The process consisted of two steps: in the morning, I was scheduled to give a short presentation of a mock class and my research, followed in the afternoon by a panel interview. For the first part, only two of the five people who were supposed to attend were present. About ten minutes later, after I had already finished the mock class, another person arrived.
The mock class was supposed to last ten minutes, but one of the attendees asked me to hurry when I had been speaking for only seven minutes. They asked very few questions during this stage. During the panel interview, one person repeatedly interrupted me and did not allow me to complete my answers. Other panel members asked questions that should have been addressed during the mock class, but they had not been present for it. Besides that, when I asked questions, they seemed very unhappy to answer them.
They appeared to be in a hurry, as they were interviewing many candidates on the same day, and they looked extremely stressed. Overall, it seemed to me that they did not want to be there. The atmosphere became uncomfortable due to frequent interruptions and one individual who appeared to make assumptions and answer questions on my behalf. Another panellist told me, “This is not a 9-to-5 job. What are you going to do when you have a lot of work?” I’m not sure what kind of interview question that is, to be honest, it’s a red flag and often indicative of serious management issues.
The following day, they called me and said, “I have bad news... you didn’t get the position,” which actually made me feel relieved. This was one of the least professional interview experiences I’ve ever had. Overall, I believe they were looking more for a teaching fellow to help with the workload rather than a lecturer, which is totally fair. It is very difficult to secure funding in low-ranked universities (it is not only asking a lecturer to bring money! The university should also support you), but they can still teach certain courses well. My advice would be to try to attract more Teaching fellows ( yes!, some people love teaching more than research) and interview fewer people per day, so you don't feel burned out.
