A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer

Editor's Note: This article was published in 2001 under the title "A Timeline (With Web Resources) for an Academic Job Search in Mathematics." It should be obvious from the title that this is not about mathematics, or education, or applications. Well, it's about job applications, but that's not what our Journal is usually about. Nevertheless, this piece represents a use of the World Wide Web that is sometimes of intense interest to mathematics faculty, especially to the younger members of our profession. Since it's in everyone's interest to have the right people in the right positions, we present the article as a contribution to the profession.

Are you in or going to be in the market for a job? Here is an idealized timeline -- the particular months indicated are subjective, but they will give you the general idea. If you start later, it can still work out -- you'll just need more coffee. Good luck!

Published July, 2001
© 2001 by Cameron Sawyer

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - Introduction

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer

Editor's Note: This article was published in 2001 under the title "A Timeline (With Web Resources) for an Academic Job Search in Mathematics." It should be obvious from the title that this is not about mathematics, or education, or applications. Well, it's about job applications, but that's not what our Journal is usually about. Nevertheless, this piece represents a use of the World Wide Web that is sometimes of intense interest to mathematics faculty, especially to the younger members of our profession. Since it's in everyone's interest to have the right people in the right positions, we present the article as a contribution to the profession.

Are you in or going to be in the market for a job? Here is an idealized timeline -- the particular months indicated are subjective, but they will give you the general idea. If you start later, it can still work out -- you'll just need more coffee. Good luck!

Published July, 2001
© 2001 by Cameron Sawyer

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - TO DO NOW

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer

Your first step is to read the article The Academic Job Search in Mathematics by Thomas Rishel. You should do this NOW, no matter where you are in graduate school or your job search.  It helps to know how to prepare for each stage ahead. This article gives advice on the entire job process from your application packet to the job offer. (For other comprehensive articles see the Additional Reading section on page 13 .)  Rishel's article also gives suggestions of things to do while in graduate school to improve your curriculum vitae (CV).  A few additional suggestions of things you should do while in graduate school:

  1. Attend at least one Joint Mathematics Meeting in the year before you interview.  This will give you a chance to get the lay of the land, so you will know what you are in for.  Also attend the Joint Committee on Employment Opportunities Workshop, which provides helpful information and advice on the job search process and interviewing.  However, if you wait to go until the year you are interviewing, much of it is too late.
  2. Make a web site with your syllabi, CV, abstract of your dissertation, and other information that you would like a prospective employer to know.  For examples, look around your department or see mine.  In addition, the Web Monkey Job Site has some good pointers.
  3. Since mathematicians are generally expected to be nerdy, you can demonstrate that you are well rounded by being involved in activities outside of the math department (e.g. church, sports, volunteer work, tutoring).
Knowing your own inclinations and abilities -- and talking to others in your department -- you probably have an idea of the type of institution (research, teaching, or some mixture of these) where you plan to work.  There are some articles that address the specifics of finding a job at different types of schools:  Ph.D. Granting, Primarily Undergraduate, and Two-Year.  Most academic careers require that you do some teaching and some research/professional activity.  Here are further recommendations for improving your CV in these areas:
  • Teaching:
    1. Be a good teacher. Read How To Teach Mathematics by Steven Krantz. Your department probably has a copy -- if not, you can buy it through the AMS Bookstore.
    2. Ask your advisor and one or two other faculty members to come and observe you in class.
    3. Introduce technology in your teaching: graphing calculators, CAS assignments (see the Connected Curriculum Project), and WEB assignments. One easy idea is to make a class eBoard where your students can post questions/comments to you and each other.
    4. Try new teaching techniques, such as active/cooperative learning strategies (see the UCSB site on Collaborative Learning).
  • Research:
    1. Attend conferences in your subject areas so that you can meet mentors and collaborators from outside your university.
    2. Give talks at your university, at your local section of the MAA, to high school math clubs, to nearby colleges, and at national meetings. You can find all the nearby colleges by using Yahoo! Get Local as described in the September entry on page 4 -- call or e-mail their math departments and offer your services -- they will likely be thrilled to hear from you.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - AUGUST - ONE YEAR BEFORE ANTICIPATED EMPLOYMENT

