On December 1, 2000, we were delighted to have former ASU students Dr. Jodi Mead and Dr. Trent Buskirk with us to share their PFF experiences. They discussed the good and bad aspects of the Graduate College PFF program and how it prepared them for tenure track positions.

Dr. Jodi Mead graduated from ASU with a PhD in mathematics in the summer of 1998. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the college of oceanography at Oregon State University for one year following graduation and currently has a tenure-track position in the mathematics department at Boise State University.

Dr Mead started by discussing her postdoctoral position at OSU, which is a research university.

The obvious question that PFMF students had was how she obtained a position in the oceanography department rather than mathematics. Dr. Mead explained that there is much need for mathematical modeling when studying the ocean, which is a very interesting subject, but unfortunately the job is based on "soft money." This means that funding for the department is not guaranteed year after year, which led her to a tenure-track position in the mathematics department at Boise State, which is a comprehensive university. She discussed the balance between research, teaching and service, which is not yet set at BSU because of a recent change in their program. In past years, BSU was primarily a teaching school, but within the past few years, research has become a major part of the university. The retiring teachers are being replaced with researchers at a ratio of one retiree to three researches. This is due to the need for adjustment in teaching loads.

Lastly, Dr. Mead discussed her job search. When in PFF, she was advised by one person to apply to one hundred institutions, and by other individuals, to only apply to a select few. She chose to select a few, while considering the type of university as well as the location. The last piece of advice was that a job search also depends on luck. You could happen to find an advertisement for the perfect job just when you are searching, or possibly have a connection. It never hurts for your advisor to put in a good word.

Dr. Trent Buskirk graduated from ASU with a PhD in Statistics in 1999. He jumped straight into an Assistant Professor position in the mathematics department at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dr. Buskirk began by telling us all the things in graduate school that he did well. He attended workshops including one on resume/vitae writing and national conferences including one to present a poster. This helped to meet people in his field and get his name out there. Applying for jobs early and applying to several types of jobs was also beneficial. To better his "appearance", Dr. Buskirk taught introduction level statistic classes and learned Latex as well as other computer programs and environments. PFF helped him to prepare a portfolio and to network with other graduate students campus-wide. So, for Dr. Buskirk, the interdisciplinary PFF program was beneficial, but he agreed with Dr. Mead in that a PFF for the sciences would be better. Some areas in the arts are so different from math that the general information given is not as useful.

The things in graduate school that he could do better included finishing publications from the dissertation prior to a job search. Dr. Buskirk spent an entire semester traveling to various schools for the interview process. Also important is applying to jobs in the correct order, ie, apply to government jobs first, then industry and academic jobs last. To form a more well-rounded person, Dr. Buskirk wished that he would have taken more classes outside of his discipline, including such departments as engineering and computer science. Finally, even though some professional meetings were attended, he could have visited more because you can never have too many connections.