Job talks at research vs SLAC

[adviceplease]

I'd be really interested to know if people have geared their job talks differently for SLACs vs. research universities, and whether people have any advice on this.

[rerun]

At my recent SLAC interview (I took a job there), the department chair emphasized strongly that they wanted the talk to appeal to a broad audience, including those with little knowledge of my specialization. I would say aim for clarity, keep those slides uncluttered, and show how smart you are by being down to earth about it.

[blotto]

I agree with the previous poster -- aim for clarity and approachability. I got offers at a SLAC and at a large, state, undergraduate-focused institution, and was prompted by the search chair at the SLAC to focus on a more general audience. I found SLAC's to have more involvement from undergraduate students, too, in the interview process, and to take undergraduate voices quite seriously. I was also asked to teach a class at the SLAC, in addition to a more public lecture based on my dissertation research.

[also]

I agree with the above posters too. I had offers from SLAC and research schools... I knew my CV read more as more of a researcher than a teacher, so I when I could, I tried dropping in examples that included my students' comments, work, or assignments...

I was told later by someone outside of the department who was on the search committee and in my job talk audience (hence the need for broad appeal) something along the lines of, "We didn't think people from big schools like yours cared about teaching or had assignments other than tests... I really liked your example about this [writing] assignment to illustrate this concept in your talk..."

Good luck!