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Start working on your CV, cover letter(s), teaching statement, and research description. For help and guidelines you can see Thomas Rishel's article, refer to The C.V. Doctor column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and read Tips on Preparing a Vita from the Math Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
  2. Plan to attend the Joint Mathematics Meeting in January.
  3. Present a paper at the Joint Mathematics Meeting.  The deadlines for submitting an abstract in order to present a paper at this meeting are in August or September. You can find them at the meeting site under deadlines. (This link becomes available only in July or August before the meeting.)  The AMS web site also has guidelines for writing an abstract, as well as other information about giving talks.  If you miss these deadlines you still have a chance to apply to present a poster (see Late November/Early December).
  4. For women, the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM) offers Workshops for Women Graduate Students and Recent Ph.D.'s, in which selected participants (membership not required) present either a 20-minute talk or a poster on their research.  The deadline is September 1, and it is very competitive.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Ask three to five people to write letters of recommendation for you. Provide them with your CV, cover letter, teaching statement, research description, and other pertinent information, such as your teaching evaluations. The more they know about you, the better their letters will be. Ask them to visit your classroom and observe your teaching if they haven't already. Let them know if you want their letter to address your academic skills, teaching proficiency, or both. Asking is the "easy" part -- the difficulty lies in getting them to actually write and mail the recommendation.  Give them 2-3 weeks, and then check to see if they are done.  Then start reminding them periodically until the letters are written.
  2. Ask as many people as possible to read and give you suggestions on improving your CV, cover letter(s), teaching statement, and research description. These need to be polished, and there should be NO ERRORS!
  3. Start looking at the JOB ADS: Many (but not all -- you should still check the print versions) academic job ads are available over the web from the sites listed below. Some schools advertise on more than one of these sites, but many advertise on only one. Keep copies of the ads in a computer file until you are ready to send out applications. (You might want to organize them by their application deadline.)  Many applicants check only the EIMS employment listings, but if you are interested in the audience of any of the other publications, they are also worth a look.
    1. Employment Information in the Mathematical Sciences (EIMS), the AMS job listing is searchable, by subject area, geographical location, and keyword (e.g. "liberal arts" or "selective").  Unfortunately, not all schools post here. If you are an AMS member, you can subscribe to the EIMS employment listing and have new listings sent to you by e-mail.
    2. MAA Employment Opportunities are listed by the date they were posted. They are there for only four weeks, and then they are deleted. Most postings at this site tend to be for teaching-oriented schools.
    3. AWM and SIAM Professional Opportunities are listed by the date they were posted. They are on their respective site only for about 2 months, and then they are deleted.  These seem, respectively, to be schools wanting to appear open to hiring women or especially seeking applied mathematicians.
    4. The Chronicle of Higher Education posts new lists each Friday. (You can get the list one week sooner if you subscribe to the Chronicle.) Once they post a new list, the old one is no longer available electronically, so make sure to save a copy of any listing of possible interest.  It appears that these are mostly two-year colleges or four-year colleges with high teaching loads.
    5. Higheredjobs.com's format is a list augmented with new entries at the beginning. Keep track of the jobs you are interested in so you don't search the whole page each time.  These have a tendency to be regional schools, often with high teaching loads.
    6. If you are not tied to the USA, check out the Canadian Mathematics Society Employment Resources, Euro-Math-Jobs, and Australian Mathematical Society's Academic Vacancies.
  4. Send an application to any school in which you are really interested, even if they don't have a job listing or don't seem to be looking for someone with your qualifications (be up front about this in your cover letter).  Many people have successfully found jobs this way when a campus has an unexpected position open up due to a death, resignation, surge in enrollment, etc.  If you want to work in a particular region, Yahoo! Get Local allows you to find all colleges and universities in a state, with links to each school's web site (Choose the state, then choose Education and click on College and University.)
  5. After spotting an appealing ad, start researching the school and the position.
    1. On the school's web site, read about the school and the math department.  Hint: Note the web address on the ad page if you had to search for it -- you might want it again later.  Try to determine if this is a school where you would like to work.  This is the time to determine the ambiance of the school: student population, department size, and location, among other things.  Important information to obtain is the name, e-mail, and phone number of the chair of the department and/or the search committee chair.
    2. Check the US News rating for the school.  Take these with a grain of salt -- they don't necessarily rate a school on the same things that you will think are important.
    3. Salary information is available from The Chronicle of Higher Education.  You must be a subscriber to get the latest years information, but you can get the previous year for free.
    4. Once you have an idea about your potential salary, you can check out the cost of living in the area.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - OCTOBER – UNTIL YOU GET A JOB

