When you first hear "hiring board" as a service member, it probably reminds you of the promotion board, which is not an entirely wrong assumption to make. However, I can assure you it's a lot less stressful than that. In higher education, a hiring board is usually called a search committee and is a small panel of relevant faculty or staff members responsible for interviewing candidates and making a hiring recommendation.

What Should I Expect When Being Interviewed by a Search Committee?

Like many jobs, the higher ed hiring process has a few stages. Before inviting an applicant for an interview, the committee will first check whether an applicant meets the required qualifications, such as degrees, licenses, and relevant experience. Applicants who don't meet the minimum requirements are removed from consideration. The next stage will, in most cases, be a phone or video interview where all candidates are asked the same core questions and follow-up questions based on their resume or CV and the job requirements.

Finalists are then invited to campus, where they will sit in front of the hiring board, as you probably imagined. In addition to being interviewed in person by the search committee, finalists will usually be given a tour of the campus, meet with the dean or department chair who oversees the role they applied to, and on occasion be taken out for lunch. In the case of teaching or research roles, it is not uncommon to also give a research presentation or teaching demonstration.

Don't assume the interview stops when your interview with the search committee ends; lunch, seemingly impromptu conversations, and generally your entire time on campus should be considered part of the interview. Keep that in mind and remain professional and positively engaged for the duration of your visit.

How Do Hiring Boards Grade Applicants?

Search committees don't just pick whichever applicant they like the best; during the interview process, they will often fill out a predetermined rubric based on the role that is used across all applicants for that role. That means the role description is more than a wanted ad; it's a clue to the rubric the search committee will be using to evaluate you and other candidates. While it's impossible to know what will be on a specific role's rubric, you can safely assume that some of these general categories will be present:

Professional Experience: Can you clearly demonstrate that you understand your specific field? Can you show a clear record of previous experiences?

Service: Are you able to contribute to the institution's mission inside and outside of your role?

Collaboration: Can you work effectively with a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students?

Communication: Can you provide clear answers and explanations about your specialty and experience to people inside and outside of your field?

Mission Fit: Do your experience and career goals align with the institution's mission and needs?

This is not an all-inclusive list. A research-heavy institution will place more weight on laboratory experience and a history of publishing, while a teaching role will have more focus on classroom instruction and student interaction. Depending on the institution, you may be graded on a numeric scale or some version of the exceeds/meets/does not meet expectations scale. Either way, the members of the committee are looking for specific evidence to score you on. So, for example, just saying "I'm a strong leader" does not give the committee members much to grade you on. To do well, you need to be specific!

How Do I Do Well When Being Interviewed by a Hiring Board?

The easiest high-yield step is to study the listing for the role. As mentioned earlier, the rubric you will be graded on will at least in part be created from the job posting description. Take note of the required and preferred qualifications and experience, and prepare at least one unique example that demonstrates how you meet them.

For interview questions, use the STAR framework or something similar:

Situation: Explain the situation in the example you are responding to so the committee members have context, but remember to keep it brief.

Task: Explain what you were responsible for or the problem you needed to solve.

Action: Describe the actions you personally took in the situation.

Result: Explain the positive outcomes of the actions you took. Be sure to give numeric results if you're able to, for example, "reduced wait time by 15%" or "mentored 30 junior service members."

What Do Hiring Boards Look For? Evidence!

Hiring boards don't expect you to be perfect. They are just trying to figure out if you can perform the role and get along with the people already there. So don't stress yourself out trying to memorize the perfect answer to anything they could ask, like in a promotion board. Instead, understand the role you're being interviewed for, have relevant examples ready, and most importantly, remember to translate your service experience into terminology that a civilian can understand. Want to know more about how to translate your specific military experience into academic lingo? Check out our 'jobs decoded' series in the links below.

Article Topics

Job Search Advice Working as a Veteran in HigherEd

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