Questions to Ask in a Faculty Interview
Questions to ask in a faculty interview, written for a candidate at either stage of an academic job interview: the phone or video call with the committee, then the day or two on campus. The 85 questions are grouped by the role, teaching, research support, tenure, the department, and the offer and life in the town, and the teaching group has several for a community college interview, where the classroom is most of the job. Many of the notes say who to put a question to: the faculty search committee, the chair, the dean, junior colleagues or students.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The role
Why is this position open?
Why ask it
Retirement, growth, a departure, or a line that has turned over twice in five years are four very different jobs. If someone left, ask where they went, and ask a junior colleague the same question separately.
What does the department need this hire to do that it cannot do now?
Why ask it
The written advertisement is usually a committee compromise. This question gets you the actual gap, and occasionally reveals that different members of the committee are hiring for different things, which will become your problem.
What do you expect from me in the first three years?
Why ask it
A useful answer is concrete: a grant submitted, a certain kind of publication, a course built. A vague one can mean the expectations get settled later, at the review where you are measured against them.
How is the job divided between research, teaching and service on paper, and is that how it is judged?
Why ask it
Some appointment letters state the split in percentages, and annual reviews do not always follow it. If the letter gives research less than half your time and tenure turns on publications, the person to put the gap to is a colleague two or three years in.
What are the department's priorities for the next few years, and where does this post fit?
Why ask it
A department that can name two or three aims, and say which of them this hire serves, has thought past filling the vacancy. If the post seems to sit at the edge of every plan, ask who argued for it and whether that person is staying.
What in my application made the committee want to meet me?
Why ask it
The answer shows which version of you they think they are hiring, and it is not always the one you would lead with. Lean on it in the meetings that are left, and take note if it rests on a side project you plan to drop.
Which areas did the department weigh when it defined this search?
Why ask it
A search often begins as a debate over which area gets the line, and the people who wanted something else still vote. The committee chair can say which areas were considered, and that is a fair guide to who needs convincing in the one-to-one meetings.
Who here would I talk to about my work from week to week?
Why ask it
Being the only person in your area can mean freedom or isolation, and the difference is whether anyone nearby reads drafts and comes to your talks. If the names offered are all in other departments, ask how often those people actually meet.
Is the appointment in one department, or shared with a centre or a second unit?
Why ask it
A joint appointment can mean two sets of meetings, two chairs and two views of what your research should be. The two things to pin down are which unit is the tenure home and whether a written agreement says how the other one feeds into the review.
Is there anything in my file you would like me to say more about?
Why ask it
On a phone interview you cannot watch the committee react, so a doubt about your teaching range or your next project may never be voiced. This gives them an opening to raise it while you can still answer, before the shortlist for visits is drawn up.
If I am invited to campus, what would the visit include?
Why ask it
Ask it near the end of a phone interview: it assumes nothing and helps you prepare. A job talk, a chalk talk, a teaching demonstration and a meeting with the dean each take days to get ready, and the committee can usually say which are coming.
What does the rest of the search look like after this call?
Why ask it
You want three things: how many candidates go forward, roughly when visits would happen, and when you would hear either way. Dates often slip, but a committee that has none at all may still be waiting for approval to bring anyone to campus.
Who makes the final decision on this hire?
Why ask it
A faculty search committee often recommends and someone else decides: a department vote, the dean, and at some colleges a president or a board. Ask how the ranking is passed up and whether it has been changed on the way, which tells you whose meeting on the schedule matters most.
Teaching
What is the teaching load, counted in courses and in preparations?
Why ask it
Two courses a term with one repeat is a different job from two courses with two new preparations. Ask too how lab sections, large lectures and graduate seminars are counted, because a load formula can treat them very differently.
How many sections or credit hours make a full load, and how is an overload paid?
Why ask it
Community colleges and other teaching-centred posts often count the load in sections or contact hours, so a lab or a studio course may not weigh what a lecture does. Overload pay and any cap on it depend on the college and its contract, so ask for the written rule.
