Hunting for a Job in Math Academia: Job Interview Advice

Preface: I first wrote this web page in April/May of 1997, after finishing my Ph.D. in math and successfully searching for a job. I had five on-campus job interviews that semester which resulted in one tenure-track offer (at Merrimack College, which I took) and one visiting position offer (which I turned down).

That was over 10 years ago, and since then I've applied for a few other jobs (when thinking about relocating for personal reasons) and been on several search committees at Merrimack.

Also, the academic job market in mathematics has fluxuated since 1997. For example, in 96-97 I think there were only about 50-60 employers interviewing at the AMS/MAA Joint Meetings. At the 2001 Joint Meetings there were something like 150. At the 2007 Joint Meetings there were 129. (The AMS reports this data every year.) Thus, the advice here might not be entirely applicable, and those on the market should gather data (like how many employers there are interviewing at the Joint Meetings this year) to get some kind of idea about how tight or loose the job market is. Then one can modify any advice (like this web page) accordingly. For example, if there seem to be a larger number of jobs this year, and if you get a job offer early (say, in January or even December), then there's a very good chance that you'll get other offers later. Thus, you might want to only take the early job offer if you think the school is a good fit for you. In any case, be aware that the following "advice" was mostly written in 1997, when the job market was pretty bad.

The academic job application process is enormously intense. If you're about to undertake it, there's lots to learn. If you've recently gone through it, there's lot of advice that can be shared.

Many people who embark on this journey start with the opinion, "If I could only get some interviews, I'll be all set!" While this is a comforting thing to think at the start, one needs to keep in mind that a lot of preparation goes into a successful job interview. In many ways it represents your indoctrination into the politics of academic departments and administrations. This can be very intimidating, if not downright depressing. But a bit of forethought can go a long way.

This article presents advice and strategies that I picked up during my first job hunt, subsequent job searches, and having been on the other side of the table as a search committee member. It represents tips collected from a myriad of faculty, fellow grad students, and friends both in and outside the mathematical community. I hope you find it useful.

For more information on the job application process as a whole, see the web site of the Young Mathematicians Network. Also, there was a great MAA Project NExT Panel Discussions on An Introduction to the Hiring Process: Preparation, Execution, and Follow-up which includes a lot of advice, both for jobs-seekers and employers. I highly recommend it.

Note: This overview is written from the perspective of someone whose aim was to land a job at a liberal arts teaching college or university. While much of the advice given here is universal, those who want to shoot for a research-based career path should modify these suggestions for their own needs.

