*Concerns of Young Mathematicians* Volume 3, Issue 3 Jan. 25, 1995 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 Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu , editor for the month of January. Next issue: Wednesday, 1 February. December Editor: Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu January Editor: Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu February Editor: Nancy Wilson nwilson@stmarys-ca.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://ejc.math.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 notes 2 Saving Costs on Meetings. 3 What to Expect at an Interview -- An Updated Version 4 Wanted: Electronic Job Search Stories 5 Where to get the typesettable AMS cover sheet 6 Addition to YMN Archive: On Mathematical Writing 7 Meeting the Needs of CYM Readers 8 Closing Credits _______________________________________________________________ Item #1 Editor's notes: My comments for this week aren't that much different than last week's, except to say that it has been an interesting month of editing. I hope Nancy Wilson at nwilson@stmarys-ca.edu has as much fun at it over February as I have had during January. -- Matt Hudelson, hudelson@math.washington.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #2 by Thomas Berger (submitted by Charles Yeomans) Saving Costs on Meetings. Frank Sottile recommends YMCA type accommodations. There are other alternatives which are more expensive but have certain advantages. There are certain motel chains which offer low cost accommodation. Motel Six and Econolodge are two such chains. Their motels are usually not close to city centers where conferences are held. However, the following package is one I have used for almost a decade now: rent a car for a week (about $100). Reserve at a cheap motel (about $30/night). Use street lot parking near the convention center (ranges from $3-$10 per day depending upon the city). I have found I always come in with a lower budget than using convention hotels. ==================================================================== Thomas R. Berger |University of Minnesota|(612) 625-3042 Professor |206 Church Street |(612) 626-2017 (fax) School of Mathematics|Minneapolis, MN 55455 |tom@math.umn.edu ==================================================================== _______________________________________________________________ Item #3 by Curtis Bennett What to Expect at an Interview -- An Updated Version This article is an update of an article I wrote a year ago for the Concerns (Vol. 2, Issue 6, #5) about on-campus interviews. I have been through four on campus interviews in the last three years, in which I received 1.75 offers. The .75 of an offer arose from a case where the money for the position dried up after my interview. This by no means makes me an expert, and I don't want to pass myself off as such. These are just comments by somebody who has been there and is now on the other side. As a further remark, some of these comments may only be appropriate for an interview with a research university. Last year, I also participated in the process from the other side, making decisions about who to hire. This brought me some new incite which I will try and include in parenthetical remarks. What to expect at an interview: In general, you will be meeting with a large number of people in one day. A short list of some of the people you should expect to see: 1. Department Chair. 2. Dean. 3. Hiring Committee. 4. Vice President in charge of research (at research schools). 5. Faculty in your area. There will be others that you are likely to see depending on where you are interviewing. You will also be taken to lunch and dinner. In addition you will be expected to give a talk. Departments are very happy to tell you in advance who you are scheduled to see. Take advantage of this and ask. Comments and Suggestions: Some of the following may be obvious, but I have known several applicants who would have benefitted from them. 0. BEFORE the interview, find out about the research of the people you would work with at the school. You can do this by looking up recent papers in the Math Reviews. This way you show that you have done your homework. Also, it is good to ask members of the department about their mathematical interests. Be careful not to ask the question in a way that implies they should be doing active research. Some members of the department might not be active researchers any more. The phrase 'mathematical interests' is a good one. (This one is extremely important at our school. While you don't have to know exactly what anyone does, you should talk mathematics with people. After all, we are interviewing a potential colleague. This means that I want to know whether I will be able to talk to you about mathematics, curriculum development, or any number of issues of interest to the mathematics department.) 1. Try to be a likeable person. The last thing any department wants is a member who is hard to get along with. In particular, don't insult ANYBODY. Don't insult other fields of mathematics (including math ed., logic, statistics, group theory, etc.). You won't win many friends by ridiculing others, and you never know how the person you are talking to may feel about these fields. In your talk don't play down contributions from other fields or other mathematicians. Again, you might step on somebody's toes. Certainly, if I am in an audience and an analyst tells us that "the only contribution group theory has ever made to mathematics is this small lemma..." I may be disposed to vote against this candidate when decision time comes around. (Collegiality of potential colleagues is a major issue when hiring time comes.) 2. When talking with the dean, be ready to answer if the dean asks you about your research. Assuming this question is stupid won't help your chances. I would have a couple of answers ready to be used depending on whether the dean is in the hard sciences or not. Also, don't assume the dean doesn't know anything about mathematics. This can lead to embarrassment when you find out he was a professor in the math department. Most places will tell you what field the dean is in, so pay attention. At one school, it is the vice president who asks this question, and at small liberal arts schools, this question can be crucial. 