The hiring process here is about as unlike any usual college or university as possible, so don't think this is going to be familiar. First, their HR department handles a lot of the process that academic departments usually do, so you'll be surprised often and constantly at how little they know about the positions they are recruiting and hiring for. They didn't know what CV was, so I had to give them a resume instead. They tested me on teaching in an area I don't usually teach, because they confused sociology with another social science (but I exuded confidence that I can teach anything, so I got the job). The online application process takes hours, it's very cumbersome and frustrating, but that significantly cuts down on the competition, for these relatively high paying instructor positions. The interview by group is wooden and staged, they have to all ask the same prepared questions, which include some good questions on the topic of your teaching subject, on student diversity, and some that are just idiotic. Since someone in the room may have written the question, act as if they are all good questions. Don't judge the instution by the ridiculous hiring process, it's a great place to work, and because numerous applicants become disenchanted during the process of application, it's somewhat less competitive than other higher education insitutions. Do look into Milwaukee, the city's problems with poverty, Tea-Party governors, de-industrialization, these are the problems facing this institution, and you should be knowledgeable, not neutral and ignorant, coming into the hiring process. The students here are victims, survivors of an inadequate public school system that is getting worse. We're their best, last hope for access to the vaunted but vanishing middle class lifestyle that all but the lucky inheritors of wealth aspire to. If you really want to make a difference, and you're really qualified in your academic area, that will manage to shine through this ludicrous application and hiring process. They higher way after everyone else in the college business, so if this is your first choice (it was mine) then you have to be ready to play some brinkmanship (I turned down a few offers months before, waiting for MATC, and another Wisconsin technical college, both hiring the month Fall classes start!).
