Job interviews can be both exciting and stressful.  You impressed the employer enough to be a final candidate yet you know that the interview will determine whether or not you get the job.  It is very likely that the first round of interviews will be done on the phone. Often thought to be used only for industry interviews, we are now seeing a large increase in the number of first round faculty interviews conducted by telephone.

Through my many forays into the job market, I have anxiously awaited responses from employers, either to application materials I had sent out in response to a job ad, or as a follow-up after I had interviewed with them. Through these experiences, I have come to identify several different employer communication styles: The “As-If-You-Didn’t-Know-Already” late response guy, also known as the “In-Case-You-Were-Thinking-of-Calling-a-Moving-Truck” guy This person is one of the most frustrating of the bunch.