How large are the classes, and is there help with grading?
Why ask it
Forty essays to mark is a different week from two hundred exams, and the course count hides which one you get. Find out at what enrolment a teaching assistant or grader is assigned, and whether that is a rule or a favour from the chair.
Is the teaching load lighter in the first year?
Why ask it
A course off while you set up is something many departments give a new hire, and it is far easier to arrange before you sign than after. Find out whether it is standard or settled case by case, and whether a release can be held back for a term when a grant deadline or a book chapter is due.
Which courses would I teach in year one, and how much choice do I have?
Why ask it
Departments often hire for a research profile and then assign whatever service teaching is vacant. Ask when the schedule is set and by whom, since a course you did not expect can consume the whole first year.
Who are the students in the courses I would teach?
Why ask it
Majors, non-majors meeting a requirement, part-time students with jobs and graduate students each need a different course under the same title. The students you meet on the visit will describe a typical classmate more exactly than the catalogue does.
How prepared are entering students, and where do I send one who is struggling?
Why ask it
A college with open admission can put a returning adult, a school leaver and someone repeating the course in one section. Tutoring, a writing centre and an early alert system decide whether catching them up falls to you alone, so ask which of those exist and whether students use them.
Where do students go after they graduate?
Why ask it
Graduates heading mostly for local employers, for professional schools or for doctoral programmes each call for a different kind of course from you. Notice whether the answer comes with recent examples or rests on one star student from years back.
Which universities do students transfer to, and how far do transfer agreements fix what I teach?
Why ask it
At a community college this sits beside the question of where graduates find work, because many students enrol meaning to finish a degree elsewhere. A course that has to match a university's equivalent leaves less room in the syllabus, and whoever keeps those agreements can show you how much.
How much freedom do I have over a course that already exists?
Why ask it
Courses taught in several sections often come with a common syllabus, a set textbook and shared exams, which saves preparation and limits what you can change. A good sign is a coordinator who can name something a recent hire changed and kept.
Could I propose a new course, and how long does approval take?
Why ask it
Where a permanent course has to pass one or more curriculum committees, approval can run past a year. A special topics number is a common way to teach it sooner, so find out whether one exists and whether a new course sits inside your load or on top of it.
How many advisees would I have, and when does that start?
Why ask it
At teaching-focused colleges, academic advising can mean dozens of students and a crowded fortnight before each registration period. Two answers make it lighter: new faculty are spared it in the first year, or professional advisers take the routine cases.
How many office hours and days on campus does the contract require?
Why ask it
Teaching-focused colleges sometimes set weekly office hours and campus days in writing, where a research department leaves them to custom. Find out whether hours held online count, and whether the requirement changes in a term when you teach evenings or at a second site.
Do theses, capstones and independent studies count toward my load?
Why ask it
One-to-one supervision is often done on top of the stated load and recorded nowhere. Ask how many such students a typical colleague carries, and whether you can turn one down before tenure without it being remembered.
Are summer, evening or online courses expected, optional, or paid extra?
Why ask it
In some departments summer teaching is a welcome supplement, and in others it is the only way the schedule gets covered. The pay rate, who gets first refusal, and whether online sections come with help building them are the details that tell the two apart.
Where do new faculty go for help with teaching here?
Why ask it
A teaching centre, a colleague who shares materials for the course you inherit, or nothing at all are the usual answers. If someone offers their old slides and exams on the spot, that tells you a good deal about how the department treats its new people.
How many sections are taught by part-time faculty, and what do full-time faculty do for them?
Why ask it
Where adjuncts cover a large share of the schedule, the full-time faculty may hire, timetable, mentor and observe them. That coordination can be handed to the newest hire, so ask how many part-time colleagues you would look after and whether it comes with a course release.
How are teaching evaluations used in personnel decisions?
Why ask it
Listen for whether numerical scores are used, what threshold causes concern, and whether colleagues ever sit in on a class. Where student scores are the only evidence in the file, one rough term in a required course can follow you into a review.
Research
What is in the startup package, and how long do I have to spend it?
