Time between phone interview and campus invite

Time between phone interview and campus invite

Jax23 10 Nov 2016 16:27

I recently (2 weeks ago) had a phone interview for a SLAC and then I sent a thank you email to the two people the next day. But then I haven't heard anything yet. Was curious if there is a standard amount of time that it takes for the invite to occur or not to for a campus visit? Trying not to get worried and hoping that the committee would have to meet and then it would take a bit to contact me? And if so would they email or call? Or am I not on the first round list then? Or since the holidays are coming up that they might not do interviews until January? This is my first go-around and want to be optimistic but also don't think it would be proper to contact them and ask? Thanks!

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

jobseeker6500 10 Nov 2016 16:45

it will vary - a dept can usually go on their own for phone/skype interviews but need to get administrative approval for campus interview candidates. that adds time. the search committee decision can take a variable amount of time too. 2 weeks is probably an average. A long wait could mean that you didn't get the campus interview or the committee is working on the decision or that the admin hurdles are many or slow. Everyone doing the best they can of course.

I am left wondering how the election upheaval, for those feeling upheaved, might slow things down a few days.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

Jax23 10 Nov 2016 20:23

Thanks for the info. Good to know about the approval on the administrative side. They also have 2 positions open that are similar/interviewed for both at the same time so that might add time/people as well. I was wondering the same thing about the election since I'm sure not much happened in most places yesterday. My fingers are crossed that I will hear soon, but good to know that it probably won't be months to hear unless I'm not going to get an interview.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

DocJ 15 Nov 2016 14:36

Jobseeker6500 made a great point about bureaucratic tape. In my experiences, public institutions tend to be slower than private with this respect. During one of my searches, a public institution (non-R1) took around a month to go from phone interview to the next step. In general, we're hitting a search committee's "nightmare time" for the hiring cycle, especially for faculty at SLACs. For many institutions, this is the last full week before Thanksgiving, final exam prep and delivery, the grading tsunami, then winter break. Some determined committees will try to host interviews this week, but don't expect much next week with Thanksgiving plans. The following week is a possibility into early December. However, from applicant and search committee experience, the hiring process hibernates from around Thanksgiving until a week or two after New Year's.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

juniorfaculty 15 Nov 2016 18:38

I actually disagree with DocJ in that I have found that a huge number of schools conduct interviews between Thanksgiving and December break. It's tight but that's the way it played out for five searches I was in or was on a committee for. In fact this ended up being the most popular time of all of the searches I was involved with. But I would agree that there are obvious time constraints. It's just typically the case that if the school can't get interviews in before Thanksgiving, they'll be very motivated to do it before the semester is out so that they don't have to wait until January/February, when lots of applicants will have committed to other jobs.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

juniorfaculty 15 Nov 2016 18:39

And to be clear, when the interviews were conducted at this time, offers went out (at least to the first choice candidate) before December break. The deadline to respond often occur over that break, so presumably the second choice person might have gotten a call on Christmas if the first choice turned down.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

Iliketomoveitmoveit 15 Nov 2016 19:26

Yup, last year and this year I had/have in-person interviews in early December. Last year, I was notified about the SC's decision before I went on holiday break. This year, I expect the same.

Re: Time between phone interview and campus invite

psydoc1111 15 Nov 2016 22:24

I agree that the time fluctuates. I had four skype interviews in October and the campus interviews came 2-3 weeks later. The search committees I interviewed for wanted to wrap up campus interviews before Thanksgiving.