For a standard lecturer's job, the interview process normally requires a presentation - does anyone know how long the presentation normally is?
Is it an hour or 30 mins? or longer?

In the past, I have been asked to give a 20 min presentation but that was for a postdoc, not lecturer job.

I'm trying to prepare a presentation that I can use at all potential interviews.

Hi!
I've sat in on presentations at interviews from teaching fellows right up to professors and chairs, and no-one has ever gone over half an hour - an hour is way way too long. I'd keep it 20-30 mins

I agree. I have also sat in on the presentations, and I would think 20 - 25 mins would be appropriate.

The panel don't want to be bored! They just want to get a sample of your ideas, work and style not every detail.

It an opportunity to show yourself off and your personality and that you would be an asset to the department. If you can leave them wanting more you've done a good job!

Good Luck!

Thanks! I was thinking a recruitment panel would be bored to tear sitting through hours upon hours of presentations. I already have a good 20 minute presentation prepared, so I will polish that.

Sleepyhead, since you have sat in on some of these recruitment presentations, is there anything that impressed you about the presenters? Anything that made you say 'that's a great candidate'?

Hi Misspacey, I;ve sat in on one last November and will sit in on another in may. They give talks (plus slides) to the faculty and PhD students for about 20 mins (I noticed people tiring when the one ultimately selected went on for 45 mins and still had to be cut short). The presentations usually focus on their recent work, their major work (if these are different), future research agenda, the fit with the department and also what new they could contribute, and teaching experience etc. Followed by questions and then the faculty interviewed them separately. I noticed the faculty paid very close attention to both fit with dept and what new they could bring in... i think the real task is to find a mid point and not tilt to either side....And it is this last that could ideally run through the structure of how you present/frame what you do...

Best!

Thanks Bug!

I'm starting to wonder why I've never been able to sit in on one of these interview presentation processes...

Hmmm don't they announce it to the PhD students? In our dept they send an email around (without the names of the presenters) with the date and time, inviting PhDers to attend...

We used to get invited to these presentations, but haven't really been over the past year - I don't think its standard practice to invite PhD students, but some staff realise that it is beneficial.

I agree with 'bug; the best presentations focus roughly half on your research and half on what you can bring to a dept. My dept is a bit weird and have appointed people that weren't who I thought best; although of course I wasn't in the interview section of the process. The people who have been appointed are very confident (almost laidback), and show real enthusiasm for both research and teaching. (One guy read out his research from a bit of paper and looked sooooo bored!). Show that you have done some research on the dept you are applying to by showing how your work can complement other areas, but be careful not to say "I can teach on this module that you currently offer" as you will step on people's toes.
Finally, be precise with terminology that you use - one girl who interviewed kept referring to a particular theory that she uses but it was only relevant to the discipline she was in - in other disciplines it means something totally different, and she caused major confusion.

Remember, when people advertise jobs, they have specifics in mind which may not be in the ad. I've noticed time and again that departmental politics are more influential than the presentations people give!

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@Bug, nope I've never been invited, but we do have a large department so they can probably muster up enough faculty members to attend these things. If they invited all researchers it would potentially be a huge audience. When I did a presentation for a postdoc job, around 12 people turned up to watch, I would assume about 10-20 would be an average audience for these things.

@Sleephead, thanks for the info. I do wonder if half the time these jobs are already ear-marked for certain people and the whole recruitment is mere theatre.

Hmm... I don't quite know how the 'internal' candidate thing works... but I hear it does indeed... (though there often are situations where 75% or even 100% of those applying are internal....but naturally only one gets the job...)

Hmm... I don't quite know how the 'internal' candidate thing works... but I hear it does indeed... (though there often are situations where 75% or even 100% of those applying are internal....but naturally only one gets the job...)

When referring to departmental politics, I wasn't necessarily noting internal candidates, there are other matters.
Not to go into too much detail, as it is confidential, but an incident occurred a couple of years ago where half the room preferred one candidate (who actually turned out to be a friend of the people who were supporting her), and the other half another candidate. In the end, they chose a third person as a compromise!

Yeah...I've heard of other weird things in another country.. where three or four people who did their theses in the same year/same cohort, would suddenly gang up and run down one of their own cohort at a job presentation (when they are in the audience)... on that occasion I am told the person being run down was immensely successful... but I don't know for myself...