Interviews, retina scans and the failings of telepathy...

What I have learned on both sides of the table

Hugh Murphy, NUI Maynooth

Me...

• Librarian since 1997• First interview panel

1999• Sat on approximately 50

panels since• ...in 8 institutions• ....in boom and bust

• Have been successfully appointed

• Have been rejected

• Have made some cataclysmic howlers

The holy grail?

Textbook stuff

• Yes, do dress appropriately• Be polite• Be punctual• No handwritten documentation

(unless it’s expected)• Be positive• Ask a question• Be prepared to be asked for

examples• Feedback

In practice...?

• Very few people like interviews

• They are (arguably) a necessary evil

• Every one, in every place will be different

• As such there is a random element

Interviews are Random (?)

• How much can you prepare?

• Can you reduce the random?

• They are random for the interviewer too!

“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”

Appearance v reality

• Honesty?• Artifice?• The real you?• Lie?

If you can’t be on time for the interview...

Dress appropriately

Acknowledge your nerves

Be confident

• Better to ask a question than regret it later

• Speak confidently (even if it doesn't come easy)

• If you’re at the interview stage, they think you might have a shot

Be prepared to challenge

Contextualise the INTERVIEWContextualise the CV

• Every CV moulded to the job in question

• Helps the interviewer ask the right questions

• Every answer shows consideration of the job in question

• Helps the interviewer defend selecting you

You have limited time: make it count

Quick fire issues...

• Should I seek feedback

• Will I get detailed feedback

• Does it matter if I didn't go to UCD?

• Does it matter if I am not from X/Y/Z college?

• Age / gender / background an issue

• Why not?• That depends*

• No

• No

• Absolutely not

Interviews are unfair (?)

• There is no perfect solution to determine the best candidate for the job

• The ‘best’ candidate may not get the job - you have to perform on the day

• Do everything you can to ensure that the random element is as reduced as possible for your interview

• Random is never totally eliminated so...

Never beat yourself up after the interview

“Believe that a further shoreIs reachable from here”

Heaney, Doubletake, 1990

Good luck!