Field inspector job?

how to describe myself for an academic job not quite in my field?

• Bear with me, this is a little bit abstract out of necessity:I'm interviewing for a great job which is posted as somewhat outside my social sciences field. Let's call it Field X. One of the things I'm hoping to do in this interview is say that precisely because I am not directly in field X but come from somewhat-related-field Y, I can bring new and important insights to field X. How do I say this without sounding like I'm disparaging field X, which I definitely don't want to do? More thoughts after the jump. Basically, all I'm saying is that Field X, because it requires so many years of specialist training (which I have not had) and due to certain peculiarities of the field, has tended to be very inward looking and insular, caught up in its own assumptions to a certain extent. Applying the paradigms from field Y (which I am fully trained in) can open new lines of inquiry. But I'm worried that saying all this too bluntly might antagonize the people on the search committee who are very much from Field X. I also worry that they might directly question my credentials to making any claims about Field X when I am from Field Y -- though I think the fact that the committee as a whole has shortlisted me at all suggests some of them are at a little least interested. I should point out that I am very much a Field Y person, though am hoping to be given this opportunity to move gradually into Field X. I imagine there are a lot of questions which might come up in the Q&A regarding this peculiarity of my research background, and would be grateful if anyone has experience on search committees could throw me a few (hard or soft) questions, and potential good-answer formulations... e.g. I don't think saying outright that "Field X is too insular, and that is why I, from Field Y, can fix everything" will go down too well... in short, I'd love any suggestions at all on how to deal with this field disjunct diplomatically and tastefully in an interview situation. Thank you so much in advance, and I'm sorry this was so abstract!

• Answer:

  First: Never, ever bring up your own deficiencies in an interview. That seems so obvious, but people do it so much. If you're at the interview stage, they've already realized that you're not a Field X person and are okay with it. However, the interviewer might ask you why you think Field Y is applicable, because it's a good question, and that leads to: Field Y can be good without Field X sucking. That applies to bands, and coffeeshops, and books, and professional endeavors. You don't need to say, "Well, your Field X is insular and crappy, but my Field Y is awesome and better than Field X anyway." You can say, "I find that Field Y applies to Field X because it approaches many of the same questions in slightly different way -- for instance..." and then you go into a thing you've prepared that illustrates it. You don't need to make a qualitative judgment. No matter how much they prod at you, Field X doesn't suck. It's not insular or caught up in its own assumptions. Stop thinking that. Even if it's true.