I’m officially on the job market.

Over the summer, in June & July, my adviser was pretty clear that I could graduate this year (and pretty UNCLEAR about whether or not I SHOULD).  Then in August, we fleshed out the plan.  I spent August writing a draft of our research paper which I finished the first week of September.  Then in September I started focusing a lot on my job application materials.

I’m sure any readers in academia already know a lot of this, but as I describe how it applies to me specifically, I’m going to describe the academic job search process in general.

Mathematicians have it “easy” compared to academics in other fields because we have mathjobs.org.  That site is maintained by the American Mathematical Society and it lists (almost) all academic jobs for mathematicians in the US, some academic math jobs outside the US, and a few non-academic jobs for mathematicians.  There are a few other sites and periodicals I can check for academic jobs, and I could also look at non-academic jobs if I want to, but the VAST majority of job openings that I’m qualified for are all listed in one place.  And that place ONLY has math jobs, it’s not cluttered with random things that have nothing to do with my field.

Disclaimer: In the next paragraph I’ll identify “professor” with “academic job position” even though there are TONS of academic jobs which are NOT professors (more about that later).

Most professors will start a new job in the fall semester (August or September).  So, I will be graduating in May 2015 and hoping to start a new job in August or September 2015.  The professor openings are listed online (and elsewhere) between August and November in the year before, with the majority of postings happening in September, and other postings still trickling in during the winter and spring.  So, most of the jobs I’ll apply for have already been posted in August/September/October 2014 – a full year before the job will start.  Application deadlines vary, but most that have already been posted are due between November 1 and December 1.  Some job interviews will be scheduled to take on-site during this huge annual math conference that takes place in mid-January.  If I haven’t gotten any interviews scheduled by the end of February, there’s a good chance I won’t get any.

The applications themselves are grueling.  Applicants always need to submit a cover letter, a CV, a research statement, a teaching statement, and at least 3 reference letters.  Some jobs require more than that in their application.  I already had a CV so I just needed to update it (and edit the formatting a little bit).  The research statement is much easier to write than the teaching statement, but it’s still kind of a pain.  For one thing, I haven’t really been able to find examples of research statements online, nor have I been able to find math-specific advice about what should go in a research statement.  So, I wrote the first draft of my research statement much like I wrote my teaching statement.  Then when I showed it to my adviser he told me that it was totally wrong (he didn’t say it that way, but it was true).  The research statement has to describe to other mathematicians in a clear concise way what research I have done, why my research is important, and what research I intend to do over the next few years.  I’m still working on those last two bits, but writing about what I’ve already done is easy because I personally did it.  I’ve also written about my next research project that I intend to do. But to look farther than that is hard.  I know areas of math that I want to learn more about and do research in, but I don’t have any specific problems in mind yet.  So I need to find time to figure that out.  And then write about it.

The teaching statement is BORING.  It’s boring to read one, it’s boring to write one, it’s just plain boring.  You have to write about what you have done as a teacher, how you have done it, why you choose to do it that way, and what you feel is important about teaching.  It’s hard not to write it as complete fluff.  My first draft was like that.  Then my adviser read it and gave me some great feedback.  He said “Here are the two important, interesting, unique things you say about your teaching style.  Delete everything else and just focus on those.”  So I did that and now it’s much better.

I’ve got three references lined up, but many applications require four, so I’m trying to figure out what to do about that.

The cover letters will probably be the most time consuming piece of the application.  These are essentially one page essays which (1) give an introduction to the other application materials and (2) make a case for why I, personally, am a good fit for the open position.  From what I understand, most applicants use a “form letter” for their cover letter – they essentially send the exact same letter with every application.  But, to write a good cover letter, I have to research the school and the department and use what information I can find out about them to convince them I am the perfect person for them to hire.  There are several jobs that I already know a lot of what I want to say based on the information in the job listing.  And inevitably, I will have a “basic” version of a cover letter that I’ll start from for all of the applications and some of them I really won’t have much more to say than the “basics.”

For schools that care more about my teaching abilities than my research abilities, I will also be sending a “teaching portfolio.”  It’ll include things like syllabi and exams and lecture notes I’ve written.

