Analysis Conference

Washington University in St. Louis

Graduate Student and Postdoc Workshop

Saturday 14 May, 9:20-10:50am

Panelists

Catherine Bénéteau (Seton Hall University), Beneteca@shu.edu

Richard Laugesen (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Laugesen@math.uiuc.edu

John McCarthy (Washington University in St. Louis), McCarthy@wustl.edu

Discussion Starters

Job Issues

1. Where are academic jobs listed? Non-academic jobs (government and corporate)?

2. How do you apply? Is it the same for postdocs as for tenure track jobs?

3. What kind of academic employers interview at the big annual conference (AMS-MAA) in January, and for what kind of positions?

4. What non-academic employers interview at the annual meeting?

5. How do you go about applying for international positions?

6. Are there usual standards for postdoc and tenure track candidates as far as publications and conference talks and so on are concerned?

7. How many postdoc positions is someone searching for a tenure track job expected to have had?

8. What characterizes a “research” position versus a “teaching” position? How do you tell the kind of position, from the job ad?

9. Are there differences in procedure between private and public universities?

10. Is salary very much a matter of specific negotiations? What about moving expenses, travel money, summer salary…? Do employers usually give a low salary and try to compensate with these other goodies? How hard can you negotiate for a better deal?

11. Are there statistics on the average numbers of new PhDs graduating per year, how many get jobs, where, at what salary, and so on?

12. What kind of networking can you do to help get the job you want?

13. After you get a job, what can you do to maximize your chances of succeeding?

Professional Issues

1. You just proved a good theorem – how do you write a really good paper around it?

2. Publicizing your research – how is it done?

Subtext: how do you get yourself known, without being too pushy?

3. You want to be a good teacher. How can you get better? How can you gain recognition for your teaching accomplishments?

Ethical Issues

1. I already accepted a postdoctoral job, but I’ve just been offered a better one. What can I do?

2. I already accepted a tenure track job, but I’ve just been offered a better one, at a higher quality university that is closer to my family too! What can I do?

3. I just learned (using the ArXiv and MathSciNet) that someone else proved most of my theorem

(a) 10 years ago,

(b) a year ago,

(d) a year after me.

What should I do, or they do?

Career Resources

How to be a Good Graduate Student, by Marie desJardins

A Mathematician's Survival Guide: Graduate School and Early Career Development, by Steven Krantz

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2005: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, by Richard Bolles, Mark Bolles

Project NeXT is a program for new or recent Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences who are interested in improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics.

http://archives.math.utk.edu/projnext/

AMS Employment website

http://www.ams.org/employment

AMS Surveys of new PhDs, Salaries etc.

http://www.ams.org/outreach

Writing/Research Resources

Writing Mathematics Well, by Leonard Gillman

A Primer of Mathematical Writing, by Steven Krantz

Mathematical Writing, by Donald Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, Paul Roberts

MatSciNet – reviews of mathematical papers

http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/

ArXiv - preprint server