Hi,
I was wondering if it is fair to put down a job talk as an invited talk on your CV.
Absolutely you should put job talks on your CV, and under "invited talks" is just fine. Your CV is a record of your academic life and giving talks is one of the categories to keep a record of.
Well I wouldn't put down that it was a job talk. My invited talk section typically only has the name of the University, the department and even/ date:
INVITED TALKS
* University of Florida, Department of Psychology Colloquium (December, 2012)
I mean, I will admit that I am padding but getting a job talk invitation seems way more prestigeous than getting a talk accepted for APS, Psychonomics etc..
As a member of the psychonomic society, I find that kind of offensive. ;-). But in all seriousness, I think listing job talks as invited talks IS just padding. Are you going to list the title of each talk you give? When I was on the market I gave the same talk six times in one month. That would look pretty silly as "invited talks" on my cv.
I have heard people recommend against putting job talks on your CV, partly because it seems like padding and it also indicates where you didn't get a job (people reading your CV won't be able to tell whether you received offers and turned them down). I don't list job talks on my CV.
Yes, people do it all the time. But this is more benificial maybe after you have a job (sort of bragging rights for all the places that considered you). But, if you interviewed at a very different school then the one you are applying to (SLAC vs. R1) then it may not look as good. Also, some people at new places you apply to may contact the school you list and ask about your invited talk. If there is some reason why they did not prefer you and hire you at the first place, then it may hurt your chances with the new place. I've had that happen once that I know of and another time where I suspect it, based ona very idiosyncratic line of questioning that mirrored a discussion I had at a previous interview with someone who did not like my work.
I don't think of talks as padding because, what are they padding? Talks at different schools, at least in my experience, have exactly 0 influence on anything in terms of evaluating candidates. I think those talks belong on your vita (again, they will have no impact whatsoever on your likelihood of getting a job) because they are a record of someone somewhere being interested in your work, more like national service in a way. I would also note that, yes, if a person has been on the job market over a couple of years, it becomes pretty clear where they interviewed. I don't think this is a problem, necessarily. (it can be funny, though, when someone's vita lists the same talk at, say, 5 different schools and then they come in the next year and give the VERY SAME talk at your institution. You know, the talk that did not get them a job last year at five different places?)
I list my job talks as invited talks on CVs because they are invited talks. I agree that I do not think it is a big deal to list them or not. I do not think people assume (or at least they should not assume) that an invited talk on a CV means a job interview without an offer. For example, I have been invited to talk at a school by a faculty member because we do related research, and he knew my family lived in the area (and so it wouldn't cost them anything for me to talk there). Additionally, I have been given job talks that resulted in an offer, which I did not take (because of family issues).
I don't know… I disagree that a job talk is an "invited talk" they are inviting you for a job interview that is different then being requested to visit a university and give a talk because the department is really interested in what you are doing. I also don't necessarily see it as 'honest' as listing it as a colloquium.