*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 2, Issue 40 Dec 7, 1994 An electronically distributed digest for discussions of the issues of concern to mathematicians at the beginning of their careers. Please, direct submissions and questions to Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu , editor for the month of December. Next issue: Wednesday, 14 December. November Editor: Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu December Editor: Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu January Editor: Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu To subscribe: Contact Charles Yeomans at cyeomans@ms.uky.edu Back issues and other information are available via anonymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list. Or connect to the YMN homepage on the WWW, the URL: http://math34.gatech.edu:8080/YMN/ymn.html The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the administrative board or membership of the Young Mathematicians' Network. The editorial policy of this newsletter is to encourage discussion of issues, and facilitate the dissemination of information, relevant to the concerns of young mathematicians. Table of Contents Item # Title ------ ----- 1 Editor's Note 2 News & Notes 3 A Microcosm of Last Year's Market Kevin Charlwood 4 Assistance for Unemployed Mathematics PhDs AMS-SIAM Press Release 5 Professional Development: Writing Papers Curtis Bennett 6 Some Comments on the YMN Charter Mark Winstead 7 YMN Survey of Job Seekers Kevin Charlwood ______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's Note The appearance of the AMS-IMS-MAA Annual Survey in the most recent issue of NOTICES sparked some discussion amongst the editors of this newsletter. It is full of depressing low- lights: the unemployment rate for newdocs, 14.2%, is the highest ever observed; 20% of the newdocs employed at doctoral granting departments (39 of 197) are graduates of their employing department, such positions are rarely regular positions, usually they are created for graduates who had no luck on the market; the tenure/temporary status is known for 260 newdocs, 56% of them are in temporary jobs and a depressing 30% of these are in one-year jobs. You get the picture. Reading the report carefully can be an eye-opening experience. For example, what exactly is the definition of unemployment rate? There were 1059 PhDs awarded. There are 143 (87 U.S. and 56 non-U.S.) whose employment status is unknown--it seems reasonable to suppose that many of them (at least of the 87 in the US) didn't get jobs--the data, after all, come from hiring departments. Of course, to be fair, it's probably easy to lose track of people who leave academia. In any case, these 143 individuals are removed from the calculation. There are 130 newdocs reported as "still seeking employment" and 14 reported as "not seeking employment." The unemployment rate is 130/(1059-143)=.142, notice that not only are the 14 not counted as unemployed, but also they are left in the denominator, i.e., effectively counted as employed. The slightly more honest method of removing them from the denominator gives .144 as the unemployment rate. Counting them as unemployed gives 144/916=.157 as the unemployment rate. Continuing, if we count the 38 people known to be employed part-time and the 39 employed at their degree-granting institution (making the historically accurate assumption that most of these are not regular positions) we get (144+38+39)/916=.241 for the un- and under-employment rate. If we remove from the calculation those people (employed or not) known to have left the U.S., we get (144+38+39)/750= .295 for the un- and under-employment rate of newdocs who remained in the U.S. Go read the article, it's sobering. Of course, all of these rates are only for new PhDs. The survey makes no effort to collect data on the employment outcomes of those people in the job market who are not new PhDs. Given the unemployment rates for the last few years and the prevalence of temporary positions, it's fair to guess that most of the job seekers in last year's (and this year's) market are not new PhDs. Thus, measuring the unemployment rate for newdocs might give some indication of how terrible the market is, but it is far from a complete picture. Kevin Charlwood, with some help from a few others on the YMN board, has put together a questionnaire to survey those readers on the job market this year. We hope that the results of this survey (and follow-ups to it) can be combined with next year's AMS-IMS-MAA survey to give a more accurate picture of the whole job market, not just the newdoc sector of it. We realize that those of you on the market are swamped right now, but please, try to find a couple of minutes to fill out Kevin's questionnaire. In addition to his questionnaire Kevin compiled a snapshot of one tiny slice of the job applicant pool last year and how they fared. His "Microcosm of Last Year's Market" tells what happened to all the '94 graduates of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. AMS and SIAM sent a joint press release to announce a cooperative venture to disseminate information about mathematics in industry and finding a mathematical job in industry. The hope is that not only will we be able to get information on finding an industry job, but departments will be able to get information on how to provide students with opportunities to make themselves more attractive to industry. It's going to take a while to get set up, but it sounds promising. Curtis Bennett continues his series on professional development with some nice advice on "Writing Papers." Finally, Mark Winstead gives his thoughts on the YMN charter. Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu ______________________________________________________________ Item #2 News and Notes 1. Ron Buckmire of Occidental College wrote wondering why we don't publish the URL of the YMN World Wide Web homepage. Oops! It's: http://math34.gatech.edu:8080/YMN/ymn.html I've also included it in the masthead above, so that it will appear in every future issue. 2. Several people wrote to point out the article on scientific unemployment in the current Newsweek. Check it out. 3. Mark Winstead notes that there is a special session at the Orlando sectional meeting of the AMS (March 1995) entitled "Future directions for the mathematics doctorate." Chairs from several schools, some YMs, and someone from NSF will speak on trends in hiring, funding, and other issues that, presumably, are of interest to us. (If you go, it would be nice to write up your observations and share them with us.) 4. Bob Dobrow sent me the following: The "Statistics Job List" is an excellent job listing resource on the Internet. It is a compilation of mostly (but not exclusively) statistics-related positions. The list is primarily made up of academic jobs but there are a large number of postdoctoral and industry positions as well. It is the most thorough listing I have seen of statistics- related jobs. It can be accessed on the world-wide web at URL: http://www.stat.ufl.edu/users/bonnie/JobAnnouncements.html The listing is maintained by Bonnie J. Baum at the University of Florida, Department of Statistics. She can be reached at bonnie@stat.ufl.edu 5. Hongzhu Qiao and Curtis Bennett have revised the AMS cover sheet for applications so that you can fill in the blanks using TeX. A copy will be posted in the YMN archives, ftp and WWW addresses above. (If it's not there yet, just wait a day or two, this just came in.) ______________________________________________________________ Item #3 A Microcosm of Last Year's Market Yep, it's me again! I've returned with more anecdotes for your reading enjoyment. I have a detailed look as to what happened on the job market last year at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). I want to share with you the sum total of experiences which those of us had who were on the job market last year. It is anecdotal, with as many facts and figures as I can recall. I will include some personal characteristics, to give readers a feel for who we were as a group....none of these are intended to imply anything regarding success or lack thereof for any particular job candidate. 1. Me: American male, 30 years old. My Ph.D. was in algebra (quantum groups), and I defended in July. I had good fortune, getting calls from nine out of 137 schools to which I had applied. I went after full-time tenure-track teaching positions, although in June, I started applying for temporary jobs. At the joint meetings last January, I had 12 interviews with schools, though none called for an on-site interview. I landed a one-year position at Bradley. For a more detailed look at how I fared, read my piece in the October 5th issue of Concerns. My seven years of teaching experience, including five of running my own class, seemed to help a great deal. Coming from a smaller, less well-known program, I'm pleased with the measure of success I had. Since I have a one-year job at Bradley, I have to do it over again, and I will send out more applications for temporary jobs, visiting positions and post-docs. 2. American male, 30 years old. He is an algebraist (torsion theories). He sent out about 70 applications, including 20 Junior college positions. He had 5 interviews with schools in Cincinnati at the Joint meetings. In March, he interviewed at a Junior college in Georgia and in April a four-year school in Illinois, but was not offered a position at either. In June, he interviewed at a two-year school in Michigan and accepted a one-year appointment in early July. He was told that the position was very likely to be converted to tenure-track; as yet, he still has not been informed of this decision. He left without his Ph.D., but is in the process of finishing. In 1992-3, he sent out 35 applications, but as he was not so close to finishing his thesis, he had no luck that time around. 3. Male, Chinese National, 32 years old. He is in dynamical systems. By early August, he had sent out over 200 applications for academic positions. He had no phone calls whatsoever. He delayed finishing his Ph.D. to enable his family to stay in the U.S. His thesis is written, and he will be defending it this fall if he feels better about his chances. He is presently at UWM as a 1/3 TA this year. 4. Male, Greek with permanent U.S. residency, age: early 30's. He is in functional analysis. He applied to roughly 200 schools by early August, but did not even get a single phone call. This was despite being a permanent US resident, and having extensive teaching experience similar to mine. He is still at UWM as a lecturer, though he defended his thesis in June. Although I have not been in contact with him, I assume he'll play the job lottery again this year. These previous two are examples of the terrible, inexplicable job tragedies that the present market creates. 5. American male, early 30's. He finished last December in algebraic topology. He had become disenchanted with teaching, and decided to pursue a career in computing, having worked on his computing skills consistently over the years. Last spring, he took a course in compiler design, and was sending out letters of inquiry to various nationally known companies late last spring. When I last saw him in early August, he hadn't heard from anyone yet. He had been at UWM since 1985 and enjoyed his course work and computing, but was under no pressure to finish. 