Why ask it
Equipment, lab renovation, students, postdocs, summer salary, travel and course release are separate line items. On the visit, ask what a package normally covers and when it expires, and leave the figures for the offer. Renovations run late often enough that the clock on the money is worth raising early.
What is the space situation for this position?
Why ask it
You want to hear office and lab, shared or dedicated, and the date each is free. Space can turn out to depend on someone else moving out, so see the actual room before you accept.
How much external funding is a faculty member here expected to bring in?
Why ask it
In some departments a major grant is an unwritten condition of tenure, and in others any award at all is a pleasant surprise. The record of recent successful cases is the real answer, and it is worth checking whether any part of your salary or your students' stipends would depend on grants you have yet to win.
How are graduate students admitted and funded, and would I get access?
Why ask it
New faculty in some departments wait years before they can recruit students, which can be fatal to a research programme. Ask how admissions decisions are made and whether your subfield reliably gets applicants.
If there is no doctoral programme, who would do research alongside me?
Why ask it
The honest answer may be undergraduates for ten weeks in summer, or master's students who leave after a year. That is workable if someone else pays them and the tenure expectations were written with that pace in mind, so check both.
If research is not part of the job, what support is there for keeping up with my field?
Why ask it
Conference money, a sabbatical after a set number of years and paid days for professional development are the usual forms at a teaching college. Ask what a colleague in your subject last used them for, because a fund that only covers teaching workshops will not get you to your own discipline's meeting.
What chances are there to collaborate with other departments or centres?
Why ask it
Shared seminars, joint grants and co-supervised students are the evidence, and a list of institutes on a website is not. If collaboration matters to your plans, ask to meet one likely partner during the visit, and ask what it took the last time two units here shared a student or a piece of equipment.
What does the grants office do for someone applying for the first time?
Why ask it
Some offices build the budget, chase the signatures and check the forms, and some only press submit. A junior colleague who applied recently can tell you which kind this is, and how many days before the deadline the office wanted the finished file.
What happens to the overhead on a grant I bring in?
Why ask it
Institutions take a share of most grants for indirect costs, and some return part of it to the department or to the investigator. The rule differs from place to place, so ask how it works there and whether the returned money can be spent freely.
What internal funding can new faculty apply for?
Why ask it
Seed grants, summer fellowships and small equipment funds matter most in the gap between the startup money and a first external award. A scheme that nobody in your field has won is not much use to you, so get the name of someone who has.
Can a grant buy me out of a course, and what does that cost?
Why ask it
Buyout rates are set locally and can be anything from the price of a replacement instructor to a fixed share of salary. Some departments also cap how many courses you can buy out, because they need you in the classroom whatever you can pay.
Which shared facilities would I depend on, and who pays to use them?
Why ask it
Instrument time, computing clusters, archives and library subscriptions often carry fees that come out of your own funds. Get the hourly rates if you can, and the story of the last time a key instrument broke: who paid, and how long it was down.
If my work needs ethics, animal or safety approval, how long does that take here?
Why ask it
A slow review board can cost a new hire most of a first year of data. The person to ask is someone who submitted a protocol recently, and the detail to get is whether an approval from your current institution can move with you or has to start again.
Who handles ordering, hiring and reimbursements for a research group?
Why ask it
Where department staff are stretched, faculty do their own purchasing and payroll forms, and that time comes out of research. Meeting the administrator who would process your paperwork is worth ten minutes of any visit.
How is conference travel paid for?
Why ask it
Some departments give each person a yearly travel allowance, some expect it to come from grants or startup, and some fund only trips where you present. Whatever the amount, set it against what one meeting in your field costs now.
Tenure
What is the tenure standard here, specifically?
Why ask it
Ask for written guidelines, then ask how they have been applied recently, because those are separate questions. Numbers of publications, venue expectations, grant thresholds, and the weight of teaching should all be answerable.
Who has come up for tenure lately, and what happened?