3. Find out who the audience will be for your talk. If you prepare a talk for mathematicians and then find out you are talking to a group of faculty members from many different departments, you are in trouble. Some schools want you to talk to undergraduates, some to a subset of the entire faculty, some to the math department faculty. At Bowling Green State, I gave the mathematics colloquium talk at my interview which was intended for graduate students and faculty. I also would be careful that the talk doesn't blow everyone away. If you are talking to a research school, then you can take off at the very end, although I think you should still have a few members of your audience who understand what you are talking about. If you are talking to smaller schools, you are better off if people are following you throughout the talk. At research schools, your talk should be about your research (although you should still check with the chair as to what the audience will be and the breadth of their interests). However, don't begin your talk with: "We are interested in the case where a hemi-semi-quaver-group acts on a right handed spin module..." Give basic definitions, and give motivation. Many of the people in your audience will have little idea where your research fits into the grand scheme of things. Let them know. 4. Lunch and dinner are almost always part of the interview process. Don't forget this. I know of a case where a candidate blew his chances at lunch. If somebody wants to talk about textbooks and classes, don't change the topic. There is certainly time for family chit-chat and the sort, but don't stop people from asking you questions during the meals. 5. My feeling is that you are better off to arrive the night before. At one of my interviews, I was 3 hours late because I had an accident driving to the interview. I missed my meeting with the dean, and basically killed my chances at the job. 6. Of course you should ask questions, and there were some good ones mentioned in Volume 2, #4. But most of all, be yourself. If you try to be someone you aren't, you won't be comfortable, and it will be obvious. This is your chance to see if you would like being at the school, and the school's chance to see if they want you. _______________________________________________________________ Item #4 by Mark Winstead Wanted: Electronic Job Search Stories I was not going to ever post two submissions to the same newsletter again, but ... I am considering the possiblity of writing an article entitled something like "Using electronic services to find a job" for the journal *Employment Information in the Mathematical Sciences*. In preparation, I am looking for stories and anecdotes about successes and failures in using the Internet for job searching. In particular, I would be interested in stories of success following a change in strategy. Some of the particular methods of interest is the electronic posting of resumes to either e-math or one of the usernet groups, contracting a headhunter by an online service, using some online service, etc. Mark W. Winstead mwwinst@qnet.com Centreville, VA _______________________________________________________________ Item #5 by Tom Roby Where to get the typesettable AMS cover sheet In the last article I wasn't clear enough about how to obtain the TeX source for my version of the AMS Cover Sheet which allows one to typeset the entries. It's available via anoymous FTP to ftp.ms.uky.edu, in pub3/mailing.lists/ymn-list/other.info/cover2.tex. (This is the same ftp site where back issues of the YMN newsletter are available; if you prefer to use World Wide Web, please see the information listed before the table of contents.) Tom Roby metis@reed.edu _______________________________________________________________ Item #6 by Charles Yeomans Addition to YMN Archive: On Mathematical Writing We have added to the YMN archive an article by David Goss of Ohio State on mathematical writing, which he based on hints and advice from J-P. Serre. The file is writing.tex.Z, and is in the subdirectory other.info. Charles Yeomans ______________________________________________________________ Item #7 by Mark Winstead Meeting the Needs of CYM Readers Disclaimer: the opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the YMN adminstrative board. Recently, there seems to be low response rate to any survey placed in these pages. I announced one in December, and got all of about 5 responses. I was tempted to repeat it, figuring it was December when I did it, but decided against it. However, one part of the survey that I would like to revisit had to do with meeting our readers' needs. Already there is a "child" network of YMN starting, one that addresses the needs of a subgroup of young mathematicians that might not interest everyone. I have heard complaints that *Concerns* is too academically oriented, or too PhD oriented, or too job hunting oriented, or ... , so others might attempt to follow suit. Some would have us attempt to meet all needs, while others think doing so would make YMN and/or the newsletter too cumbersome. Certainly, all these pressures will influence the evolution of your network, YMN, and your newsletter, CYM. What ever happens, I hope that YMN will serve as an umbrella organization for it all. Perhaps much of *Concerns* will be a digest of what appears in the communication of the subgroups. Many of those among the "powers that be" read *Concerns* in order to have a finger on the pulse of the junior mathematical community. We would only make it more difficult to influence the PTB if *Concerns* doesn't reflect in some way the junior mathematical community, not just a portion of it, for no one would be able to monitor all the potential subgroups. However, to do so will take the efforts of all of us. INDUSTRY JOBSEEKERS MAKE NOTE: With that said, let me mention that there is a possibility that one of the professional societies will be starting a new, probably moderated, mailing list for those seeking jobs in industry. I have discussed the possiblity of such with someone involved in the Sloan grant mentioned in the Dec/Jan issue of the Notices and announced also in the pages of CYM. The list would be for those doing research into going into industry (finding out about certain companies, finding companies that need their skills, etc.), for networking, for advice, etc. Certainly, anything of general interest could be reposted in this newsletter you are reading. However, it is not certain that such a list will be started. What might eventually be needed is proof of some interest. So far, by other means, I have compiled a short list of interested mathematicians. If you would like your name added to the list, let me know. AND ANY MORE IDEAS? The professional societies officers and staff on occasion ask some of us in YMN for ideas on how they can help the junior community. Some of us are on committees, others have made friends in the right places. I hope I speak for all of us when I say please continue to post your thoughts and ideas to this newsletter; you never know who's reading. Mark W. Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Centreville, VA ______________________________________________________________ Item #8 The Young Mathematicians Network is administered by: Charles Yeomans cyeomans@ms.uky.edu Mark Winstead mwwinst@gcr.com Nancy Wilson nwilson@stmarys-ca.edu Emil Volcheck Emil.Volcheck@risc.uni-linz.ac.at Frank Sottile sottile@math.toronto.edu Vic Perera vperera@math.ohio-state.edu Franklin Mendivil mendivil@math.gatech.edu Kevin Madigan madigan@math.nwu.edu Leigh Lunsford lunsford@math.uah.edu Steve Kennedy skennedy@mathcs.carleton.edu Matt Hudelson hudelson@math.washington.edu Bob Dobrow dobrow@cam.nist.gov Lyle Cochran address change pending Kevin Charlwood kec1@bradley.bradley.edu Neil Calkin calkin@math.gatech.edu Wendy Brunzie brunzie@mathfs.math.montana.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