How interviews differ across different ranks of schools

Interviews vary considerably depending on the rank of the school interviewing you. Candidates often get interviews with a wide range of schools so it is important to be prepared for the entire range. In my experience, PhD programs often underprepare their candidates for the type of interviews that lower ranked schools give, so hopefully this post can fill that gap a little.

This is clearly a fairly continuous variable, but my experience is that it can be divided into 4 main categories, each with distinctive interviews. I will call them highest ranked research oriented schools, other research oriented schools, other sizable departments, and very small schools. Going into an interview, it is useful to consider which of these types of school it is likely to be. There aren't any hard and fast rules, but here are some guidelines:

Highest ranked research oriented schools: Any school ranked in the top 50 economics departments is probably in this category.. Departments ranked in the 50-100 rank are mixed between this category and the next one. The typical experienced faculty member will have top 5 journal publications and many top field publications.

Other research oriented schools: The upper cutoff for this group is discussed above. A good way of figuring out the bottom cutoff is to look at the REPEC rankings of departments. If a school appears on this list (or seems really similar to schools on it), but not in the first category, it is probably in this category. The typical experienced faculty member will have some top field publications, and quite a few others from good quality journals you have heard of.

Other sizable departments: These departments don't fit into the first two categories, but still have many faculty members who actively research. Generally you should see at least 8-10 tenured or tenure track faculty members, and the experienced ones will have multiple publications in journals you have heard of.

Very small schools: Only a few faculty members, a lot of them are not active in research.

One important thing to consider is that advisors and departments tend to prepare candidates primarily for the first two categories. All PhD programs are at one of these schools. That means that the faculty at your department were successful in these schools when they were on the market, and also that whenever they act on hiring committees, they are hiring as one of these schools. 

Highest ranked research schools: 

There will probably be more interviewers. Schools in the other categories typically have 2-4 interviewers. Highest ranked research schools often have 5 or 6, and sometimes more.

Generally the interview will be primarily an inquisition of your job market paper. You will give a 10-15 minute pitch of your paper, and they will interrupt frequently to ask you questions, so that will take most of the half hour. The questions will not be friendly or chatty. The basic premise will almost always be, "here is a potential serious flaw I see. Let's talk about it until you can reassure me I shouldn't be worried." Don't get discouraged or frustrated.  For one thing, you still want to come across as a pleasant person. For another, they are treating all of the candidates this way, so there is no reason to get too down about it. If there are a couple minutes left at the end, they may ask you a question or two about your research agenda or what you want to teach, but these will be brief.

Other research oriented schools:

This is basically a more toned down version of higher ranked research oriented schools. The interview will still be centered around your job market paper. But there will be fewer interruptions, and the interruptions will be a little more casual and complimentary. More "that sounds neat, but I am not sure I understand this part" than "here is why I think you are wrong". There will also be more time (10 minutes or so) allocated to other things. You maybe asked to talk about other work, past, present and/or future. You may be asked to outline your research agenda. You may be asked to talk about a course you would like to teach. They  will probably close with a 2 minute pitch about the school and department, and they may ask you if you have any questions.

Other sizable departments:

One step further away from the job market paper grilling session that the highest ranked research schools do. The job market paper will still probably be discussed, but probably only for 10-15 minutes. This is a good place to deploy the telescoping pitch, and be careful about going on for more than 10 minutes or so unless you perceive an indication that they want you to. The most likely scenario is that they will listen with very few interruptions. At the end they will say "that sounds really interesting" and ask one or two very friendly questions. The questions are more likely to be about things like implications or connections than concerns about things like your assumptions or identification strategy. There will be a lot more questions about teaching. Expect to delve into the teaching section of your CV and different courses you might teach. You might also be asked about things like teaching strategies and philosophies, so make sure you spend time thinking carefully about teaching beforehand. There will also be a lot more discussion about the school and department. They may spend 5 minutes or more selling you on the school, and it will be more important that you engage with that discussion. Ask some follow-up questions, but try to ask questions that they can answer positively. For example, if you know or they mention they have a seminar series, you could ask about it. If you don't know, or know they don't, don't ask "do you have a seminar series?"

Very small departments: 

These are the most unpredictable interviews. They can be like the previous category, but weird things can happen. These schools may not hire frequently so may not follow the standard conventions. The economics department is also less likely to have autonomy to do it the "economics way". Here are some things I have seen or heard of happening:

 You may be asked for a job market paper pitch, but you should make it a short one, probably 5 minutes max unless they suggest otherwise. It is also possible your job market paper and research will not even come up. And if they do, it may be in contexts like "how would you explain it to an undergrad?" or "how can you involve undergrads in your research?". 

There may be a lot of discussion about teaching. Not only the basics, but also questions like how you would deal with specific scenarios.

It may be very casual, and framed like a casual chat where they spend most of the time talking about the department and don't ask any serious questions about teaching or research. If this happens, the best thing to do is to engage in the chat as much as possible. Ask follow-up questions. Bring up relevant things about your teaching or research. But don't go overboard with either of these. You don't want them to think "This guy keeps grilling us" or "This girl keeps turning everything around to herself". 

There may be non-economists in the interview, and questions unrelated to teaching or researching economics. Diversity is a common topic, as are standard non-academic interview questions like "What is your greatest weakness?". I haven't been on the interviewer side of this particular type of interview, but I assume they want the same type of answers a standard non-academic interviewer does.