Is it more acceptable to list interview talks on CV if they're also part of a seminar series?

Question

Consider someone invited on a job interview (in the sciences) at a university or a national lab or something of that sort with a regular seminar series. As part of the interview, the person is asked to give a talk as part of the seminar series.

Is that appropriate for inclusion on the CV as an invited talk?

I saw one related question to this but it was different enough that it didn't really answer my question: Do presentations given during interviews count as invited talks?

However, the thread really just has a couple answers with equal support for opposite positions. The difference here is the distinction that the talk is given as part of an interview but also is part of a regular seminar series. I was wondering if this changed people's feelings on the matter at all.

It seems to me that any other person would list that as an invited talk. It also just seems to get grayed a bit by the fact that it is technically being used as part of a job interview.

Answer 1

I think there are two points of view in regards to talks related to a job search. The first is everything associated with the search should be lumped together, and if listed on your CV, it would be under something like "positions interviewed for". On my full CV, which I use for keeping track of my activities, I group positions interviewed for into off-campus and on-campus. The other approach is to separate out the "public" aspects of the job search and list them separately (e.g., under research seminars and guest teaching). I take the later approach since an issue with the former approach is that sometimes after giving a research seminar (or potentially guest teaching), you might be asked to apply for a job, which of course then blurs the lines.

In general, prior to making a campus visit, I ask for information about the audience of at the different activities (e.g., teaching demo, research talk about past research, and chalk talk about future research). The response about an activity is usually something along the lines of "it will just be the search committee" or "it is open to everyone and their might be a couple of interested undergraduates in the audience." From that I can usually decide if it is a public or private activity. Once I decide an activity is "public", I think it is not only entirely appropriate to list it the same as any other talk on your CV, but that leaving it off is misleading. I would consider it the same as if I found out someone was leaving "questionable" publications off of their CV.

Answer 2

Is that appropriate for inclusion on the CV as an invited talk?

Yes.

If someone invited you to give a talk, then it's an invited talk. It is perfectly appropriate to list it on your CV as such.

Answer 3

There is no need to overthink this. Every job talk I've ever given or attended was described either as a seminar (say, a geometry seminar) or a colloquium. List it on your cv like that. There are many job talks on my cv (see my webpage), but they are indistinguishable from the rest.

Answer 4

Here is a possible rule of thumb: if they list your talk on the web page for the seminar series (in the list of talks given that semester), then you should not feel bad at all about listing it on your own C.V.

Personally, I would view any talk that you are invited to give that is "open the public in the way a normal talk is" to be an invited talk. But I do divide my talks into conference talks and seminars on my vita.