Sample Interview Questions for Faculty Candidates

The questions below can be utilized in screening interviews and/or on-campus interviews. When inviting candidates to these interviews, search committees are encouraged to share interview questions with faculty candidates in advance. During a virtual screening interview, search committees are encouraged to put each question into the chat when asked. Search committees are also encouraged to share links to key background information with all candidates (e.g., the mission, vision, values, and goals of NIU, the college, and the department). Doing so can support equity so that you learn about the faculty member’s alignment with the job qualifications relative to other features (such as how much access they have to coaching for preparation).

Introductory Questions

• What attracted you to this position?
• What contributions can you make to our college/department?
• The university is committed to inclusive excellence. What has this looked like for you in the past, and how would you advance it in the future?

About a Candidate’s Professional Background

• Please highlight your professional experiences most relevant to the qualifications for this position.
• What do you consider to be your particular strength(s)?
• What motivates you to do your best?
• Describe how you go about solving a problem. Please give us an example.
• What is the biggest conflict you have ever been involved in at work? How did you handle the situation? What did you learn?
• What experiences or skills will help you manage projects?
• Describe a situation in which you did all the right things and were still unsuccessful. What did you learn from the experience?
• This position has multiple responsibilities. How do you manage your time in such multifaceted roles to meet your objectives?
• What are your professional goals?
• How does this position fit within your professional goals?
• What changes do you see on the horizon in your discipline? How will you contribute to them?
• How do you view your role in the faculty development process?
• What experience have you had in mentoring? Describe an experience mentoring students, faculty and/or staff?
• What professional development activities have you been involved in over the past few years?
• Please tell us about your research, artistry, scholarly, or innovation interests. How do you see them aligning with the department, college, and NIU’s mission, vision, values, and goals?
• Tell us how you go about organizing your work. As you do so, describe experience you have with utilizing technology to support organization.
• What do you look for in your academic colleagues?

About a Candidate’s Commitments to Inclusive Excellence

• Tell us about a time when you realized your personal background or perspective shaped how you interpreted a situation. How did you account for that in your decision-making?
• Describe a situation where you had to make a decision that could impact people with very different experiences than your own. How did you ensure you were being fair and objective?
• When you encounter competing perspectives in a group or classroom, how do you decide whose voices to prioritize or how to balance them?
• In your field, what structural challenges tend to limit people’s opportunities to succeed, and how does that awareness shape your role as a faculty member?

For Faculty Positions Including Teaching

• Tell us about your teaching methods, philosophy and goals.
• How have you incorporated new technology into your teaching?
• What is your experience teaching through distance learning, on-line courses, or hybrid courses?
• What is your experience in teaching students with varying backgrounds and learning styles? What methods have proven to be effective and what have you learned from the experience? Can you provide an example of how you’ve supported them?
• Describe strategies that you have used to create an inclusive learning environment for all of your students.
• Tell us about a time when you successfully managed a challenging situation with a student.
• What are some of the most challenging aspects of teaching for you? What have you done to address these challenges?
• What have evaluations for your teaching indicated, both positive and negative? How has evaluation feedback changed how to teach today?
• What is your experience with different types of teaching assessment, such as student evaluations, peer observations, and self reflections? How do you drawn on them to improve your teaching?

For Faculty Positions Including Research, Artistry, Scholarship, and Innovation

• What grants have you received in the past and what plans do you have to fund your research, artistry, scholarship, or innovation?
• What is your research, artistry, scholarly, or innovation agenda for the next five years?
• What do you see as innovative directions for research, artistry, scholarship, or innovation in your field? How will you contribute to these directions?
• What types of resources would you require to successfully continue your research, artistry, scholarly, or innovation agenda?
• Transdisciplinary, community engaged, and externally partnered research are university priorities. Some faculty begin their careers in more solo work, and grow such collaborative work over time. If you were selected for this position, how might you pursue these priorities over the course of your career?
• How would you involve undergraduate and graduate students in your research?
• Please identify your most significant research, artistry, scholarly, or innovation contribution. Why did you choose that contribution?

For Faculty Positions Including Clinical Practice and Supervision

• Describe your experience in providing care to a patient in a challenging situation. How did you manage the treatment for this patient? What could you have done differently?
• Tell us about a time when you felt a patient was difficult to diagnose and how you approached the diagnosis.
• How do you stay current in clinical practice?
• What contributions have you made to your clinical field?
• What do you enjoy the most about clinical practice?
• What are your experiences with clinical supervision? How have you grown, or how would you grow, in your skills at clinical supervision?

For Faculty Positions Including External Engagement

• Please tell us your experience in developing programs and partnerships with external constituents and how you would apply that experience at NIU?
• Describe your experience in external engagement or outreach. What skills do you leverage in this work?
• What is an example of a challenging external engagement you’ve experienced in the past. How did you address the challenges, and what did you learn from it?
• What is a signature success in your external engagement activities?

For Faculty Leadership Positions

• What are three features of your approach to leadership? Please provide an example of when you have used these to provide effective leadership during a difficult time.
• Have you ever experienced a situation in which you had difficulty with other people hearing your ideas? What was your approach to handling this situation?
• What practices do you implement during conflict situations? Please provide an example when a practice didn’t work, and how you handled it and what you learned from it.
• If we were to ask your superiors (i.e., Ph.D. advisor, graduate assistant supervisor, department chair, dean, provost) or your colleagues to comment about your leadership how would they respond?
• Who have you coached or mentored to achieve success?
• Have you ever had to make a decision without knowledge of all the necessary data? If you have, describe how you approached it. If you haven’t, describe what you would do in such a situation?
• What are the techniques that you use to clarify the meaning of messages you receive that might have multiple interpretations? Do you use different techniques for various modes of communication, such as email, Teams, or in-person.
• How do you maintain a positive discussion?