Starting the Job Search

The first step in searching for a postgraduate employment, is to decide what type of position your are seeking. The common choices are Research Postdoctoral or Visiting Professor appointment (for 2 or 3 years), a beginning position as an Assistant Professor at a teaching-oriented department, in some government agency, or in Industry. Each of these types of employment requires a search strategy that varies according to the type.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has an interesting web site for Occupational Outlook for Mathematicians here.

The Graduate Studies Jobs website lists many links to aid in your search.

Listed below are some observations and links to web resource sites that will help you get started. The listing here is not comprehensive - in fact, if you have further suggestions you would like to share, please send an email to the author and they will be added to this web site.

What is the difference between a "Research Postdoc" and a "Teaching Position"?

The principal difference is the amount of teaching required, although it is also measured by whether there is an active seminar group in your field of research too. A Research Postdoc may require either a 1-1 load (the best) or a 2-1 load (typically) or sometimes a 2-2 load (getting more common with the budget crunch of the last few years. At UIC, a 2-1 position means that you teach 2 classes meeting 3 times a week in the Fall, and 1 class meeting 3 times a week in the Spring. Even with a 2-2 load, you can still get some research done, although after preparing lectures and grading homework for two classes, one can be quite exhausted, and research may mean finding out what is on TV that evening.

On the other hand, a Teaching Position is an academic appointment, usually as either Lecturer, Instructor or Assistant Professor. The expectation is that you will do a good job of teaching their classes, maybe even an excellent or outstanding job at it. But they are not asking for any research activities, and may not make it easy for you to do this. The typical teaching load is either 2-3 (very favorable) or 3-3 (more typical) and 3-4 is not unheard of.It is also important to know how many hours a week you will meet each class. It is almost impossible to get any research done while teaching 3 classes in a term. This is especially true if you are expected to grade homework and "be easily available" to students in office hours, and possibly other times outside of classes.

In the current job market, your only offers may be for Teaching Positions, and then you plan to continue your mathematical research, you need to consider strategies for pursuing research opportunities, until you possibly find a position in a more research-oriented department.

 

Research Postodctoral Positions

If you are seeking a position at a "research university", the standard source is the "AMS Employment Services" web site. You will want to register as soon as possible for the service called "Employment Information in the Mathematical Sciences" (EIMS) which has been the key resource for discovering positions in the mathematical sciences for the past 40 years or so.

The greatest boon for new graduates in the Mathematical Sciences is the AMS sponsored web site MathJobs.org which allows you to post your job application materials online, in one location, and makes them available to all employers with whom you wish to be considered for a position. Gone are the days of mailing out 100 manila folders filled with your Cover Letter, CV, Research & Teaching Statements, and possibly some preprints of your work. Now, you simply select which schools you wish to be considered for employment, and post the reprints to your web page (or on the arXiv) for downloading.

The MathJobs application form requires that you fill out the AMS Cover Sheet in lieu of the Cover Letters of years past.

Another aspect of the Job Search, is the Interview Process at the Joint Annual Meeting in January. This year it is held in the beautiful San Francisco. The Interview Process enables you to (hopefully) meet with representatives of colleges & universities seeking faculty. You get a chance to make a good impression, show off your Teaching Portfolio, and size up what sort of school you are considering. It's not perfect, and certainly taxing, but sometimes this match-making process ends up producing a job offer that you may not have expected. The blog by Phil Grizzard goes into some detail about his experience with the Annual Meeting Interview Process.

The typical employer at the Employment Center is recruiting for teaching positions at four-year colleges and non-research universities. Still, on occasion there are representatives of universities with post-doctoral research opportunities, so you might find it useful even if that is your only goal in the job search. Another concern about attending the Annual meeting is the high cost of lodging. You may often find a discount plane ticket, say around $260 for San Francisco from Chicago, but cheap hotels are another matter. The total cost of attending the meeting might run into the "high hundreds of dollars". If it worth it? Well, if you can find a friend to stay with, so all you need to pay for is a nice meal out for your host, then probably yes. There are many interesting talks as well as the possible opportunities at the Employment Center. Go here to sign up for the Employment Center at the January 2010 Meeting.

 

Teaching Positions

A "Teaching Position" as discussed above, involves almost all teaching duties and little or no research duties or expectations. Because of this, there is a much wider variety of opportunities available. The "Employment Information in the Mathematical Sciences" website list some of these positions as well, but typically at the larger colleges and universities. If you are seeking a Teaching Position, then you probably have the most to gain by participating in the Employment Center at the January 2010 Meeting.

The Mathematical Association of America maintains a MAA Math Classified site. This is another good place to look.

The Higher Education Resource Consortium Job Listings website has extensive listings from all colleges & universities.

Finally, in Chicago there are many additional possibilities for employment at the local universities and 2 and 4-year colleges. For example, the multiple City Colleges of Chicago have hired many of our graduates as tenured Faculty as well as Instructors. In fact, two of the Math departments chairmen are graduates of the MSCS Department. We list the web links for some of these, as you can check their sites for postings of open positions.
 

Jobs in Government & Industry

A Masters or Doctoral degree in Pure & Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or Computer Science opens the door to an wide variety of job opportunities.

 

October 14, 2009 - Return to home