Why ask it
Few questions on a campus visit tell you more. Ask the chair, then ask junior faculty privately. Anyone denied recently, and anyone who left before the clock ran out, tells you what the standard really is.
How are faculty reviewed each year before tenure?
Why ask it
An annual letter from the chair that says where you stand gives you several chances to change course before the vote. The useful details are who writes it, whether the senior faculty see it or discuss you, and whether you may reply in writing when you disagree.
How does the review at the midpoint of the clock work, and what do people hear back?
Why ask it
A midpoint review that produces a specific letter is the nearest thing to a preview of the tenure vote. Junior colleagues who have had one can say whether the letter gave them anything to act on, or only told them they were making good progress.
After the department votes, who else decides a tenure case?
Why ask it
The path differs by institution, but a college committee, a dean and a provost are common further steps, and a later one can overturn the department. If that has happened in recent memory, the level where it happened is the standard you are really writing for.
How is co-authored and collaborative work counted?
Why ask it
Fields and departments differ on author order, large teams and papers written with a former adviser. If your record leans on collaboration, ask how a recent case like yours was read and what the committee takes as evidence of independence.
Would work I published before arriving count toward tenure?
Why ask it
Some places count only what appears after the start date and others read the whole record. With years as a postdoc or on another faculty behind you, credit toward the clock may be on offer. A shorter clock is not always a favour, so find out how it went for people who took it.
Can the tenure clock be paused, and have people used that?
Why ask it
Policies for a new child, illness or caring for a relative vary by institution, so ask how it works there and get the written version. Then ask whether anyone who stopped the clock felt held to a higher bar for the extra year.
Is there a research leave before the tenure review, and does everyone get it?
Why ask it
A term without teaching in the fourth or fifth year can be the difference between a finished book or a renewed grant and a thin file. Automatic, competitive, and dependent on that year's budget are three different promises, and only the first is one to plan around.
How is service distributed among junior faculty?
Why ask it
Junior colleagues frequently absorb committee work that senior colleagues decline, and little of it shows in the tenure file. Ask what committees a new hire is expected to join, and whether there is any protection in the first years.
What mentoring exists for new faculty?
Why ask it
Ask whether it is formal or informal, and whether the mentor is also on the tenure committee, which changes what you can safely say to them. The best answer names a specific person and a specific cadence.
Where publications are not expected, what does the tenure file rest on?
Why ask it
At many community colleges and teaching colleges it is classroom observations, student evaluations, service and work on the curriculum. Ask who observes you and how often, and whether the college calls the result tenure or a continuing contract, since the name and the protection differ by state and system.
If this post is off the tenure track, how do renewal and promotion work?
Why ask it
The details that matter are how long each contract runs, who decides on renewal and how much notice is given when one ends. A written promotion path with a pay rise attached is a very different job from a string of one-year letters.
Department
What brought you here, and what has kept you?
Why ask it
It works in any one-to-one meeting and costs the other person nothing to answer. Listen for whether the reasons are about colleagues and students or only about the town and the house, and for how quickly a second reason arrives.
How do people here actually get on with each other?
Why ask it
Ask it of the chair, a junior colleague, and a graduate student separately, then compare. Long running factional splits are usually visible in what people avoid saying, and they shape committee votes you will eventually depend on.
What are the biggest challenges the department faces right now?
Why ask it
A flat denial tells you only that the person is still recruiting you. Put it to several people and compare: a worry that everyone names is at least a known problem, and the more useful detail is what has been tried about it so far.
How are decisions made here: by vote, by committee, or by the chair?
Why ask it
Ask what the department last voted on and whether untenured faculty had a say. A place where the chair decides alone can run well under one chair and badly under the next, so find out which kind this is before relying on anyone's goodwill.
How long has the chair been in the role, and how is the next one chosen?
Why ask it
The person making promises during your visit may not be the one keeping them. A chair in the last year of a term is a reason to get commitments into the offer letter and not leave them in conversation.
What are the next two or three hires the department wants to make?