• Give a talk at the meeting - just a 10 minute one (or more, if you can!), preferably on your dissertation research. The deadline for submitting a talk abstract is usually in September or October, but there are over 1000 talks at this meeting, so you won't likely be rejected. Schools that are interested in you WILL come to your talk, so keep it fun and simple, especially if you're trying to attract liberal arts schools.
  And practice giving your talk beforehand! Get together with fellow grad students and have everyone (even those not on the market) practice giving a Joint Meetings talk. 10 minutes is almost no time - it flies by fast. There's definitely an art to giving a good 10 minute talk. You have to be very careful to not try to squeeze too much in, but also make it clear that there's lots more you could talk about if you had more time. Usually all you want to do is (1) concisely state the problem area you're working in, hopefully with a gimmick or motivation to get their attention, (2) state your main result, (3) maybe summarize the proof, but this is often omitted because of the lack of time. Only outline a proof if you have an easy way to describe the main strategy. And (4) state future directions your research can go. That's it. We're talking maybe 5 transparencies (or 7-9 PowerPoint slides), no more. You won't have time for more than that, unless you want to be incomprehensible and look paniced.
• Email schools beforehand, letting them know that you'll be at the meeting and that you'd love to talk with them if they could spare the time. Only do this with schools you are really interested in, though. Sometimes you can pick up "unofficial" interviews this way with people who plan on being at the meeting, but won't be doing formal interviews there. Remember - it can't hurt you to let the school know you're interested!
• Should you sign up for the employment register? It costs $44, but if you do this then you'll be guaranteed to have at least a few interviews. It also means your name and information will be included in the "list of job-seekers" book that the AMS produces.
  But before you do this be aware that there are three types of Joint Meetings interviews: Employment Register interviews are the "cattle call" interviews, typically only 10-15 minutes long, where applicants and employers submit a list of their top choices and the AMS uses a computer to do a matching to schedule brief interviews. If this is the first time you're on the job market, you might want to consider this, but it is by no means an ideal environment to conduct an interview or to be interviewed. Interview Center interviews, on the other hand, are self-scheduled by the employer. The employer pays for a table in the Interview Center area and contacts job candidates beforehand (usually in the month of December) to schedule 20-30 minute interviews. This is a much more relaxed setting and allows enough time to actually learn something about each other. Other Interviews are done by schools who choose not to pay for an Interview Center table. Instead they hold them elsewhere in the conference area, often among the tables nearby the Message Board (which is usually a convenient meeting place). These can be even more relaxed than the Interview Center interviews, and sometimes last for more than 30 minutes.
  These last two types of interviews, however, only happen if a college or university contacts you beforehand. (Or if you email a school to express interest and they agree to meet with you.) Thus, signing up for the Employment Register will guarantee that you get to speak with at least a few schools. You can also use the Message Board to leave notes for search committee members of schools you'd like to talk with, but this is hit-or-miss, since they might not have the time or inclination to squeeze you into their schedule.
• When applying for jobs, state in your cover letter that you'll be at this meeting. That way schools scheduling their own interviews will know you'll be there. Don't worry about these outside interviews conflicting with interviews you might get through the employment register - you'll be able to reschedule any conflicts. (Again, use the message board.)
• Dress: When I first wrote this article, I got the most critical feedback for this one item. The subject of how to dress, both for the Joint Meetings and for campus interviews, can be touchy. So let me state my recommendations as "rules-of-thumb" which are a bit contradictory, but which will hopefully help you understand what you should do.
  
  Rule-of-thumb 1: It's better to err on the side of over-dressing. You'll see candidates wearing everything from full suits to nice-shirt-tie-and-sports-jacket suits, to people who obviously have no clue and wear a suit with tube socks and sandals. (I kid you not!)
  
  Rule-of-thumb 2: Go with whatever makes you feel comfortable, but look nice. If you're the kind of person who NEVER wears a suit, then you will likely look very uncomfortable suddenly walking around for a full day a double-breasted worsted wool suit. Guys - wear a tie and jacket. Women - dress slacks are OK.
  
  Rule-of-thumb 3: Some schools really care about how you dress. I'm serious. It can pay to research the schools that you're particularly interested in a bit to see if you should seriously dress up for them. For example, colleges that are primarily business schools (like Bentley College in MA) are often places where the faculty always wear suits. So they'd expect a person on a job interview to look at least as dressed up as they'd be themselves on a typical work day. For such schools, a simple tie-and-jacket might not cut it. You might need a full suit.
  
  Rule-of-thumb 4: Get advice. Don't make the mistake I made, where before the Joint Meetings I went alone to a big mall department store and bought some suits. Go with other people! Bring someone along who actually knows about clothes. Men, shop with some of your grad student colleagues who have fashion sense so they can tell you if you're about to buy something dorky.
  
  Perhaps the best advice on how to dress is to come up with a couple of interview outfits and then show them to friends and fellow grad students. Have an interview fashion show! Make sure you give each other constructive feedback on this. I mean, I still see job candidates making hideous fashion crimes at the Joint Meetings, and it does turn people off. If they had only sought advice from their peers beforehand ... ("Bright turqoise suit that could be used to direct air traffic? No, don't wear that.")
  
