Comments on: Make up your mind, already ! http://expbook.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/make-up-your-mind-already/ (``Logbook" was taken already...) Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:35:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: GMP http://expbook.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/make-up-your-mind-already/#comment-2072 Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:31:59 +0000 http://expbook.wordpress.com/?p=5707#comment-2072 After I had interviewed (has it been 7 years already?), the first offer I received was from my first choice (among the places I interviewed), let’s call it Uni A, and it had something like a 4-week deadline; the second offer came a week after, from Uni B. After hearing that I had received an offer already, Uni B gave me a week to decide. Actually, Uni B had been the first to interview me, more than a month before any other; I liked them a lot, and if they had been prompt about making an offer, I would have likely taken it. Instead, they waited more than 2 months to give me an offer, during which I had two more interviews and fell in love with my current place (Uni A). I ended up deciding 10 days after the 1st offer (from Uni A), and 3 after receiving offer from Uni B. At that time, I withdrew my application from the third place where I had interviewed only a couple of days before the first offer came through (I knew I would never consider their offer as competitive to those of Uni A or B, too high of a teaching load and part of the country I would really not want to live in if I could help it).

Anyway, I think it’s important to assess whether the candidate genuinely seems like he/she would want to work at your university. Sometimes we get these excellent candidates, but they don’t click, there is a marked lack of interest on their part, yet we still give them offers and waste a lot of time waiting and they of course don’t accept. For instance, we interviewed a woman a few years back, she had 6 or 7 interviews that year. She gave a great talk and had a stellar record, but you could tell she didn’t particularly care about the impression she left on us; she had her sights set on greener pastures. That’s quite alright, but we ended up giving her an offer which she of course declined.

I am contrasting this with another excellent candidate where there was an instant chemistry with everyone in the department and he was genuinely excited about the city and the potential collaborators. You could tell he would be a great fit, and he is! My interview was a bit like that — love at first sight, both with the city and the potential collaborations. I never regretted my decision.

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