I interviewed at Western Carolina University in Apr 2024
Easy interview
Application
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Western Carolina University
Interview
Everyone is very friendly in the interview panel. There are 3 stages of the interview: phone, presentation, and site visit. You need to be well prepared for classroom lectures and research presentations.
It was a great interview session. The team, particularly Engineering department, works very closely. Colleagues seem to be supportive and collaborative. Overall, it was a smooth on-campus interview.
However, it took about 2 months between the first interview and the call for the on-campus interview. I like their working environment, which align very well with my interests.
However, I did not accept the offer due to the following:.
1) The housing issue, particularly the scarcity of houses, leads to a significant increase in price.
2) If you are moving with kids, the availability of good schools will be an issue to look at.
3) Based on my profile and experience, their offer did not match my expectations. This is because they benchmark new hires against their current employees, No matter how strong your profile and experience are as compared to their faculty, this limits the remuneration.
However, if you are fresh and just graduated, I recommend joining them, as they really take care of the young faculty.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed to reject their offer after going through a long process.
I applied online. The process took 6 months. I interviewed at Western Carolina University (Cullowhee, NC) in May 2019
Interview
Standard 2-day faculty interview process. Dinner with interview committee, day of interviews, research and teaching talks, meeting with various HR. Met with students at my request. Third day meeting with "higher ups", both of whom kind of grilled me, and didn't seem especially interested in answering my questions. Everyone was very polite and professional.
Some of my questions were not answered, or were given vague answers. E.g., no information on salaries would be provided. Answers suggested that research start up was limited to a few thousand dollars, and there were no research lab facilities associated with the position. Internal funding for research expenses (annual funding) is good - fairly easy to get annual grants of $5000 to $10,000 from the university system. North Carolina Universities do not offer sabbaticals (there is something alternate you can apply for but they are often rejected). Health care cost for family is about $6500 annually, which comes out of salary. Raises for successful promotion to associate and full professor are flat rates of around $4000 and $6000, if I remember correctly. I was informed that most people do make tenure. The culture of the program seemed very healthy and good, and there was a very strong interest in the well being of the students.
Did not follow up with me for 2 months - I inquired with search chair and immediate received a canned rejection email from HR. I requested feedback from the search committee chair on my interview (how to improve, etc.) and received an email that the search committee does not make the decisions (the higher ups do) and so they have no feedback to give. So as a growth experience, the interview was not very valuable.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A handout of 10 questions was provided, and there was 60 minutes to answer. This included the following:
How do you incorporate research into your teaching?
What are your resource needs?
How would you develop another research plan if your "Plan A" did not work out?