Why ask it
The list shows whether your area is being built up or whether you are the one hire it will get. If the chair and the junior faculty give different lists, the department has not agreed on its direction.
What has happened to the number of majors over the last five years?
Why ask it
Falling numbers can bring cancelled sections, merged departments and pressure to teach whatever fills seats. Rising numbers can mean larger classes and more advising before any new position arrives. In both cases the telling part is what the college did in response.
Is the budget growing or shrinking, and what happened in the last cycle?
Why ask it
Enrolment, state funding, and college level cuts determine whether the promises made to you survive. Ask what was cut most recently and whether any searches were cancelled after being authorised.
What does the college want from this department over the next five years?
Why ask it
This one is for the dean, who is the person on your schedule placed to answer it. Growth, a new programme and holding steady each say something different about where the next line and the next lab will go. Set the answer beside what the chair told you the department wants.
How is the department's relationship with the dean?
Why ask it
A department out of favour at college level gets fewer lines, less space, and slower approvals, and none of that appears in the offer. Put it to several people, though not to the dean, and listen for how carefully they phrase it.
How many days a week are people actually in the building?
Why ask it
A corridor of closed doors makes for a lonely first year, however friendly everyone was at dinner. A regular seminar or lunch that people turn up to counts for more than any stated policy, and you can see for yourself who is around on the days of your visit.
What is the department doing to recruit and keep a diverse faculty and student body?
Why ask it
Past actions say more than a statement on the website: who was hired in the last few searches, who stayed, and who does the committee work on the subject. If that work falls mostly on a few junior colleagues, ask whether it counts for anything at review.
What do students here wish the faculty understood?
Why ask it
Save it for the meeting with students when no faculty are in the room. Funding gaps, advisers who are hard to reach and courses that never run are problems you would inherit as their teacher or supervisor.
Is the faculty unionised, and what does the contract settle?
Why ask it
Where there is a union, salary scales, workload and grievance procedures may be fixed by an agreement you can read before negotiating. Where there is none, ask who a faculty member goes to when a dispute with the chair cannot be settled inside the department.
Offer and life
What is the timeline and how does negotiation work here?
Why ask it
Find out when a decision comes, how long you would have to respond, who negotiates, and what is negotiable at all. Public institutions often have salary constraints but flexibility on startup, teaching, and timing.
Is this a nine-month or a twelve-month appointment, and what covers the summer?
Why ask it
A nine-month contract typically pays for the academic year and leaves the summer to a grant, a course or startup money. Arrangements differ by country and employer, so ask how pay is spread across the year and whether the startup includes salary for the first summers.
How do raises work after the starting salary?
Why ask it
If raises are small or irregular, the figure you negotiate now may be close to what you earn for years. Three things to hear about: merit increases, what promotion adds, and whether newer hires end up paid more than people who have been there longer.
What is the retirement contribution, and is there a tuition benefit for family?
Why ask it
These two can be worth more than the gap between two salary offers, and the chair may not know the details. The benefits office's written summary will have them, including how long you must stay before the employer's contributions are yours to keep.
When would you want me to start, and could that move?
Why ask it
Finishing a fellowship, a book or a partner's contract are all ordinary reasons to ask for a later start. Raise it with the chair once an offer is close, and check whether a delayed start also delays the tenure clock and the startup money.
Is there help with moving costs or with finding housing?
Why ask it
A relocation allowance, temporary university housing or a housing office are all possible, and all are easier to ask for before you sign. Whether the allowance is paid up front or reimbursed against receipts decides how much cash the move needs, and how it is taxed depends on where you are.
Does the university sponsor work visas and residency for faculty, and who pays?
Why ask it
If you would need a visa, ask early and ask the office that files the paperwork, not only the chair. Rules and costs depend on the country and the employer, so find out what was done for recent international hires and how long it took.
What parental and family leave do faculty get, and has anyone taken it lately?
Why ask it
A policy is one thing, and a department that covers the teaching without resentment is another. Leave rules depend on the employer and the country, so read the written policy and then ask a colleague who has taken leave how it went.
What support exists for a partner's career?
