MathOverflow Stack Exchange
MathOverflow Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [career]

For questions about careers and jobs in mathematics (inside and outside academia)

For questions about careers and jobs in mathematics (inside and outside academia), such as job applications, postdoc positions, tenure, industry jobs for mathematicians, career changes etc.

177 questions
45
votes
3 answers

A second Ph.D. in mathematics?

I have now some problems about my research Career, I would like to tell my stories. I am a Chinese guy, but now a Ph.D. candidate in Germany, in the field of so called 'Geometric Analysis', but I do not feel happy when I work in such a field.…
Zhiqiang Sun
  • 111
45
votes
8 answers

How hard is it to get tenure in mathematics?

My curiousity provoked by this question and Igor's answer, I'd like to know: how many mathematics PhD's who want to get a tenured job as a research mathematician actually get that job? As a first approximation, I'd like to know how what percentage…
GS
39
votes
9 answers

What can an algebraic geometer do outside academia?

This question is inspired by this and this. But it is not a duplicate, read on. Please don't close it: I choose to be anonymous just not to be identified. About to be on the job market, disenchanted with academia, bored by the teaching load in grad…
Anonymo
  • 111
19
votes
1 answer

switching jobs when you have a tenure-track position

I hope this topic is appropriate for MO. I have a tenure-track position at a US university in a location where my spouse is very unhappy, severely underemployed, and has no real prospect of finding suitable employment. I know the economy/job market…
Anonymous
  • 201
18
votes
0 answers

What to do when your work is 'dissed'

I'm posting this anonymously, for obvious reasons (if you guess who I am please keep it under your hat). I recently finished my PhD and am about to publish the first paper from my thesis. No sooner than I start to make noises about it and…
anon
  • 41
16
votes
1 answer

Ways to help a math PhD out of depression

I have a friend who is having trouble in his math PhD career and is recently down with depression. He has decided to take a break from research and receive some medication. To help him recover faster and better, I am asking if anyone here with…
Fan Zheng
  • 5,119
15
votes
1 answer

Seven pages -- too long for a research statement for postdoc application?

My question is rather straight forward. I am currently applying for postdoctoral positions in (pure) mathematics. I am almost done writing my research statement and it seems to come out to about seven pages. Is that too long? A similar question has…
user39719
12
votes
2 answers

Does this qualify as "self plagiarism" or something?

Over the last few years, I have been writing several papers in the same direction as part of a research program. This means that the same exact setup is introduced at the beginning of each of my papers: i.e. the basic assumptions on the categories I…
Worried
  • 51
11
votes
5 answers

Reference letters for teaching positions

I've been told that when applying for a teaching position, your reference letters can be written by anyone who is familiar with your teaching capabilities in detail. I feel that this primarily just means students, but I wonder if there's some…
Amit Kumar Gupta
  • 3,992
10
votes
9 answers

Starting PhD at the age of 25

For over an year I have otherwise been pretty active on MathOverflow but for this question I would like to remain anonymous. I would be starting my grad school in Fall 2011 in the US while in the 25th year of my life. I will be joining a grad…
curious
  • 1
10
votes
2 answers

Would it make sense to have someone write separate teaching and non-teaching letters of reference for one candidate?

There's a friend of mine (seriously, not me) who is facing a slight dilemma. There's a particular senior mathematician who he knows well (several co-authored papers, etc.) who also is probably the person best placed to comment on his teaching…
Ben Webster
  • 43,949
8
votes
0 answers

transition from academia to industry

crossposted to https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23644/transition-from-academia-to-industry I am currently doing a post-doc in pure Math [teaching and research] in the US. The academic year 2014-2015 will be my last postdoc year and I am…
user1451857
  • 151
  • 3
7
votes
2 answers

recommendation letter for teaching

I need a recommendation letter on my teaching. I want to ask the instructor in last semester for which I was a TA, but I don't know how his impression for my teaching. So do I need to ask him for his opinion about my teaching before letting him…
HYYY
  • 1,499
7
votes
2 answers

Is there any disadvantage from non-academic job turn to academic job in math

If you get your PhD in math , and then work for 1 or 2 years in a non-academic institution and then turn to apply for postdoc or tenure-track position in math like usual, is there any disadvantage (I mean for your application for postdoc or…
HYYY
  • 1,499
4
votes
6 answers

Level of detail on a Phd application

I am a graduate student planning to apply in Australia for a PHd very soon. I have observed that most of the universities require the applicant to provide a 100-words summary of the research they propose to undertake. Now my graduate training was…
Sangeeta Bhatia
  • 121
1
2