6. Male, Chinese National, early 30's. He is in distribution theory, with applications in statistics. He sent out over 300 applications (!!!) and didn't begin until January, when it was clear he would finish. He applied for academic jobs, along with positions in government and in industry. He landed a one-year position at a four-year school in Washington, since extended to two years. He finished his thesis in July. If you're applying, and wish to adopt his strategy, don't worry....most of his letters were print merged, so he could send out 10 - 15 in a day. 7. Male, Chinese National, early 30's. His work is in wavelets. He began applying for academic positions in February and I do not know how many he sent out, and to which kinds of schools. He is still at UWM as a lecturer this year, presumably trying his hand at applying once again. However, he defended his thesis in early August. I feel that his difficulties arose from his uncertainty about when he was going to finish, and as a result he had a late start hitting the market. My opinion on timing is: if you're not sure you'll be done by next summer, don't spend your time applying when you need to finish your thesis. Wait until next year, and then apply when you will have the time, and the degree in hand. These last two are really "addenda." The above seven of us were at UWM last year as lecturers or TA's, and these others are UWM alumni who were on the market last year. Both went to Cincinnati, and each had five interviews there. 8. He's a 43 year-old American, who finished his Ph.D. in August of 1991 in wavelets. He lectured for a year at Milwaukee, took a one-year job at a UW school during the 1992-3 academic year and was unemployed last year. He spent all his time applying but did not get a position by August. He mainly went after full-time, tenure-track jobs, and he did have some luck getting interviews, obtaining interviews with two schools. His background included several years as an instructor/lecturer in the UW system, and a two-year stint in Malaysia. Perhaps some view him as too old for an entry-level position, but in my opinion the "unemployed" status for a year may have really killed his chances. I'll just throw this in: at this point, with the market as tight as it is, take any (reasonable) form of employment if at all possible! I'm not sure how easy it is to explain not having a position for a year, and prospective employers are bound to ask. 9. American male, early to mid-30's. He finished his Ph.D. in 1990 in dynamical systems, and had a series of one-year deals at Bradley. The difficulty in the current market got to him, and left to become a stockbroker, selling mutual funds, etc., and enjoying it immensely. In my opinion, as he's had four publications along with several others in the works, his trouble was limiting himself geographically when he searched over the past four years. He wouldn't move south of St. Louis, and he had other geographical criteria which were just too hard to meet. Well, I hope you enjoyed this little "snapshot" of the market's effect on the candidates at one school. Any of you who have similar stories, or anecdotes to share regarding the trials and tribulations we faced last year, feel free to e-mail me!! I love all the stories people have told me.... I'll have plenty to share with my grandchildren someday. Maybe by then, we'll all have finally found that elusive position we've been so eager to get!! Take care, and happy searching! Kevin Charlwood, Bradley University kec1@bradley.bradley.edu [Editor's Note: Of the five people who finished last year, the AMS-IMS-MAA Survey would count one unemployed and four employed. Note that of these four, two obtained one-year positions and the other two got temporary lecturer jobs at UWM.] ____________________________________________________________ Item #4 Assistance for Unemployed Mathematics PhDs Providence, RI -- The American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics today announced they had received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to work together to broaden employment opportunities for mathematics doctorates. The project, funded over a two year period, will strengthen links between the academic mathematical sciences community and business, industry, and government as part of a long-range effort to expand career opportunities outside of academia. "In the long term, this sort of interaction should help build good relations between industry and mathematics, which will help the entire mathematical enterprise," notes Samuel M. Rankin III, AMS Associate Executive Director. Rankin and James Crowley, Executive Director of SIAM, are co-principal investigators for the project. SIAM is now in the second year of a related two-year project, Mathematics in Industry. Through surveys of a group of mathematicians and managers in industry, the project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency, seeks to improve the match between graduate training in mathematics and the needs of business, industry, and government. The AMS plays a major role in the extensive program of the employment services it co-sponsors with the Mathematical Association of America and SIAM, from the yearly Employment Register, to electronic job listings on the e-Math service on the Internet, to the publication Employment Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences. SIAM, which