Graduate Program

APPENDIX C: GUIDELINES FOR GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE HOSTING JOB CANDIDATES

1. Host the candidate luncheon with graduate students, typically held before or after the job talk. This means the rep must organize the catering for the breakfast reception or lunch. Assuming that the job talk takes place on Wednesday, the rep should touch base with the department secretary the Friday before to find out more about which vendors Rutgers will accept reimbursements. The interviewee (or those in contact with the interviewee) should be consulted to make sure that they do not have any allergies.  The order should be called in to the department secretary (for 8-10 people) on the Monday before the talk, so that s/he can coordinate with the catering company to arrive at the appropriate time. 
   
   
2. Encourage graduate students to attend both the job talk and the lunch by soliciting attendees of the lunch via email about one week and a few days before the actual job talk. We recommend 7-8 graduate students confirm participation, but ordering food for 10. Typically, a few additional students that did not email will join for the lunch.
   
   
3. Organize discussion during the job talk by asking graduate students to introduce themselves at the beginning of the lunch. This tends to involve 1-5 minute introductions from each student followed by a Q&A for the interviewee. While you may opt to be more involved in this process, let the interviewee specify what they want to know from each student.  This can be a useful criterion by which graduate students judge each of the interviewees. Preparing some questions ahead of time is helpful, because awkward silences may happen more often than one might expect. 
   
   
4. Obtaining feedback on the candidates after the visit by (1) speaking with graduate students who attended the lunch, (2) reaching out to those who attended the talk, via email or in person, and (3) sending out a Qualtrics survey after each talk OR after all of the job talks have been completed. This structured survey data will improve the quantity and quality of feedback from a range of graduate students. The graduate student rep should be proactive in collecting student feedback, and quick to synthesize it after the last talk.   The rep should also be proactive in finding out the date(s) that faculty will be making these decisions, so as to have this feedback fully prepared.  Faculty typically need to make these job decisions quickly. 

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