As for the types of academic positions available, they fall into three basic categories: professorships (usually tenure-track and considered permanent positions; amount of research vs teaching depends on the school), postdocs and visiting professors (temporary positions of 3 years maximum; postdocs are usually research-focused and visiting profs are usually teaching-focused), and lecturers (could be temporary or permanent but involves no research, only lots of teaching).  I’m applying for anything except lecturer positions because my number one love (professionally) is research so I know I would not be happy in a job that involved NO research.  Of the other positions (professorships and postdocs), the job openings often are for people who study a specific type of math.  So that further reduces the number of jobs I can apply for.  My research is in algebra, geometry, and combinatorics.  If I applied for a position that said “statistics” or “analysis” or “applied math” they wouldn’t even look at my application long enough to laugh at how stupid I am for wasting my time applying for that position.  So… I won’t waste my time applying for those positions.

So, once I rule out the job postings for areas of math outside of my expertise or for teaching-only jobs, there’s not a WHOLE lot left – maybe about 100 listings.  Then, people in academia will tell me not to narrow it down any more than that, to just be happy with wherever I end up geographically that will hire me.  But I HATE cold weather.  So I’ve also been ruling out really cold locations – New England, the Dakotas, the northern parts of the Midwest, the northern parts of the Rocky Mountains, Canada, etc.  I’m not completely ruling out temporary positions in a cold place like Pittsburgh or Chicago or New York or Boston, but for any possibly permanent positions, I want to make sure it would be good fit for both parties (me and the institution).  And I know I’d be miserable in the cold for the rest of my life, so I’m just not even bothering.  A lot of people think I’m ridiculous for doing this and if I end up not getting hired anywhere, they’ll just say it was my own fault because I was too picky.  Academics rarely get a choice on where they end up – it’s pure chance.  But I’m going to rig the odds a little bit in my favor and I’m prepared to suffer the consequences…

Anyway, I think that mostly explains what kinds of academic jobs there are and how to apply for them.  But when I talk to non-academics about this, their first reply is usually “I’m always hearing about how we need more math teachers.  And besides, how many people are REALLY getting PhDs in math?  The jobs you’re applying for can’t possibly be very competitive so I don’t know what you’re complaining about.”  This is a frustrating thing to reply to because you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about if you say that to me but yet you’re still saying it in a condescending way.  (Of course, some people say basically the same thing, but in a nicer way.)

First of all, when you hear about “needing more math teachers,” you are probably hearing about the need for elementary or secondary math teachers in a very specific area of the country.  These types of jobs have NOTHING to do with the job market in academia (ie, at the college level).  Furthermore, the number of math jobs in academia is either stagnating or declining depending on what report you’re reading but yet universities in the US are graduating more math PhDs each year than they did last year, and this trend has been in effect since 2001.  So we’re adding 1000-2000 people to a pool of applicants and the only way permanent jobs open up is if someone quits or dies (if someone quits, that person may be returning him or herself to the job market).

So, here are the basic numbers about how many math PhDs are earned every year and how many of them get jobs after graduation, for the two most recent graduating classes whose data is available.  The AMS does a great job of tracking these kinds of things.  The unemployment rate is depressing, but it could be worse.  However, it’s worth noting that it’s worse for women.

General Info:

• The number of PhDs has increased every year since 2001-2002.
• The median salary for academic positions for the men vs women overall has a big gap, but for entry level positions the gap is small.
• The median salary for new PhDs in academic positions went up about $3000 from 2012 to 2013.
• The median salary for government and industry positions is almost twice the median salary for academic positions.

Graduated in 2011-2012 academic year:

• 1798 PhDs conferred (pure math, statistics, or applied math)
• 1511 (84%) had employment after graduation (most in the US, some outside the US)
• 69% of those employed in the US got academic jobs
• 38% of those employed (in or out of the US) got postdoc positions
• 31% of all math PhDs that year were female
• Out of schools of the same type as my school (public, small), 30% of the PhDs were female. 49 out of 62 of them got jobs (79%, not that much lower than the overall employment rate).

Graduated in 2012-2013 academic year:

• 1843 PhDs conferred (pure math, statistics, or applied math)
• 1572 (85%) had employment after graduation (most in the US, some outside the US)
• 66% of those employed in the US got academic jobs
• 38% of those employed (in or out of the US) have postdoc positions
• 31% of all math PhDs that year were female
• Out of schools of the same type as my school (public, small), 37% of the PhDs were female. 26 out of 82 of them got jobs (ONLY 32% – WTF).

Sources:
http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/2012Survey-NewDoctorates-Report.pdf