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Remind your references that you need those letters of recommendation!
  2. Add your CV and allowable supporting documents to the AMS Electronic Coversheet Service.  This service aids departments in downloading data on the applicants they select. It also allows them to search and browse through the candidates!
  3. Apply for jobs -- but only for jobs that you would be prepared to accept if offered. (Warning: Depending on your flexibility, this may be more than 100 applications and will take some time.) Unless the job advertisement specifically excludes any of these, you should always include the following:
    1. An AMS Standard Coversheet (paper version).
    2. A cover letter specifically stating why you are interested in the advertised position. Have a couple of different versions (depending on the position), and tailor each one to mention things that are particular to that school and/or location. If you will be attending the Joint Mathematics Meeting in January, mention this in your letter.  The importance of this letter cannot be underestimated, although it depends on the institution -- I have heard of some schools not even giving the cover letter to committee members, so repeat crucial information in your CV.
    3. Your CV. Make sure your e-mail, web address, and references are on this.
    4. A teaching statement. If you are applying to a teaching oriented school this is very important.
    5. A research statement. If you are applying to a non-research school, try to explain your research and its importance to a lay person, without using symbols or technical jargon.
    6. Some schools ask for a separate list of five references for contact purposes.
    7. Copies of unofficial transcripts from every school you attended.  You can provide official transcripts once you get the job.
    8. The letters of reference should be sent now.
    Note:  This process may soon be made much simpler for you.  The Mathematics Department of Duke University, in cooperation with the AMS, is developing a database to facilitate the online job application process, MathJobs.Org.  Hopefully, this will take off, and soon all schools will use it!
  4. Send letters to personal contacts. That is, if you know someone at the campus (who you think would give you a positive recommendation), send him or her a letter to let them know that you have sent your application.  They might check to make sure your application was received, or they might even give a personal recommendation to one of the committee members.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - LATE OCTOBER/EARLY NOVEMBER

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Remind your references that you need those letters of recommendation!  Your application is not complete until they get there.
  2. Be sure to register for the Joint Mathematics Meetings and the Employment Center early and get your resume in the List of Applicants. You can get interviews from schools if your resume catches their attention.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - LATE NOVEMBER/EARLY DECEMBER

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. E-mail all the schools, and let them know that you will be attending the Joint Mathematics Meeting, including the time and location of your talk or poster, and ask for an interview. This is a good follow-up from sending your application and brings your name to their attention even if they do not conduct interviews at the meeting.  (Warning: Some schools do not communicate well by e-mail, so don't be discouraged if you don't hear back.)  Also, some (possibly many!) will contact you at the last minute.
  2. The deadline for the Project NExT /YMN Poster Session is in early December. You don't have to be a member of either of these organizations, and acceptance rates are high.  Read the latest issue of the YMN newsletter, Concerns of Young Mathematicians, or search the meeting web page for submission information.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - DECEMBER/JANUARY

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. As a result of registering for the Employment Center at the Joint Mathematics Meeting you will be sent the List of Employers. Go through this list. Send e-mail stating your interest, and post your application packet to any appealing school where you have not already applied.
  2. Take extra application packets to the Joint Mathematics Meeting for the likely case that you will find jobs that you were unaware of before.
  3. There are some intricacies to understand about interviewing at the AMS meeting. There are self-scheduled (20-30 minute) interviews and computer-scheduled (15-minute) interviews. Before the meeting you may be contacted by schools to arrange self-scheduled interviews. Provide each school with a 30-minute time slot. The logistics of this can be very daunting. Keep in mind that there are 8 computer-scheduled interview sessions on Thursday and Friday (see the Employment Center site for the times and other information). The allowed number of interview requests will be determined based on the number of sessions for which you are available. In other words, if you have a lot of self-scheduled interviews on Thursday and Friday, they won't allow you to request many computer-scheduled interviews.  So if you do the computer-scheduled interviewing, Wednesday and Saturday are the ideal days for self-scheduled interviews.  [Editor's Note: This assumes a Wednesday to Saturday meeting, a pattern that is broken in 2002, when the meeting will be from Sunday to Wednesday.] With the upturn in the job market, many applicants are forgoing the computer-scheduled interviews.  Employers are willing to set up other times and will even fill out special forms and put them in your folder requesting an interview.  For more information on the interview process, see Rishel's article, as well as From Both Sides of the Employment Register Table, Tips on How to Get a Job, Interviewing for a Job in Academia, and the other articles on the entire process in the additional reading.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - JANUARY - THE JOINT MATHEMATICS MEETINGS

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Attend the Joint Mathematics Meeting, where you should interview and give a talk (see August) or present a poster (see Late November/Early December).
  2. Take initiative at the meeting. Contact schools that interest you from whom you have not heard or from whom you did not get a computer-scheduled interview. You can contact them by leaving a note in their box in the Employment Center or by leaving a note for a member of the department on the message board.  Remember to check back to see if you got a response.  Again, you will discover that many schools set things up at the last minute!
  3. Make friends and exchange e-mails with other job applicants.  It is helpful to have people with whom to compare experiences.  These friends are also very valuable when it comes to negotiating your contract, because you can refer to each other's offers to get a better deal!

