• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

  • Home
  • Courses & Events
    • How To …
    • The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
    • The Art of the Article
    • Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
    • On Demand Courses
    • Upcoming Live Webinars
    • Free Productivity Webinars
    • Gift Certificates
  • Personalized Job Help
    • Document Editing
    • Quick Reviews
    • Specials
    • Interview Prep
    • Personal Negotiating Assistance
    • One on One Career Consults
    • Testimonials
    • Interview Testimonials
    • Graduate School Application Assistance
  • Productivity
  • Coaching
    • Productivity Coaching
    • Private Coaching
    • Leaving Academia Coaching Group
  • The Professor Is Out
    • It’s OK to Quit
    • Our Art of Leaving Program
    • Prof Is OUT Services
    • Our Prof Is OUT Team
    • Prof is OUT Client Testimonials
    • Ex-Academics: A TPIO Support Community
  • Workshops
  • Blog

How Do I Ask If There Is An Inside Candidate?

By Karen Kelsky | December 21, 2012

You do not ask if there is an inside candidate.

I don’t care if you strongly suspect that there is, and have good reason to believe the whole damned search is a completely pointless charade because they obviously already have somebody chosen….it doesn’t matter.

You cannot, and you must not, ask if there is an inside candidate.

Why?  Because it’s just Not. Done.

More pragmatically, if there is an inside candidate they will NEVER disclose that (not least because of legality issues).  And if there isn’t one, you just look like an ill-informed, paranoid ass who put a search committee member in an unbearably awkward position.

A smart job seeker does not, under any circumstances, ask if there is an inside candidate.

And, incidentally, inside candidates don’t have the superpowers that many of you think.  Inside candidates frequently don’t get the job.  Read this post, “What Inside Candidates Persist In Doing Wrong,” on why.

Similar Posts:

  • How Do I Address Search Committee Members?
  • “I’m the Ideal Candidate for Your Position!”
  • Pregnant on Your Campus Visit–A Crowdsource Project
  • What Inside Candidates Persist in Doing Wrong
  • #Dispatches: Help, My Campus Visit has Gone Online! 1/2

Filed Under: How to Interview, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, The Campus Visit

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. dlee says

    December 21, 2012 at 11:13 am

    I was quite certain that my current job (nonTT research) had an inside candidate the way the job ad was written–a mishmash of very specific research interests and qualifications, but I applied anyway and put forward my best effort in the application and interview. I think it made me much more relaxed for the interview and I saw it more as an opportunity to practice my interviewing skills. Every job search that occurred in the departments I was in as a grad student or post-PhD visitor had some recent PhD, VAP, or similar status applicant in the department who was just certain they were (or should be) an inside candidate, but I’ve only seen that actually pan out once among the 10 or so searches I’ve witnessed inside a department.

    Reply
  2. kristeva says

    March 17, 2013 at 4:37 pm

    this post is amazing.

    Reply
  3. Onemoretime says

    August 6, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    Spot-on advice. I was given the atrocious advice by a well-meaning but slightly clueless retired professor to ask such a question on an interview. When he first suggested it to me, I knew there was something off in asking a question an interviewer could not (and would not want to) truthfully answer. Reading your post confirms my initial reaction. Thanks.

    Reply
  4. Isaac says

    January 14, 2015 at 9:32 am

    Thank you so much for this post. I recently contacted a friend who got graduated from an Ivey league business school that approached me for an interview. Rather than giving me any advice, he flat out said that they have invited this guy (one of their recent graduates who worked in a lower-tier school for a few years) for a visit and talk two month ago and this is probably not gonna happen for you!
    This made me very upset an thought why they would want tot waste my time if they have a candidate. The truth is that no one knows about the search process except the search committee and dynamics are not clear to anyone outside of the committee. So, we should always take such discouraging information for granted!

    Reply
  5. Karen says

    March 8, 2023 at 8:31 pm

    I have been on a campus visit and told specifically the visiting person was not applying and they wanted to assure me. I never asked because i assumed they would be. Guess what they wound up hiring the visiting person. I think most of these searches are scams and ridiculous.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Buy My Book!

4.8 stars on Amazon!

The_Professor_Is_In.indd

Get Immediate Help

In addition to our blog and book, we have upcoming live webinars, pre-recorded webinars and other programs that you can get started on right away:

The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
The Art of the Article
Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
Quick Reviews
Free Productivity Webinars

Categories

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Academic Job Search
    • How To Choose and Manage Recommenders
    • How to Interview
    • How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters
    • How To Write CVs
    • Landing Your Tenure Track Job
    • Major Job Market Mistakes
    • Negotiating Offers
  • Adjunct Issues
  • Advising Advice
  • Alt-University Critique
  • Black Lives Matter
  • COVID19
  • Dispatches
  • Goodbye Ivory Towers
  • Graduate Student Concerns
    • Bad Advisors and Good Mentors
  • How To Do Conferences
  • How to Get Grants and Fellowships
  • International Perspectives
  • Intersectional Analyses
  • Makeup
  • Marginalized Voices
  • Mental Health and Academia
  • Ph.D. Poverty
  • Podcast
  • Post-Ac Free-Lancing and Small Business
  • Post-Ac Job Search
    • Careers Outside
  • Postdoc Issues
  • Productivity
    • Book Proposals and Contracts
    • Publishing Issues
    • Writing
  • Promote Yourself!
  • Quitting–An Excellent Option
  • Racism in the Academy
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Resumes & Postac Docs
  • Sexual Harassment in the Academy
  • Shame
  • Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student
  • Strategizing Your Success in Academia
  • Teaching and Research Statements
  • Teaching Demos
  • Teaching Portfolios
  • Tenure–How To Get It
    • How To Build Your Tenure File
    • Surviving Assistant Professorhood
  • The Campus Visit
  • Unstuck
  • Webinars
  • What Not To Wear
  • Women of Color in Academia
  • Work/Life Balance in Academia
  • Yes, You Can: Women in Academia
  • Your Second and Third Jobs

Footer

About Us

  • Who Is Dr. Karen?
  • Who Is On the TPII Team?
  • In The News
  • Contact Me
  • FAQs
    • Why Trust Me?
  • Testimonials

Community

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Peer Editing
  • PhD Debt Survey
  • Support Fund
  • I Help With Custody Cases for Academics

Copyright © 2023 The Professor Is In·

We Are Redefining Academic Community

That’s why we upgraded our private
Mighty Network.

We are committed to building a community with a focus on productivity support. Every day, in a dedicated space, we offer free coaching advice and encouragement. And the couple thousand people who have already joined are steadily building a supportive and interactive community devoted to that elusive idea of work-life balance.

Learn More

Get on Dr. Karen's Schedule

Get on my schedule to work on your tenure track job cover letter, CV, grant applications, book proposals, interview preparation, and more.  [si-contact-form form=’2′]