PFMF - April 12
Prepared by Ana Maria Kupresanin

Professor Anne Gelb, ASU Department of Mathematics and Statistics, gave a
talk about the academic job search in mathematics.
She first emphasized the importance of advance planning.
Here are some other useful hints...

- a year prior to graduation it would be advised to attend an employment
  opportunity workshop at the Joint Mathematical Meeting as well as to present
  a paper or poster

- the CV should be very neat and readable; it should contain: basic information
  (name, address, phone, e-mail), work experience (jobs relevant to position),
  education (degrees and dates of degrees), publications (journal publications,
  proceedings, technical reports), research interests (described very briefly),
  talks (conferences, seminar talks), teaching

- research statement
  should talk about your thesis (where the problem came from; who else
  is working on this problem; how do your results fit into the general
  direction of the field?)
  and also about future problems (how will you expand your thesis results and
  are there other problems you are interested in pursuing?)

- teaching statement
  should detail your teaching career and should be more factual then
  philosophical

- typical interview questions:
  - the most common question is about your dissertation
    (you should respond in 2-3 sentences understandable to a mathematician in
    any field and also be prepared to answer ``deeper'' questions which
    might be asked)
  - what kind of courses do you want to teach and how would you approach
    teaching basic level math courses?
  - what type of salary are you looking for?

- your job talk
  should show your potential as a teacher and also your research capabilities

For other job search tips a useful reference is:
Thomas W. Rishel: The Academic Job Search in Mathematics