Job Visit

After the interviews at the Job Market, you may (hopefully!) receive some invitations to different departments. These are some tips about the job visits.

The objective of the job visit is twofold. From the point of view of the interviewer, it is a chance to know your work more in detail, to see your interaction with the other people in the department, and to speak about more varied topics. For you, it is a good opportunity to know the department, the people there, the atmosphere as well as the city it is placed.

These visits take usually one complete day, in which you will be required for many things. The basic structure is some interviews, lunch, job-talk, more interviews and dinner, with possible variations.

At the arrival at the department you may be provided an office where you may receive people to talk to. You could also be given a list of professors (between 5 or 6) you will talk to about your paper and research projects. This means going from office to office talking to people. These little chats will last around 20 to 30 minutes, and will resemble a lot in the procedure, the interviews you had in the job market. However, they may be more focused on the department per se. Here you will have the chance of asking for specific questions about facilities and personal at the department. During these short interviews you will meet people not necessarily interested in your job market paper, so be prepared for questions related to other of your papers or even other fields.

Each department organizes the job visits in a different way, but job visitors are usually invited for lunch or dinner (or both!) with people of the department. These will also be "job meals", but is a very good time to socializing and knowing in a less formal way, someting about the city and life in the city where the department is placed.

At some time during the day (before or after lunch), you will have to give your job talk. Think about it as another presentation or seminar of your job market paper. After your talk, you will have to answer some questions about your paper, and continue with more interviews. The visit usually finishes with a dinner.

It is important to keep in mind what the department expects from the visitor. Not only accademic characteristics, but also human quality, and a good atmosphere among the professors. Again, naturality is the best advice here.

In general, departments interview all the candidates before making any offer. This may take between one and two months. So be patient, don't be nervous and enjoy your visit!