publishes extensive job listings in its newspapers, is also making that information available electronically through its gopher server. Pooling the expertise of the two organizations, the project funded by Sloan will have a wider reach and greater impact than if the two societies went their separate ways. Crowley sees the project as a natural pairing of strengths. "SIAM brings a strong connection to industry and applications," he remarks. "AMS brings a broader reach in academic departments. If we want to speak to the entire mathematical sciences community, it is important that we do so together." The centerpiece of the project is the creation of a database of profiles of individuals who use mathematics extensively in their daily work. Such individuals would not necessarily have the job title "mathematician," but would use mathematics in a substantive way in what they do. The profiles will describe the individuals' jobs, mathematical background, and additional training they needed to prepare for their work. This database, to be developed jointly by the two societies, will acquaint graduate students with environments outside academia in which mathematics is used, and with the requirements for working in those environments. The project will also include a "query and discussion" bulletin board to provide an open forum in which graduate students, faculty, and mathematicians and others outside academia can make contacts and discuss the ins and outs of working in business, industry, or government. The project is intended to cover a wide range of areas, from automotive design to oil recovery to finance to insurance. Currently, little career information is available to help graduate students investigate the range of job opportunities open to those with mathematical training. In addition to providing case studies of individuals who use mathematics in their work, the project will also have a career management component designed to help graduate students successfully conduct job searches in business, industry, and government. As in other areas of science, new mathematics PhDs have faced a tough job market the past few years. But the present job outlook is not the only reason for establishing this program. "The job crisis is a motivator," Rankin explains, "but our intent is that this project will become institutionalized and not just disappear in a few years." Crowley added, "We see this as a valuable part of what the two societies offer in the way of employment services. It will be a long-term, continuing resource that will be there to assist the community." For More Information, Please Contact: Allyn Jackson (401) 455-4109 office (401) 455-4004 fax axj@math.ams.org Gail Corbett (215) 382-9800 office (215) 386-7999 fax corbett@siam.org ____________________________________________________________ Item #5 Professional Development: Writing Papers Due to a computer snafu, this article could not be sent in by the deadline for last week's Concerns. I will try and get the next one out by next week though. This is the second article of a continuing series on professional development. Let me briefly say that in the last article I mistakenly gave the impression that I would not be discussing teaching and committee work in this series. There will be such articles, just at a later date. Currently, I am looking for qualified people to write such articles (or at least to help me write them). Unfortunately, such things take time. In this article, I want to give suggestions on publishing papers. The article consists of my own opinions. Nothing said should be taken as anything more than that. Other people will have other (and probably better) suggestions. If you have some, send them on to me, and I will get them out. After I finished my thesis, I had gotten burnt out on the topic. This is not uncommon. It is fine to feel this way, but don't let it stop you from getting your thesis written up for publication as quickly as possible. It is much easier to write your thesis up while it is still fresh in your mind than a year later when you haven't thought about it at all. One idea that some people advise is that when you write your thesis, you should make every effort to write as much of it as possible in an article form. This usually involves putting any material you would not include in an article into a separate chapter. Then when it comes time to write up your thesis, you write up a new introduction and cut out the material that is unneeded. This approach has many advantages, but a few words of caution must be given. First of all, there are many mathematicians who feel quite strongly that this is not how it should be done. If the referee feels this way, he may subtly hold this against your paper. Also, be sure that you have taken out all of the inappropriate material from your thesis. A second disadvantage is that a thesis is different from a paper, and occassionally these differences are hard to edit out. What can happen is that your final paper reads badly because of the editing job. On the other hand, there are several advantages to this approach. Since your advisor has (presumably) read through your thesis, the odds are better that the mathematics is correct. If you rewrite your arguments or try to improve on them, there is a chance that you will add false statements to the paper. Of course, you also save some time and trouble by not having to rewrite your thesis all together. One of the most important parts of any paper is the introduction. Most mathematicians will read the introduction of a paper to see what the paper proves, to see whether it is of any use to