Here’s the process for how full-time positions are hired at Palomar:

• The college authorizes the department to hire a full-time faculty position.
  1. This is itself not a trivial process, involving requests made by the department, prioritizations made by a committee, and decisions by the president and governing board.
• The department and Human Resources decide on a hiring timeline, a description of the position, and the preferred qualifications. Minimum qualifications are determined by the state government.
• The department selects a group of full-time faculty to act as a hiring committee. This will include one full-time faculty member from outside the department. This committee meets to determine criteria for evaluating applicants and interview questions. The criteria and questions must pass review by Human Resources to ensure they are not based on unacceptable criteria, and that they include certain mandatory areas of evaluation. It is worth noting at this point that time spent teaching at Palomar cannot be specifically considered. While it can contribute to an applicant’s qualifications as teaching experience, the fact that it is at Palomar does not earn any “extra points”.
• Human Resources assigns a compliance officer, someone from the college trained for the purpose who will sit in on all committee meetings and interviews and make sure that no decisions are made based on bias, prejudice, or other inappropriate information, and that all of the rules governing the process are followed.
• An announcement is posted in a variety of locations, indicating the availability of the full-time position, the qualifications needed, and the deadlines for submission of materials.
• Human Resources screens applicants to determine whether they meet the minimum qualifications for the position.
• After the deadline, members of the hiring committee are given access to the applications of all applicants who meet the minimum qualifications. Typically, committee members will have a few weeks to review the applications, using the criteria previously determined. This typically involves “scoring” the application in several categories based on the preferred qualifications for the position.
• The committee then meets to decide on which applicants will be invited for a “first level” interview.
• At the interview, the typical process is that the applicant will have a short time alone to review a series of questions which they will be asked, and then the applicant answers those questions as asked by the members of the committee. In addition, the applicant will usually provide a short teaching demonstration on a topic they were notified of previously.
• After the last interview, the committee will discuss the performance of the applicants in the interviews and select a small group–typically 2-4–to be brought forward to a “second level” interview.
  • Candidates who are not selected for a second-level interview are notified by Human Resources. The committee will provide a very short explanation as to why the candidate was not selected; no other information or explanation will be provided. Members of the committee are not allowed to provide any further information or advice to a candidate who was not selected.
• A smaller committee is formed for the second level interview. This usually consists of a few faculty from the first level interviews and the division dean.
• The committee will perform background checks on second-level applicants. This will involve contacting some of the listed references for the applicant, but may involve contacting other individuals who have known the applicant who were not listed on the application.
• For each applicant, there are two second-level interviews. One is with this committee, where they will answer a new series of questions and provide another demonstration. The other is with the President, who will ask a different set of questions.
• After all of these interviews have concluded, the second-level committee and the President meet together to discuss the applicants. At the conclusion of this meeting, the second-level committee makes a recommendation to the President on which candidate they would prefer to hire. However, the decision at this point is technically up to the president, who makes the final decision on which candidate (if any) to recommend to the governing board for hiring.
• The candidate who is selected is notified (usually with a phone call), and assuming they accept the offer, Human Resources guides them through the formal hiring process.
• At the next meeting of the governing board, the governing board formally hires the candidate.

This is obviously a complex process. From the candidate’s perspective, though, much of this is behind the scenes. The candidate submits an application, and if they are selected for a first-level interview, they will be notified of the day and time, and the topic for their teaching demo. After that interview, they will either be notified that they were not selected for a subsequent interview (and given a very short explanation as to why) or notified that they have been invited to a second interviews, and told where and when it will be and what demonstration they will be expected to make. After that, if they are the candidate selected for hire, they will usually receive a phone call within a day or two.

If you are not selected for the job or for an interview, please do not take it personally, or as a criticism of your work. These positions often receive more than 100 qualified applicants, and in many cases there are a dozen or more very highly qualified, desirable candidates. Not being offered the position does not necessarily mean you did anything wrong or that your work is substandard.