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Introductory Questions
- What attracted you to this position?
- What contributions can you make to our institution/department?
- The University is committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive environment. How would you further this goal?
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About the candidate’s professional background and related questions
- Tell us a little more about your professional experiences, particularly those not mentioned on your resume/application.
- 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 some examples of how you have solved problems in the past.
- 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?
- Tell us about your preferred work environment.
- Describe a situation in which you did all the right things, and were still unsuccessful. What did you learn from the experience?
- In your opinion, how should the workload of a faculty member be split and into what areas?
- What are your professional goals?
- What pedagogical changes do you see on the horizon in your discipline?
- How do you view your role in the faculty development process?
- What do you see as the most challenging aspects of an increasingly diverse academic medicine community, and what steps have you taken to meet such challenges?
- Have you ever realized or been informed that you said or did something that may have been offensive to a colleague, student, patient or supervisor? How did you respond and what was the outcome?
- Give examples of times when your values and beliefs impacted your relationships with your colleagues?
- Describe a time in which you saw another person at work not behaving in respectful way to someone other than you, what did you do?
- What efforts have you made, or been involved with, to foster cultural competence? Inclusion?
- Think about an instance when you had to step up and do something you weren’t confident that you could accomplish. What did you do?
- What experience have you had in mentoring? Describe an experience mentoring diverse students, faculty and/or staff?
- What professional development activities have you been involved in over the past few years?
- What is most important in your job to be happy and successful?
- How do you cope with stress?
- On a daily basis, what motivates you? What discourages you?
- Tell us about a time your performance was criticized? What did you do in response to that criticism?
- Tell us about a difficult professional decision you have made in the last year?
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About the candidate’s leadership (management/supervisory) experience (if applicable)
- Are you most comfortable with verbal or written presentations?
- What are three leadership competencies you possess? 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 difficulties getting people to accept your ideas? What was your approach to handling these situations?
- What practices do you implement during conflict situations and are they successful?
- If we were to ask your superiors (i.e., 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?
- What are the techniques that you use to clarify the meaning of unclear messages?
- How do you maintain a positive discussion?
- What kind of changes do you feel will happen in [relevant discipline/department] in the coming years?
- What do you think is the most important skill required in this position?
- Who do you define as customers?
- What habits does your current supervisor practice that you admire and /or thought are in poor form or ill advised?
- What are the most important values you demonstrate as a leader in the context of what makes one an effective leader in this position?
- Tell me how you would proceed with the reorganization of a department or academic unit.
- As a leader within an organization, you must often build support for goals and projects from people who do not report to you and over whom you have no authority. Tell me about a situation in which you demonstrated that you can build the needed support.
- When you have entered a new workplace in the past, describe how have you gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff?
- What do you consider the most important job of this position?
- What kind of culture would you like to create in your unit/department?
- What experience do you have in seeking the typical non-appropriated revenues for your programs e.g. grants, fundraising, etc.?
- If I were to ask your reporting staff or your peers to comment about your leadership style, your leadership strengths, and your leadership weaknesses, how would they respond?
- What is your philosophy and your life experience in regards to the importance of diversity in learning, research and society?
- What strategies have you used to address diversity challenges? What were the positives and negatives?
- Have you managed/evaluated classified staff/faculty, others?
- What decisions do you delegate?
- What are the key reasons for your success?
- What types of internal controls do you think are critical in academic departments?
- What do you look for when you hire faculty?
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About the candidate’s research
- What grants have you received in the past and what plans do you have to fund your research?
- What is your research agenda and how does that benefit this college or university?
- What types of resources would you require to successfully continue your research agenda?
- With whom would you collaborate, if you were selected for this position?
- How would you involve undergrad and graduate students in your research?
- Please identify your most significant work and why you picked it.
- Please tell us about your research interests and how you see them fitting in with the department’s/college’s mission/direction.
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About the candidate’s teaching
- Tell us about your teaching methods, philosophy and goals.
- What is your experience with distance learning, on-line courses, and using technology in the classroom?
- What is your experience in teaching students of diverse backgrounds? What methods have proven to be effective and what have you learned from the experience?
- Describe strategies that you have used to create an inclusive learning environment for your students.
- Tell us about a time when you successfully managed a difficult student and a time when you did not successfully manage a difficult student.
- What students do you find most challenging to teach?
- What have evaluations for your teaching indicated, both positive and negative? How has evaluation feedback changed how to teach today?
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About the candidate’s clinical experience
- Why did you go into medicine?
- Describe your experience in providing care to a patient who presented unusual social or ethical issues.
- 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 would your patients describe you? What do you do to achieve that?
- What kinds of patients give you the most difficulty? How do you handle that?
- What individuals have most influenced your physician style?
- What are your values? How do you apply them in your actions? Describe situations where you have applied these values.
- What sort of patients do you enjoy working with?
- Give me an example of a patient encounter where your relationship with the patient was the most important tool you used.
- Tell us about a time you worked effectively under pressure?
- Tell us about a time you made a mistake and had to tell your supervisor?
- Tell us how you would deal with a resident who was not doing his or her share of the work?
- What do you see as the positive aspects of this specialty?
- What do you see as the negative aspects of this specialty?
- What problems do you think this specialty made face in the future?
- Tell us about a time you faced an ethical dilemma?
- What is the difference between personal and professional ethics and provide us an example of a personal experience?
- What are your thoughts regarding the future of healthcare?
- What are qualities you think are important in order to be a successful physician?
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About the candidate’s outreach
- Please tell us your experience in developing programs and partnerships with external constituents and how you would apply that experience to UAB?
- Describe your experience in professional practice or outreach.
- Describe some service activities you have been involved in.