them, and to see whether the result or techniques are interesting enough to merit reading through the whole paper. The introduction of the paper is also what an editor is likely to read when deciding who should referee it. If your introduction does not make clear what the paper is about, you may find that the editor will choose a referee that is inappropriate. I state this last from painful experience. I once sent out a paper with a very bad introduction and paid for it. The first referee at the first journal panned the paper. Later after rewriting the introduction and making other minimal changes, the paper was accepted by another (more prestigious) journal. The above make it pretty clear what the introduction needs to do. Your main results should be clearly stated in the introduction. This doesn't mean you have to state them in fullest generality. Rather, if a slightly stronger than necessary hypothesis makes the theorem a whole lot easier to state, you can state it that way in the introduction. In this case, however, you should mention that you actually prove a stronger result. The introduction should also put the paper in some kind of perspective for the reader. Mention similar results others have obtained, and if your paper answers a problem raised elsewhere, be sure to mention this. The point is that you need to motivate your paper. One hopes the referee will know the motivation behind the result, but it doesn't always happen. Journals want to publish papers that are of interest. Without motivation, the interest of your paper is unclear. For example, suppose you are writing a paper on solving a particular equation in number theory, but the reason you want to solve it comes from finite group theory. It is possible your paper will be refereed by a number theorist who will find the result boring. Thus, you need to explain the interest to group theorists. At least in this case, the editor will know who to contact if the referee questions the motivation. Another important aspect of paper writing is knowing your audience and writing to them. By this I mean that your paper should be different if you are writing for a general audience instead of for complex analysts. An MAA Monthly paper should be written differently from a paper submitted to Math Annalen. A paper in the College Journal of Mathematics should probably be written differently from a paper in the Monthly. Also, if you are writing a paper in analysis that has applications in number theory, try and write it so a number theorist can read it. There are two reasons for this. The obvious one is that you want your results used. If no number theorist can understand your paper, you make it harder for them to use it. The second reason is that your paper might get refereed by a number theorist, and if the referee has trouble reading it, life is a lot more difficult. After you have written the paper, you should show it to colleagues (and your mentor) if you have one. They usually will have some very good suggestions as to how to improve it, and will find the places where you should add some detail. You should also make sure doubly sure of the mathematics. The refereeing process is not meant to take the place of careful revision by the author. Ultimately, you are judged on the results in the paper, and you take the heat for an incorrect proof. I have found it helpful to put a paper aside for two to four weeks after writing it, and then go back and edit it again. This way, I find out what was really obvious and what wasn't. Usually, when writing a paper, I am so immersed in the subject that I don't even realize that something that is obvious to me is not obvious to others. When I go back to the paper, I discover these problems. On occassion, I even discover errors that these jumps cause. Most of the time, one month doesn't mean much to a paper in the grand scheme of things. What you want to avoid, however, is having a paper in the revising stage for a year. Hence, at some point you have to send off the paper even if you haven't yet gotten the very best result you could hope for. I don't mean that you should send off inconsequential results, but rather, don't hold off publishing that major result just because you might be able to weaken the hypothesis still further in another six months. I believe Paul Halmos has written a very good article on writing mathematics, but unfortunately I have not been able to track it down. I hope one of the readers knows the reference and will send it along to me. Then I will mention it in the next issue.* As far as disseminating your work, you should probably create a preprint list. This is a list of mathematicians who are interested in your field. The idea is that you send preprints of your papers to these mathematicians. This way they know what you have done and what you are working on. It provides one way to try to prevent duplication of mathematics. Also, this is a very good way to find out about other ideas. I once sent a preprint out and received a reply asking how these techniques might work on a problem in another paper. Since I didn't know the other paper existed, I hadn't known about this problem. It turned out that the techniques were exactly what I needed to solve this problem. While I didn't get another paper out of this, I did improve the paper I had. The last comment to make is that you need to write up your results, but you also need to continue doing research. If you take a year to write up your thesis and haven't been doing research at the same time, then you could be in big trouble come tenure time (at universities requiring research for tenure). Keep working on improvements on your thesis, and also try to branch out. If you are lucky, your thesis will lead to a bunch of other papers, but if you are unlucky, your thesis might lead up a blind alley. In this case, it is important to have other avenues of research started. Curtis Bennett cbennet@falcon.bgsu.edu [*Editor's Note: There are many resources to consult about mathematical writing. Below I list three, I believe that the Halmos article that Prof. Bennett refers to is reprinted in #2. Number 3 is, strictly speaking, not just about writing mathematics, but communicating mathematics-- it's witty, learned, and highly recommended: 1. Mathematical Writing, Donald Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, Paul Roberts, MAA Notes Series, No. 14, 1989. 