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - JANUARY - AFTER THE MEETINGS

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. Write thank you notes or e-mails.  This will be made incredibly easier if you can manage to write down after each interview the names of the people you talked to!  You will not remember them (there are just too many), and they may not be the same people listed in the program.
  2. Take initiative after the meetings. Contact schools that interest you from whom you have not heard.  Don't assume that they have filled their position or that they are not interested in you.  Due to busy schedules, budgets, etc., every institution is on a different schedule.  Keep in touch with them, so that you will know where things stand, and they will know that you are still interested.
  3. Don't rest yet! Start planning your teaching and research talk for your school visits (if you get the basic idea then you can adapt it to fit each school's need).  Some schools will give you a specific topic for your teaching talk (section * out of so-and-so's Calculus book), but for all those that don't, try to connect your teaching talk to your research.  I know this is hard, but it is also very impressive if you can manage it.  For fun ideas see Harvey Mudd College Math Fun Facts.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - FEBRUARY - APRIL

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
  1. 'Tis the season for on campus interviews (see Interviewing for a Job in Academia), receiving offers, and negotiating (see After the Offer, Before the Deal: Negotiating A First Academic Job).  Every school seems to have their own time schedule for the hiring process.  Keep in contact with the schools that you know are considering you, and with the job applicants you met at the Joint Meeting.  For more information see Rishel's article and the articles on the entire process in the additional reading.
  2. Once you have signed a contract, send an e-mail to all the schools where you applied (even the ones that you haven't heard back from -- every school is on a different timeline) to let them know to take your name off their list.  This will allow you to avoid testy phone calls in which they berate you for wasting their time.  You should also remove your CV from the AMS Electronic Coversheet Service.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - MAY - AUGUST

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer

If you are still (or just starting) in the job market don't despair.  As I mentioned before (see September/October), departments do end up hiring unexpectedly, and this often occurs late in the season.  These are frequently only temporary positions, but many have potential for becoming tenure-track.

  1. Start searching the ads and applying just as if you had started in October, only quicker!  A lot of jobs posted this late will not have a stated application deadline. In this case the schools will likely start reviewing applications as soon as school hiring policies allow. However, they will also continue to review applications as they come in.  (Note: Due to the end of the academic year there is usually a lull in the hiring process during the month of May.)
  2. Make sure that you have submitted your CV to the AMS Electronic Coversheet Service, since schools can browse this and you just might have the qualifications for which they are searching.
  3. Make sure that any connections that you or your advisor have know that you are looking for a job.
  4. Consider attending Mathfest (usually the end of July or the beginning of August).  There is a small amount of job activity that occurs there, and this can be a place for you to get out the word that you are still looking.
  5. Read It's April and I Still Don't Have a Job! The Panicked Scientist's Guide to Accelerated Job Searches by Peter Fiske, March 27, 1998 issue of the Science online publication Next Wave.  To access this article for free either your institution or you must have a subscription to Next Wave.  Otherwise, it costs $5.

A Timeline for a Job Search in Mathematics - Resources

Author(s): 
Cameron Sawyer
CONCLUSION

Remember to revisit Thomas Rishel's article at each stage of the process.

ADDITIONAL READING

Keep in mind that the employment situation has improved since many of these articles were written.

  1. For information on the entire process:
    1. Annalisa Crannell, Applying for Jobs: Advice from the Front.
    2. Jonathan A. Dantzig, LANDING AN ACADEMIC JOB: The process and the pitfalls (written from a Engineering Departments point of view, but it has useful information about what to expect and what to wear among other things).
    3. Steve Hurder, Tips on How to Get a Job (from the Employment Resource Guide of the Math Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago).
    4. Darren Narayan, The Academic Job Search in Mathematics - An Applicant's Perspective (this is the most recent account).
    5. PhDs.org has links to articles on every stage of the process including the Two-Body Problem.
    6. Kim Schneider and Frank Demeyer, Memoir of a Job Search (a personal account of the ups and downs of the process).
  1. For information of interviewing:
    1. Thomas Hull, Michael A. Jones, and Diana M. Thomas, Interviewing for a Job in Academia.
    2. Navah Langmeyer, From Both Sides of the Employment Register Table.
  1. For information on particular types of institutions:
    1. Frank Demeyer, Finding Employment in a Ph.D. Granting Institution.
    2. Malcolm Campbell, How to Get a Teaching Job at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution, (written by a biologist at Davidson College, but it is still useful for mathematicians).
    3. Ronald M. Davis, Teaching at a Two-Year College--Is It For You?.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Carl Cowen, Bill Cunningham, Aimee Ellington, Jeff Hildebrand, David Pike, Laura Taalman, and the referee for their suggestions.