Many lessons can be learned about higher education employment from none other than
the Greek recruitment experience, asserts Charlotte Hogg. The professor and director
of composition in the Department of English recently penned an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed where she discusses the similarities.
“As an undergraduate, I was a recruitment chair at a National Panhellenic Conference sorority,” she writes. “After I obtained my Ph.D., I was a humanities job candidate, and now, as a professor, I am frequently a search committee member. And I’ve been struck by the similarities in the recruitment processes of NPC Greek-letter organizations and academic institutions.”
Hogg recounts the resemblance of “pitching yourself” in both situations and the overlooked importance of things like making good small talk in the interview process.
“You’re probably thinking that the stakes involved in obtaining an academic position
are much higher, and the result much more important, than securing a relatively trivial
sorority bid,” she writes. “But for an 18-year-old as sold on the sorority system
as most academics are about higher education, the decision can feel as monumental — that it’s a choice that will significantly impact one’s future path.”