2. Writing Mathematics Well, Leonard Gillman, MAA 1988. 3. Can We Make Mathematics Intelligible?, R.P. Boas, Amer Math Monthly, Dec 1981, pp. 727-731.] _____________________________________________________________ Item #6 Comments on the YMN Charter THE ORIGINAL PURPOSES The Young Mathematicians' Network (YMN) is: i) a mathematicians' group keeping the mathematical community honest about the job market and its future; ii) a group providing information about job searches from both the inside and the outside; iii) a support group for those on the job market; iv) a group providing information on publishing, grant proposals, obtaining industry jobs, and other things which many of us did not get in graduate school; and, v) a group to inform the mathematical community of the interests and concerns of the younger mathematicians. How has YMN evolved? How will it continue to evolve? The first question we can answer, the second question, well, we can control what happens there. Let us start this examination by revisiting the original purposes of YMN. i) maintaining honesty: just as I thought that it is generally accepted that there are problems, I ran into an old professor I knew from Virginia who told me to just hang in there, things will certainly get better. I won't deny that they might get better, but I believe it will not happen if his opinions dominate. The need to maintain honesty will always exist, but how do we do we win over the holdouts? (The article in NEWSWEEK last week must have helped). One suggestion made a couple of months ago in *Concerns* was to get mathematical sciences departments to keep track of their own graduates for 10 years after they graduate. Because of the expense, there is no serious tracking of Ph.D.s after their initial year out. If each department were to keep track of its graduates, perhaps the reality of the market will hit closer to home, and each department will know better how to prepare their students. Additionally, they can be more honest about the prospects with their potential graduate students. So how do we get departments to do such surveys? Anyone want to write a draft of a resolution encouraging such surveys? I am to be on the Committee on Employment Opportunities after January, perhaps I can get the JCEO's endorsement on such a resolution. Or we can simply get an ally on the Council to sponsor it and petition the Council to pass it. ii) providing information: the highest praises of YMN that I hear are on our success on these points. I don't know if we have done as well in this, the second year of existence. But this is probably because not that much has changed in the process from last year (except for the existence of the AMS cover sheet). Perhaps we can get a WWW page, either the current one at Georgia Tech or a new one if need be, that points to the old articles. To point at the old articles and not the whole old newsletters will take some work. While we are at it, YMN should get the WWW page to point at the articles that exist at other sites, namely at the e-math gopher. Also needed is someone who will update the index at the Kentucky archive and maintain it. Other ideas? What do people want to know that has not been published? If it is not something YMN can "handle", realize that YMN does have some respect and some of its members have connections. If the information is needed, I think we can convince the AMS, MAA, SIAM or other organization to use its resources to get answers and publish them in their newsletters or journals. The potential exception, of course, is the information that can only be obtained by expensive surveys. Even then, if it can be justified . . . . iii) support group: I have felt that this is our biggest failing. Perhaps our current formats are not right to do this well. Suggestions are welcome on this one; should we even keep trying? Or is my perception wrong, have we had success on this one? You tell me. Perhaps a way to become more of a support group would be to find ways of like-situated people to get together, either over Internet, or, in large metro areas, face to face. Those of you in graduate school or with a job in a department with a graduate program probably already have your support groups, but is something needed for the rest of us? iv) filling the gaps left by graduate school: I feel this is somehow the neglected purpose of YMN. Curt Bennett should be praised for his Herculean attempt to get YMN to meet this one. Some information has been made available on obtaining industry jobs, and the AMS has heard us on this need (see recent Notices and check out the e-math gopher for old articles). We still need more help on this one from more established mathematicians. v) informing the community: some people are very informed, but there are still pockets of ignorance. Probably overdue is compiling an e-mail