  
• If at all possible, go to a Joint Meetings BEFORE you're on the job market! That way you'll be able to check out how it all works. Doing this will increase your confidence and make it so much easier when it comes time for you to do it for real.
• Think about distinctive points in your career profile that you can stress. Anything that makes you stand out from the crowd is golden, and you can take even the most mundane things and put a positive spin on them.

• Tell us about your dissertation.
  Give a 2-3 sentence response and wait to see if they want more.
• What kinds of courses do you want to teach?
  Be specific, but end up by saying that you hope to, with time, teach every course that they offer. This is what most liberal arts colleges want to hear. Don't say things like, "I never want to teach precalculus," as this can be the kiss of death.
• How would you approach teaching basic-level math courses, like precalc or calc?
  Teaching service courses at both 4-year colleges and universities is something many departments take very seriously. If you can say something intelligent in answer to a quesiton like this, you can win big points. This is why, as a graduate student, you should make sure that you get to teach on your own a freshman-level math course, like caclulus, precalculus, or just a general education math course. Having such experiences can able you to answer these questions with experience and possibly even wisdom. In fact, the more teaching experience you can gather as a grad student, the better.
• What do you think of calculus reform and/or teaching technology (i.e., graphing calculators or computer algebra systems)?
  Don't come across as too opinionated. The safe thing to do is say that there are good points to calc reform, but there are problems too. Stress any experience you have with calc reform (i.e., teaching with the Harvard texts) and using technology in the classroom, including computer algebra systems like Maple or Mathematica.
  But also be true to yourself. If you do have strong opinions about teaching with technology, for example, then don't hide them. But don't start ranting unless it's clear that your interviewers agree with you and encourage you to rant.
• How would you describe your teaching style?
  This is a tough one. It stumped me for a minute, because I was like, "Where do I begin?" Go for big things, like how you try to empathize with students, or how you like to have lots of in-class participation, or whatever. Sometimes this question is really asking you to describe what a typical day in class with you is like.
• What distinguishes your teaching from those of your peers?
  Again, try to come up with something original that'll stick in their mind. Do you use lots of group work? Do you make students do problems at the board? Do you use humor in your lecturing? Do you throw candy at the students if they answer questions correctly?
• What salary are you looking for?
  This is a very unfair question. Start off by saying that salary isn't as important to you as location of the school, a department you feel comfortable in, etc. Then say that you'd like 50K, but can be talked down. Try to be vague, but firm. It might not hurt to be humorous: "Heck, I've been making 12K for the past six years, so anything over 30K would be godly!"
  Actually, if anyone asks you this question, the thing to do might be to shrug and say, "Gosh, I don't know..." and then ask them what their college's negotiating policies are. For example, does this job position have a salary range attached to it? They might be able to tell you what the low end of such a range is. Then you can nod and say, "OK." But note that some math departments have very little control over what your salary would be. Often if interviewers ask you the "salary question" it's because they're paranoid -- they think their salaries are low and worry that they wouldn't be able to attract you to their job if you have your heart set on a certain salary.
• What are your research plans beyond the dissertation?
• What do you see yourself doing in the next five years?
  The trick with these questions is to figure out what they want to hear. If they're a small, mainly teaching college, emphasize how you plan on using your research time to develop new teaching techniques, write textbooks, or attend MAA or NCTM conferences. If they're a small college that wants you to continue doing research (i.e., if they have a 3-3 teaching load), say that you plan on continuing to work on problems in your field, but that you hope to get undergraduates interested and involved in your work. If you can, outline your specific research plan, but this will probably be a turn-off for colleges that really emphasize teaching.
  However, you should be honest. I had one interivew where I was asked what percentage of time I expected to spend on research versus teaching. Being naive, I said, "50-50," because that's what it felt like I was doing in grad school. Bad answer. Now that I've been teaching for 10 years at a college that emphasizes teaching, I know that 80% teaching, 20% research is more realistic. And since I was hoping for a "teaching job" I misrepresented my professional wishes when I said, "50-50." (Although now my school, Merrimack, is switching to a 3-3 teaching load, so it will likely morph to 70% or 60% teaching and 30%-40% research.) Remember, the main purpose of an interview is to see if you are a good fit with the school, and you won't be happy at a place which expects a different teaching/research ratio than what you want.

