Processing the IN-PERSON interview

Wow am I exhausted. I just returned from a 2.5 day interview for a faculty position at a very highly ranked public university- the same one I had the phone interview with.. (guess I didn't completely bomb the phone interview). The interview started when I got off the plane. I was picked up by a faculty member and taken to dinner. The dinner was a nice, casual way to begin the interview.. took away some of the nervousness. The following 2 days I was scheduled from 8am to ~ 9pm for 1-on-1 meetings with faculty (about 1 per hr), group lunches with grad students and postdocs, more dinners with faculty, my seminar, and a breakfast meeting with the dept. chair. at night in the privacy of my hotel room, I practiced my talk for the seminar and I read articles and abstracts by the faculty I knew I would be meeting with. This meant that I slept < 5 hrs per night. It was a very intense experience, and while I am a very intense person, the intensity level was higher than my normal. I could not maintain that level of intensity for more than 3 days or so.
If any other young scientist ever reads this, I can attest that the format and questions I got from everyone were consistent with what is listed as "typical" on the career prep. pages of Science Magazine, for example. There were really no surprises. I did however get two kinda inappropriate comments, and that is also listed as something that women typically experience during interviews. So I supposed I can conclude that my experience was typical, and really great.
Especially now that the interview is over, I can look back and say I had a great time. I really loved the department and I think I would fit in well. I also think I did well in the interview, especially considering it was my 1st one. I got a lot of positive comments and feedback from students and faculty.
This leads me to my new insight: departmental fit. It is only now really sinking in to me how important this is. I mean, I know it sounds obvious that ideally one should somehow fit in to a department, I am only now starting to get what that means and how important it is, especially given my field of environmental related work where there is a lot of collaboration and interdisciplinary work.
I think one reason the interview went so well is that they were advertising for someone like me (ie someone with my specific research interests, backgrounds and skills). When I looked into the history of the department (via the webpage, talking to faculty both in and outside the department before and during my interview), it was clear to me why they wanted to hire someone like me. They had someone like me previously and this person retired. This made the interview a lot easier than if I had convince people that my research is important. This department knew my research was important, and that was a nice feeling. Having been places where I have not felt valued (i.e. now at my current postdoc), I am realizing how important it is for my success to be valued, in large part for developing collaborations.
I got one email already from a faculty member in the department about a potential collaboration, which I take to be a a very positive feedback!!
One thing that was really really nice about the interview was a dinner with the relatively young (new hires, un-tenured) faculty my last night, after my talk and I was all relaxed. I had a blast. They were funny, and I felt like they treated me like "an equal" (i.e. peer). This is a new experience for me.. even though I certainly do not feel "looked down on" or anything as a postdoc, it is still different to be "an equal" with faculty. I think I am in the transition period from postdoc to aspiring faculty member and I aim to enjoy it, stress level and all.