alias/list of professional society officers (at least if it exists and is available to YMN, I don't know about it). I should mention that word is that someone on the AMS staff whom I won't name sends highlights of CYM to all AMS officers; I don't know if the same is true of MAA and SIAM. If we find out it is not so, perhaps someone could weekly pick out appropriate articles to send to MAA and SIAM officers. As for more general audiences, I am under the impression that it is fairly easy to get articles into the Notices, provided it fits within the defined purpose of the Notices. I don't know if the same thing is true of Focus or SIAM News. I should mention here that SIAM News occasionally reprints or excerpts CYM articles. How else can we reach the general community? NEW PURPOSES The old purposes are quite broad, but should there be new purposes? Should some items covered by the old purposes be stated more explicitly? Should the purposes be restated in a new way? To consider: *Should YMN have as a stated purpose the desire to get junior mathematicians more involved in the professional societies? This sounds like a means to an end; what would the explicit end be? Or is increased representation/voice/activity an end itself? *(really a subitem of above) Should YMN be trying to increase the number of junior mathematicians on professional society committees? Again, is this the end, or would this be the means to some end? (By the way, I would be interested in compiling a list of junior mathematicians on various committees of the professional societies. If you are on a committee and consider yourself a junior or young mathematician, please let me know.) *Should YMN take more definite stances on "political issues"? (Personal opinion on this one: NO!) *There probably are purposes that you can come up with that I think are covered by the old purposes. What are they? FORMATS: YMN currently has a weekly newsletter. OK, a 35-40 times per year newsletter, an ftp site and a WWW page. What changes, if any, are to be done to this in order to serve our purposes? I sense that the current pace of newsletters is perhaps close to ideal, despite the slowness of conversations and discussions. It has the advantage of not overburdening people's e-mailboxes, it is easily archived, and it keeps costs down for those who pay for their e-mail by the piece. In brief, I think it is the most universally accessible, yet cheap, method of regular communication available. My opinion, one I know some others agree with, is that it should remain the primary form of communication. Not being a regular user of the WWW page, I don't know what can be done there except that which is mentioned above. Suggestions? As for the ftp site, I believe there is a need for someone to regularly update the index of articles to be found in the newsletters there. What of establishing newsgroups? Certainly, it should not replace any of the above: it would be harder to archive, would be less accessible, would increase the expense of participation for some YMNers, difficult to prevent flamewars (or if moderated, increases burdens on volunteers), etc. But perhaps we can supplement current communications in other ways? One possibility that puts together some things I have heard from others, along with being an avenue to do things some have mentioned they would like to see, is a newsgroup that could be called sci.math.jobhunters, or alt.jobhunters.math. What would we do with it? Things inappropriate for our other forums, of course! Things like: i) sharing vitae, resumes, etc. for the purposes of examples and critiquing. Doing this in the newsletter would make it incredibly long. Perhaps someone would post their resume for industry and ask for a critique? (Some schools are isolated, so this hypothetical someone might not have anyone to critique properly.) The point wouldn't be to hope that someone sees it and offers an interview, rather, to help one another write better application materials. ii) share tips of limited interest. Perhaps I found out of a company in the D.C. area that is expanding and looking for mathematicians with a certain background. This would be of interest of only a limited handful of readers who want to work in industry in the D.C. area. Alt.jobhunters.math would be a much more appropriate forum than the newsletter for this. iii) asking for help/networking. I had hoped the newsletter would be a forum for this, but it hasn't happened. Perhaps alt.jobhunters.math would work. Perhaps with a newsgroup, YMN can become more of a support group. Again, a newsgroup should not and MUST NOT replace anything done elsewhere, but SUPPLEMENT everything else. It is less accessible, and takes more skill to use than the newsletter. (There are some technophobes who struggle to handle e-mail in order to receive the newsletter. No, not me.) Your turn. What do you think? Reply to me or directly to the newsletter. I will compile comments sent to me for the newsletter. Mark W. Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Centreville, VA _____________________________________________________________ Item #7 First survey of 1994-1995 job candidates The following is a survey, the first of three, conducted by the Young Mathematician's Network (YMN). Please submit any questions you have regarding completion of this survey to: Kevin Charlwood e-mail: kec1@bradley.bradley.edu. We are conducting this survey in part because the AMS-IMS-MAA Annual Survey is perhaps giving misleading information, in particular with regard to those we consider to be under- employed, i.e., the Annual Survey lumps together part-timers, temporaries, tenure-trackers, and those given charity positions at their PhD-granting institution and calls them all employed. It would help all of us if those of you who are currently searching could give us the details of your search, so that we can tabulate meaningful data and publish it in the CoYM. Please answer each question if possible; if a particular item is "not applicable", so indicate. Please note that all the individual responses will be kept confidential, and only the overall tabulated results of this survey will be published. If you are currently applying for positions in the mathematical sciences, please take a few moments to complete the survey below, and e-mail your responses to Kevin. I. Education: This section is designed to give our readers an idea how many people are applying, and from which schools. Where numbers are solicited, give the best approximation you can with the information you have available. 1. Name of your Ph.D. granting institution: ___________________________ 2. Current size of graduate student body in mathematics: ______________ (a) Number who are TA's: ___________ (b) Number who are research fellows: ________ (c) Number who are both TA's AND fellows: ________ (d) Number who fit none of categories (a)-(c): _____ 3. Current size of faculty in mathematics: ________ (a) Full-time faculty: __________ (b) Part-time/adjunct: __________ (Please approximate, if not known.) 4. Major field of study: ___________________ AMS MR code: ___________ Secondary field(s): _____________________ AMS MR code(s): _________ 5. Number of semester hours of graduate work (700+ level): _____________ (Indicate the number of credit hours you have taken at ALL institutions you have attended for GRADUATE credit.) If quarter hours, answer here instead: ___________ 6. Number of semester hours of graduate work in your specialty: ________ If quarter hours, answer here instead: ___________ 7. Ranking of overall quality of your program (AMS rank): ______________ (ie., top 20 school, etc.) 8. (a) Highest degree obtained to date: _________ (b) If the answer to (a) is "Ph.D." or its equivalent, please indicate when you obtained it: __ 9. Indicate the number of your publications, including collaborative efforts to date. (a) Number of publications in preparation: ________ (b) Number of publications submitted for pub.: _____ (c) Number of publications accepted for pub.: ______ II. Employment: This section is designed to find out your recent employment history. 1. State your current position title: _______________ 2. Indicate whether your position is full-time, part-time, etc.: ______________________________ 3. When does your current contract expire: __________ 4. Do you expect a contract renewal at your present place of employment (yes/no): ____________ 5. How many years have you been employed in your current position: _______ 6. Indicate your most recent position title, before your current position, if applicable: ___________ III. Employment sought: This section will help determine which type(s) of employment individuals are currently seeking. 1. Indicate the primary type of position you would most like to obtain in this search: _____________ 2. If the answer to (1) involves academia, rank the following in order of importance to you, in terms of your present goals: (a) Tenure-track ______________ Rank from 1 to (b) Postdoctoral ______________ 5, with 1 being (c) Visiting Post ______________ the highest. (d) Temp.: 2+ yr. ______________ (e) Temp.: 1 yr. ______________ 3. If the answer to (1) involves academia, indicate here whether you're more interested in a teaching or a research position: ______________ 4. If the answer to (1) involves academia, indicate what type of institutions you're mainly applying to (choose from 2-year, 4-year, MS/MA granting, Ph.D. granting): ________________________ 5. If your answer to (1) DOES NOT involve academia, indicate here which type of work you're attempting to find; be as specific as possible (i.e., government work-NSA, or financial sector, etc.): ____________________________________________ 6. Have you gone through a major application process before this: (yes/no) _____________ 7. If the answer to (6) was "yes", indicate how many times, when you searched, the type(s) of jobs you sought, and how many applications you sent out: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ 8. If you are not a U.S. citizen, indicate here your visa status: _______________________________________ 9. How many applications do you currently envision sending out during this search: ________________ 10. (Optional) Indicate your age: ______________ Indicate your gender: ___________ Thanks for participating. Send your response to: Kevin Charlwood kec1@bradley.bradley.edu ___________________________________________________________ Item #10 The Young Mathematicians' Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@s.ms.uky.edu Nancy Wilson nwilson@stmarys-ca.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Emil Volcheck Emil.Volcheck@risc.uni-linz.ac.at Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Vic Perera vperera@silver.ucs.indiana.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu Bob Dobrow dobrow@cam.nist.gov Kevin Charlwood kec1@bradley.bradley.edu Lyle Cochran address change pending Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Wendy Brunzie brunzie@turing.ucdavis.edu Curtis Bennett cbennet@andy.bgsu.edu Frank Arlinghaus frank@math.ysu.edu Edward Aboufadel aboufade@scus1.ctstateu.edu _______________________________________________________________ End of Journal -- Next week: The Discussion Continues