Yogini's Choice is a collection of inspiring and thought-provoking items on a variety of topics sourced from around the web and world, published Sundays. At least, it usually is, but the whole point of it being a choice is that sometimes, I choose to do something different.
Last Tuesday, I spent the day being interviewed by everyone and anyone even vaguely associated with
the one job I was actively interested in. I thought I did fine, and occasionally, great - I can be utterly charming when I choose to be, and between decongestants and adrenaline, I was charming
and energetic. My talk was
passionate and engaging, and that is independent confirmation from student and faculty audience members rather than my own assessment.
But with every new event during the day, red flags popped up.
*One woman formally on the search committee gave off a neon-bright vibe that she would rather be somewhere else in the interview. 20 minutes after my talk, questions were still going strong with half a dozen hands up in the air, and she shut it down because - I later found out - she wanted to go have a glass of wine with a fellow professor before teaching an evening seminar.
If anyone needed a glass of wine at the end of the day, it was me.
*This is a combination teaching - museum - research fellowship, except that the department, museum, and administration have completely different ideas as to the division of labor. The department say 40% of the time should be spent on teaching, the museum grudgingly says 40% teaching but implies more like 60% on that area, and both say no more than 20% of the time should be spent on your own research - yet they grilled me about what I would produce. The administration says
50% of the time should be spent on your own research. I told the dean flat out that there was a major discrepancy there, and he just said, "Uh...yeah...I guess there is. We'll have to sort that out."
*There was all sorts of misinformation being promulgated - the department would say one thing, and the museum another, and the administration yet something else. This wasn't just the division of labor, it was other things as well, like research money. It's hard to know what the truth of the situation really is.
*Half the time, they couldn't answer my questions about the practicalities of the work because they haven't hashed out their goals for the job and they definitely haven't communicated with each other about them. That lack of interdepartmental communication is not encouraging.
*The administrative staff and the students were wonderful - we really connected. But the others - the people would be my colleagues - can only be described as cold fish. I can understand not wanting to get emotionally invested in an interview, but it doesn't kill you to be warm and welcoming. Or maybe it would, in these cases, because they people making the least money and with the lowest status were the kindest and most helpful.
*It's a position with a regional speciality, and yet their regional specialist in this field is
not involved in the search at all. She's a grand dame of the field, and I would have loved to talk with her as a respected senior scholar - but she apparently actively chose not to be involved, and walked into the one chance I had to meet her 5 minutes before that event ended. You would think she had a vested interest in ensuring a good hire, but no. And while the _____ Studies program faculty are desperate to include art and material culture from the museum in their classes, and told me point-blank they didn't know how and wanted to learn, the subtext there was that they weren't getting any help from the people currently in place.
*About halfway through the day, this phrase popped into my head:
If they didn't make an offer, my vanity would be wounded, but otherwise I wouldn't be disappointed.
When you still have 7 hours to go, that's pretty strong sauce for 1pm.
It was all very, very strange. As the day went on, it became stranger. And the more I think about it, the weirder things become, the more questions I have, and the more red flags pop up. Very unexpected - but it certainly helps push my thoughts back over the Atlantic toward England and a Fresh New Start.
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