• How large is the faculty? What are you hoping the new member will bring to the faculty? (This may be answered in the job description.) What are the holes in their curriculum that need filling?
• What is the teaching load? What is the student population like in terms of background? Is it a commuting or residential school? What percentage of the math majors go on to grad school?
• How much contact does the math department have with other departments?
• What is the time frame for your search?

• If you get an interview with a school that you're really interested in, research the school heavily beforehand. Dive into the school's web page and see what the math department looks like. Sometimes you can learn a lot about a department's personality from their web page. On the other hand, some math departments have very little control over their department web page (which can be indicative of the school's culture in other ways).
• The interviews at this meeting are short, so every moment counts. Some schools will have a list of questions for you to answer. This can be bad, because it doesn't give you much time to figure out what they want to hear. If at all possible, try to direct the flow of the interview yourself. Start off by asking them questions, like "How large is your department? How many math majors do you have? What careers to they typically pursue upon graduation? How many go on to grad school? What kind of research goes on at your department?" Doing this will give you a feel for what they are like and what they're looking for.
• But don't over-do it! You want to spend most of the interview time talking about yourself! Think about how you might direct the conversation towards positive things about you. Like, if they mention that they like to use graphing calculators, you might reply, "Oh, I agree completely! In fact, while teaching calc and precalc in grad school I used graphing calculators often, and I feel they worked..." If you have control of the conversation, you can direct it and allow yourself to say all the things you want to say. Plus, you're doing them a favor! They want to learn all about you, don't they?
• Don't be afraid to brag about yourself! No, you don't want to come across as an egotist, but don't hesitate to drop references to articles that you published, or names of people that you've worked with, or places you've been, or things you're interested in. You're not supposed to make polite conversation at an interview - you're supposed to talk about yourself, what you've done, and what you're going to do.
• TAKE NOTES! If you're successful, you'll be interviewing with 14 schools or more at the Joint Meetings, and you'll forget people's names and faces. Keep a notebook and scribble down impressions after each interview.
• After the meeting, send "thank you" emails to all the schools that you interviewed with, especially the ones you liked. Keep the notes short, but let them know that you appreciated their time and are interested in their position and would be happy to give them more information.

• Research the school LOTS before you arrive. Ask them to send you a catalogue and course and faculty listings beforehand. (Or look them up on the web.) Study them, learning names and research fields of key people, like the chair and anyone in your research area. Try to memorize names beforehand because you won't be able to retain them during the interview.
• Stock your briefcase, purse, or jacket pockets with snacks and breath mints. They will typically take you out to lunch and dinner, but chances are that you'll be too busy answering questions to digest any food (or too nervous to have an appetite!). Munch on a granola bar when you get a few minutes alone to yourself.
• Travel and lodging will be paid for by the school, but sometimes they ask you to pay up front and reimburse you later.

• What is the department's commitment to quality teaching?
  (OK, that's a really vague question, but if you're interested in being at a school that emphasizes teaching, you want to learn how they support teaching. Do they mentor new faculty? How many different preparations do they typically have each semester? Do they have a teaching discussion group?)
• ** If good teaching is essential for tenure and promotion, how do they evaluate teaching? **
• Is there support money for research leave? Can I get leave if I get an outside grant? Are there matching funds if I do get an outside grant?
• Is there summer travel money? Summer teaching available?
• Is there travel money for conferences?
• What is the quality of the library? Do they get recent books in your field? Do people have access to MathSciNet?
• Is there a department colloquium series? Is there an undergraduate colloquium series? Is there an undergrad math club?
• Do math majors work on research projects with faculty? Is there money available to pay for an undergrad to do research with you? (i.e., work study)
• What kind of computer facilities are available? How (if ever) is technology used in the classroom? Is there a way for you to use Mathematica, Matlab, or a programming language in the classroom if you need to?
• What are the health benefits? Retirement package? (Often a Dean or Human Resources (HR) person will be available to answer questions like that.)

