he makes his trek back to Bloomington. I’ve known Adam for 10 years, since we were in graduate school together at Indiana University, but rather than travel the world like our host, I took the more conventional route of entering the professoriate.

So my life is somewhat more like that of Disenchanted Professor, without the Coach and pets but with some gay twists (particularly more gym time!). I just finished my 3rd year as an assistant professor at a large public university in Michigan.

The winters in Michigan are long, and the workload during the academic year is heavy, so I am enjoying the pleasant summers we get…in fact, enjoying it too much, since I have much writing to do in order to keep on track for tenure! I did earn reappointment this year, which means that I keep my job until a tenure decision is made. There are lots of days when I don’t know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing!

I am still having some new experiences as a faculty member, and yesterday was my first opportunity to participate in an interview for a staff position. The position was with the campus gay and lesbian services office, and it was a simple lunch meeting with myself, another faculty member and the director of the GLBT office.

What is odd about the experience is that I was not really sure what kinds of questions to ask the job candidate. Up until the meeting, I had only thought about interviews from the point of view of one being interviewed. As it happened, the conversation flowed very smoothly, and I did pose some questions about some current campus gay and lesbian issues to obtain the candidate’s thoughts on how they might be resolved. I guess for grad students going on the job market, the lesson is that professors just make up interview questions on the fly.

4 comments to Greetings from Michigan!

  • koko

    HI MIKE!!
    Its weird, I realized I’ve known you, adam, and mateo now for 4 years. It seems like much longer than that.

    love you!

  • disenchanted

    Holy crap! It has been 10 years, hasn’t it?

    BTW, as a veteran of seven search committees, I agree. We use standardized questions for our phone interviews, but all the stuff on campus is pretty much fly by the seat of your pants.

  • Ed

    Hi Mike, I live near Bloomington, In. I attend the community college there. They are always looking for instructors if you desire to move back down south. There is this big university here too. You may have heard of them. I hate being interviewed and consider it a necessary evil. Great blogpost.

  • IUMike

    @koko: thank you koko! I know, time flies, especially in academia. Hope to see you soon!

    @disenchanted: I’m glad I’m not the only one flying by the seat of their pants in an interview! And speaking of 10 years, I think there are still members of my grad school cohort who are still at IU.

    @Ed: All in all, I’ve been pretty happy where I’m at. I just wish that the winters were not quite so long!