*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2 Issue 7 February 23, 1994 An electronically distributed digest for discussions of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers. PLEASE FORWARD TO ANY POTENTIALLY INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS Please direct submissions and questions to Matthew Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu , editor for the month of March. Next issue: Wednesday, March 2, 1994. To subscribe: Send mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Back issues and other information are available via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Editor for November was Steve Kennedy kennedy@math.stolaf.edu . Editor for December was Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu . Editor for January was Kalin Godev kalin@math.psu.edu . Editor for February was Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu . The opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the YMN or the editorial board. Table of Contents Item # Title 1 Editor's Comments 2 Comments, News, and Notes *AMS Task Force on Employment 3 Applicant Pools *In response to last week's query 4 Comment on Interviews Paul Ehrlich 5 YMN in the news 6 Closing Credits __________________________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's Comments And so February draws to a close. I leave you with several ideas: 1) We could be sharing ideas with one another about our teaching experiences, especially with regard to technological applications (what do you like/dislike, and why?), student projects, references to interesting articles (for example, Hungerford on teaching elementary education majors), etc. 2) We could gather data (some have started) on recent (past 10 years) graduates of our schools. 3) We can help one another in all the ways suggested last issue (and before) that no one responded to. 4) We can help ourselves on many of these items by looking at back issues of CoYM, MAA journals, and the AMS Notices. Many of our initial questions can be answered (at least partially) by these. Good Luck to all of you in the job-hunt this year. ____________________________________________________________________ Item #2 Comments, News, and Notes: ******************************************************************** AMS Task Force on Employment The report "EMPLOYMENT AND THE U.S. MATHEMATICS DOCTORATE: REPORT OF THE AMS TASK FORCE ON EMPLOYMENT, JULY 1992 is now available on the e-math gopher. ______________________________________________________________________ Item #3 Applicant Pool The responses were interesting, so I'm printing what I've received!! ******************************************************************** Last issue Frank Sottile at the University of Chicago reported a rumor of fewer people applying this year. Interesting, because when I completed reading the last issue, I got a rejection note citing that this year's application pool was their largest ever. The evidence Frank cited is that many schools are reporting fewer applicants. I think this piece of evidence does not necessarily support the conclusion. My own anecdotal story. Last year I applied to 104 schools, this year I have applied to far fewer so far and I don't expect to even near the total of last year. My reason for dropping back on the number of schools that I am applying to is what I consider the insanity of the shotgun approach. From what I learned last year, from the pages of CoYM and from talking with a wide variety of people in my semester at Mittag-Leffler and conferences last summer, I have found out that schools can often identify when you are using the shotgun approach and this turns them off. Why should they spend time and money on you when they can see that all the time you spent thinking about them was changing the address and names on the cover letter and envelope? It is too much of a risk for them with their often limited resources. If you take the time to think about each and every application, there is a good chance it will show in the application. The schools that see some thought in the application to them and some geniune interest will certainly take you more seriously. Taking this approach to applying not only means you will probably decide some schools aren't worth the effort (in the sense that you know you'd be happier unemployed that working for them), but you will also not have the time to apply to massive number of schools. Also, applying to fewer schools would allow for your letter writers to in- dividualize the letters they write, which logically would help your cause better than a xerox copy of a "To whom it may concern." I am not saying your letter writers would do this, just that they might consider it. Though this approach to job applying hasn't been spelled out on these pages, I think that slowly many advisors and job applicant peers are realizing that the shotgun approach may not be the best. This could be contributing to any drop in applications per school. Mark Winstead winstead@math.ucsd.edu ********************************************************************** This is in response to the query about there being fewer applications for jobs this year. Here, at Texas A&M-Kingsville, I'm told have fewer active applicantions than last year when I was hired. However, I think this is more due to a shorter deadline and a more specific advertisement (both designed to cut down on the number of applications) rather than a smaller applicant pool. Mark Purtill