Why ask it
Ask the chair or the dean rather than the committee, and ask about precedent rather than policy: whether a partner hire, an adjunct position, or a placement elsewhere on campus has actually happened here.
Where do most faculty live, and what does housing cost there?
Why ask it
Recent hires are the ones to ask, since colleagues who bought years ago may be quoting a market that no longer exists. Get the length of the commute at the hour you would actually travel, and whether people at your stage rent or buy.
What do people find hard about living here?
Why ask it
Housing costs, commutes, schools, healthcare access and isolation are among the reasons hires leave after a few years, and few people volunteer them during a recruiting visit. Students and staff will often say more than faculty do.
Is there anything about this job I would only find out after taking it?
Why ask it
Keep it for the end of a one to one conversation, not a group meeting. Junior faculty and graduate students tend to answer it most frankly, and the pause before the answer is worth as much as the answer.
Asking well on a campus visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Match the question to the person
The chair and the search committee
Ask about load, expectations, startup, space, and timeline. These are the people who can answer institutional questions accurately and who expect them, so asking is a sign of seriousness rather than of doubt.
Junior faculty
Ask about tenure in practice, service load, mentoring, and whether promises made at hiring were kept. They are recent enough to remember the process and close enough to it to have opinions.
Graduate students
Ask about supervision, funding reliability, morale, and how the department treats people with least power. Their account is the best available proxy for what the place is like when nobody is recruiting.
The dean
Ask what the college wants from the department, about enrolment pressure, and any partner hire question. Do not use this meeting for questions the chair could answer, since dean time is short and rarely repeated.
Staff and central offices
The department administrator, the grants office and human resources know how ordering, grant submissions, benefits and visas actually run. If none of them is on your schedule, ask the chair to add fifteen minutes with one, or for a name to email afterwards.
Which questions belong to which stage
The phone interview
An academic phone interview, or the video call that stands in for it, usually leaves room for only two or three questions. Take them from The role and Teaching: why the post is open, what the department needs, which courses come first, what the rest of the search looks like. Leave money, space and tenure cases for the visit.
The on-campus interview
Most of the list belongs here, spread across a day or two of meetings. Decide beforehand which questions go to the chair, which to junior faculty and which to students, and put the ones about tenure in practice and the state of the department to more than one person.
After the offer
Numbers come now: salary, startup, summer pay, moving costs, start date and benefits. Ask for anything promised in conversation to be written into the offer letter, since the letter is what a later chair or dean will go by.
Practicalities of the visit
- Ask for the schedule in advance, and ask who each person is and what they do. A meeting where you do not know who is across the table is mostly wasted.
- Before you travel, ask who will be in the room for the job talk and for any teaching demonstration, how long each runs, and what the students in a demonstration class have covered so far.
- At a community college interview the committee may put the same set questions to every candidate and leave only a few minutes for yours. Choose three from Teaching beforehand, and keep the rest for the chair or the dean if a second meeting follows.
- Repeat the important questions to different people. Consistent answers are reassuring, and inconsistent ones are the most useful thing you will learn all day.
- Save salary and package specifics for after an offer unless the chair raises them. During the visit, ask about structure rather than numbers.
- Write notes between meetings, not at the end of the day. By dinner the visit compresses into a single impression.
- Treat every interaction as part of the interview, including the drive from the airport and the meal, because impressions from both can reach the committee.
- Ask to see the actual office or lab space rather than a floor plan.
Warning signs
- Nobody can state the tenure standard, or the answer changes between the chair and junior faculty.
- Several junior hires have left in the last few years and everyone describes the reasons as personal.
- The startup package is described enthusiastically but not in writing, or depends on a grant nobody has yet.
- Graduate students are noticeably careful about what they say in front of faculty.
- Teaching load is quoted in courses without mention of preparations, class sizes, or whether release exists.
- The advertised specialisation does not match what anyone in the department actually asks you about.
- Promises about space, leave or a partner's position are made warmly in conversation and nobody offers to put them in the letter.