those non-ES "informal" meetings

[guido]

So, my grad program director replied to an email from Wisconsin-Madison and passed on my name and CV along with a few others. I just got an email from them asking if we can set up an informal meeting at ASA. I promise you I'm not telling you this to brag or anything -- getting this email was the last thing I expected. I think I'm a decent job candidate, but probably not Wisconsin good. (I think they may be contacting me because my research overlaps considerably with one of the professors they're sending to ASA).

So, I have a few questions for you all. First, how many of these does a department like that do? In other words, what does this mean? Second, how long should I expect it to last, and what should I expect to happen? These are probably even less formal than the ES interviews, or not?

[a lot]

To answer your question about the number that departments do - A LOT.

It is generally quite informal - finding out how you'd fit, answering questions you might have, getting a sense of what's not obvious on your vita, even selling you on the school and encouraging you to apply - but usually longer than an ES interview.

[guest]

UW-M does a lot of these, if only because there are a lot of faculty at the meeting. Even if every faculty member talks to only one candidate, that's a lot.

But it's good! You'll have a nice cup of coffee with a person who does work similar to yours, and that person will make sure that the search committee takes an especially careful look at your application. No promises, of course--there will be a lot of good applicants, department needs are what they are, etc. You can't control that. Think of it as an opportunity to meet and make a good impression on someone who could be a future coworker, and will in any case be a colleague for many years in the future.

And, this is easy for me to say, but relax. It's extremely unlikely that this person will grill you. I was surprised at how much of a sales pitch I got from schools--they'll tell you how much they like working there, how great their colleagues are, how fun the town is. Judgment comes later, when they're reading applications.