kfmp000@taivm1.taiu.edu (512)516-1869,595-3607 *********************************************************************** Frank Sottile asks in the previous issue of CoYMN if the number of people applying for jobs is down this year and if there is evidence for this. He cites an acknowledgement from the University of Missouri which says that 380 applications were received there and was wondering if that is evidence for fewer applicants. I checked my files from e-math, and I found announcements from 2 campuses of that university. Each announcement did specify a somewhat restricted range of fields. Thus I suspect that a significant number of applicants did not apply there because they were in different fields than announced. I have gotten reports from some of the good liberal-arts colleges of over 700 applicants; this number is similar to numbers in other recent years. I get somewhat of an impression that some of the activity is going on earlier this year, but I don't know whether this is due to people applying earlier, people being recognized from earlier applications, my hearing from a different segment of applicants, or what. It's certainly not necessarily an accurate measure of the overall market. I would be cautious in making assertations that the job market is significantly better than in recent years. It's still a terrible market even if there are vague glimmers of hope for improvement. Martin Hildebrand, post-doc, Institute for Mathematics and its Applications hildebra@ima.umn.edu *************************************************************************** Data from the University of Florida, Gainesville: We had a deadline of December 15, 1993 and a reasonably focused list of three areas of specialization. This generated 630 applicants by the deadline,about half of which were in the targeted areas. Of course, quite a number of late folders have also arrived since December 15th. ehrlich@math.ufl.edu ___________________________________________________________________ Item #4 Brief Comments On Campus Interviews Paul Ehrlich In response to Curtis Bennet's article on "Campus Interviews", I would like to applaud this article and commend Curtis for such a fine job. Having watched job applicants for around 15 years, let me underscore from this experience several things that Curtis mentioned in his article. 1). Even at a large state research university, some faculty members will want to be sure you have a genuine concern for teaching -- thus INDEED do not be too quick to change the topic if someone wants to talk about textbook and classes. 2). You can be 100 % certain, as Curtis suggests, that some faculty members at a large state university will want to be sure you understand how your work fits into the larger picture. Do indeed avoid too technical a beginning. If the position is advertised as being in harmonic analysis, for instance, and you have been doing work in Hardy spaces in your thesis, rest assured that someone will ask a question which will be designed to give you an opportunity to explain how your work relates to harmonic analysis in general, if you have not addressed that point explicitly in your lecture yourself. ________________________________________________________________________ Item #5 YMN Articles-About Us! 1) There is an article about YMN in the February 1994 issue of Focus, p.23. 2) Some version of the following will appear in the MAA Notes Series: [ I have prepared the following digest of the information you sent, and will send it today for inclusion in Chapter 16 of the forthcoming book produced by the Joint Committee on College Teacher Preparation and to be published in the MAA Notes Series.] In the summer of 1993, the Young Mathematicians Network (YMN) was born as an offshoot of the Young Scientists Network. (Here "young" should be understood in terms of years past the degree.) Its purposes include helping to keep the mathematical community informed about the job market, publishing, and sources of grant support, and about concerns of junior mathematicians. The YMN operates almost exclusively through the Internet; its principal vehicle is a weekly electronic newsletter called CONCERNS OF YOUNG MATHEMATICIANS [ital], supported by the University of Kentucky Mathematics Department. Subscription by e-mail is accessible to anyone and is free. One recurrent theme of the news- letter is what the editors call the MYTH that there is a shortage of scientists in the US. The YMN also sponsors panel discussions at meetings of mathemati- cians, etc. For more information or to subscribe to the newsletter, send e-mail to Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@ms.uky.edu. Back issues of the newsletter can be obtained via anonymous ftp to ftp.ms.uky.edu and looking in the directory /pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Corporeal things can be sent to Charles Yeomans, 809 Cooper Drive, Lexington, KY 40502, FAX 606-268-3958, whose voice telephone number is 606-268-3870. __________________________________________________________________________ Item #6 Closing Credits: The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead winstead@euclid.ucsd.edu Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Stephen Kennedy kennedy@stolaf.edu Kalin Godev kalin@math.psu.edu Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Jeff Adams adams@bright.uoregon.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu ____________________________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues