Moving On

I've been a bit busy for updates, as I've been sitting on a committee to discover the new "me." Because of the kind of work I did this past semester, the Provost approved another "me" position; we've been searching for the right person and interviews were concluded yesterday. Unless something goes horribly awry, I think I have a new co-worker -- and I'm excited to start working with him. The experience of sitting on a hiring committee has been invaluable to me, because it gives you the insider's perspective of what a hiring committee is really looking for, what little things in your portfolio they evaluate; in short, you get The Low Down.

Hiring somebody was a little harder than I thought it would be. We went through all the applications separately and made our top tier list. Then we had to agree on who would make the final cut. That wasn't easy at all. I lost my top two prospects, but I also successfully kept a couple of very not good teachers out of the interview process. It's a war of attrition. But in the end, I'm satisfied with how the top three turned out. The interviews themselves were ... interesting. One candidate was absolutely wonderful, and one bombed completely; the other was a bit dicier, and it was more of a judgment call, but I think we made the right decision.

Apparently last year, when I was hired, there was some backlash from the people who interviewed but didn't get it -- complaining about seniority and that sort of thing all over the place. Either it wasn't too bad or I was oblivious, because I didn't hear anything about it. We had to talk about strategies to handle such a possibility again. Naive little me had never reckoned that would be an issue, so that has my feathers a little ruffled, considering the announcement will probably be made at the end of this week if all goes well.

Boy I have some good stories to tell about it, too, but I don't want to risk publishing them here! Gah. But the good news is, I think I have somebody I can work with and who would do a really good job. And I like him. He has all the requirements this job needs -- except he doesn't appear to be a hellraiser. But I can teach him that. It's what I do for a living anyway.

-- DV