• How is the school faring economically? Any recent cutbacks (if it's a state school)? How big is the school's endowment (if it's a private school)?
• What do you think about the future of tenure? The role of higher education in general?
• Has the student profile changed over the years?
• Do you feel the math department has a good rapport with other departments, like engineering or physics?

• Try to remember that the interview is your chance to check them out, just as much as it is a chance for them to check you out. Go into an interview with the aim of getting as much information out of them as possible. This will make you look more impressive, believe me.
• Again, send a "thank you" email to the department. Emphasize how interested you are in the position. If there's a person in their department who is your fan, and you're feeling bold, send this person a detailed list of reasons why they should hire you - why you're the a great fit for the job. That may sound hard to do, but if you really want the job you'll think of something!

NEGOTIATING

If you get a job offer, usually you'll be contacted by a Dean over the phone and she/he will tell you that you got the job. This is when the "negotiating" phase starts. They should tell you what your starting salary is and offer you other incentives (hopefully) to take the job.

The most important thing to remember at this phase is that you have control now. The school and/or Dean (or even the department chair) will pressure you to commit yourself to the job ASAP. Typically they'll tell you that they're giving you a week to decide. That is, they're putting pressure on you.

But realize that the only reason they're doing this is because they WANT you! So you really are in the driver's seat. Don't let this go to your head, though. You should try to negotiate, but there may be only so much you can do. For instance, you can try to ask for more money, but this will only work if you have another offer in hand which is offering more money. And even then it might not work if the school really can't increase the salary offer. (For example, many schools have starting salary levels "set in stone" because of agreements with their Facuty Senate or something. In such cases, the Dean will not budge.)

But everything should be on the table. First of all, it's not an official job offer unless it's put in writing. Do not let a school pressure you into accepting an offer when you don't have it in writing! In fact, if nothing is in writing it would be entirely acceptable for you to "take" the offer and then keep interviewing with other schools to see if a better offer comes up. Only when you agree and/or sign something in writing are both you and the school fully committed. We've all heard of horror stories where someone was given a job offer which was then taken away when the school suddenly faced a financial crisis. Unless you have a legally binding document guaranteeing you the job, you shouldn't take yourself off the market.

That said, you shouldn't jerk the school around, either. At one extreme, you should NOT agree to take a job and then renege on the offer. If you've actually signed something (or sent an email committing yourself to the job), then the college could press charges for breaking a contract. It might be unlikely, but you would be really screwing that math department over, since they'd have already told their other applicants that the position was filled.

Less extreme would be to try to push the school's "deadline" by weeks and weeks. This is also unfair to the school, since if you make them wait for three weeks and then turn them down, they've probably lost the chance to get their other top candidates.

On the other hand, recently I have heard (circa 2007) that there have been some schools that try to do their campus interviews very early, like in December, so they can make an offer before the Joint Meetings! I think this is incredibly irresponsible. How can a school expect a job candidate to consider an offer before the person has had a chance to even talk to other schools at the Joint Meetings? If you find yourself in the position of getting such an early interview and/or job offer, understand that this means other schools will be very interested in you as well. Only take such an early offer if you really like the school above all other options you could (and probably would) get.

For me, the negotiation phase was one of the most uncomfortable parts of landing a job. In the end I made sure that I would be given the kind of computer I wanted and that my teaching load for the first semester was decent. Salary was not negotiable, and they didn't have any moving expense money they could give me (but that's often a good thing to ask for, especially if you have to move across the country).