Job Application Materials
Navigating the job market can be stressful. Here is a brief rundown of what you need and what you need to do. A great resource for job-seekers is the AMS Job Hunt page. It includes much more detailed information than we cover here.
Portfolio
Academic jobs require several standard items. Click on each title for more information.
| MathJobs.org Account
Create an account on mathjobs.org. This is the central repository for
academic jobs in math: the vast majority of academic jobs are posted on
mathjobs and you can apply here directly. All of your materials will be
uploaded to mathjobs, as will your letter writers'
recommendations.
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| Curriculum vitae
List your education, professional
preparation, and any papers and publications (even if your application includes a separate
publication list). You should include only pertinent educational and job
experience. If you do not yet have publications, you can list expository
notes, drafts, and projects in preparation. Be judicious in listing
personal information, and (for jobs in the US) avoid including things
like marital status, children, age, etc.
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| Research Statement
Explain your thesis
research and any previous work and briefly describe some of your
research plans. The page limit for the NSF Postdoc is 5 pages, and this
is a standard limit for most jobs.
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| Teaching Statement
Describe your experience
in the classroom and your approach to teaching. This is a forum to
explain your teaching philosophy, but the most successful are grounded
in specific classroom experiences. For research postdocs, the usual
length is a page. For liberal arts jobs, the teaching statement is often
longer.
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| Cover Letter
Briefly spell out your
background and qualifications for a job. Cover letters should be
somewhat tailored for each individual job, and, if possible, should indicate specific people at
the institution with whom you would be interested in interacting.
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| Publication List
Enumerate all of your papers. If
you have not yet published any, then you may list work in preparation
and expository works. Any drafts you feel comfortable sharing should be
on your website. Completed works (ready for publication or wide
distribution) should be put on the ArXiv.
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| Personal Website
People at schools to which you
apply will Google you. Control what they see by having a professional
website.
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Academic jobs will require 3-5 letters of recommendation, 1-2 of which address teaching. One should be from your thesis advisor, and another from your postdoctoral advisor, if you are in a postdoctoral position; the remaining letters should be from people who have had an opportunity to examine your work. Your teaching letter should be from a faculty member who observes your class. Make sure to
- Ask prospective letter writers early, ideally months before you begin applying.
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Provide letter writers with a list of schools to which you are applying and their deadlines. This will help them get their letters in on time.
- Give letter writers copies of your CV and statements when you have them.
For your teaching letter, you should consider asking someone to observe your teaching in the Spring semester before you go on the job market or at the latest, early in the Fall semester of your final year.
When making your list of schools to which you will apply, spend some time thinking about the faculty at the various institutions. If you know anyone there or if there are people whose work aligns with yours, you should contact them. Say that you are applying for a job at their institution and mention briefly your research interests and how they might mesh. There are many applicants for each position in general, and small touches like this can help your application stand out.
Increasingly, universities and colleges are requiring submission of applications through institution-specific web portals. There are now (paid) services like Dossier Deliver (by interfolio from Elsevier) that can help you manage your application materials, including centralized confidential upload of letters of recommendation.
Online Profile
Your website is the basis of your profile on the web.
Prospective employers will use this to look at your academic and job materials. These days,
you must have a website, even if you are not looking for a new job.
Your university will usually host a page for you, or you can choose to use something like
Google Sites. Free templates are easily available (for example
Free CSS Templates), or you can simply “steal” the code from a page that you like. Of course, in the latter case, one should attribute the source.
Academic pages for researchers on the market have a fairly standard format.
| Main Page
Briefly describe your current position and
include links to your job materials here. For early career researchers, it's typical to say who your advisor is and
perhaps a bit about your working group. It's common to include
a picture, and some researchers choose to share some personal hobbies.
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| Research Page
Include any papers,
preprints, and drafts you are comfortable sharing. You can also include
expository works that flesh out your profile. A brief summary of your
research and findings should also go here.
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| Teaching Page
Include a list of your
courses along with links to any publically accessible course pages. You
can/should give a brief description of the classes, rather than simply including a
list.
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You should also include in your webpage some tracking / analytical cookies. This will help you gauge interest by seeing from where traffic comes. Google Analytics is a free, simple to use system that gives great data.
You should make sure to post any preprints ready for publication to the ArXiv. Some people also choose to add to their online profile by maintaining portfolios on ResearchGate or LinkedIn. If you choose to start a portfolio in one of these online venues, you should make sure that you keep it updated!
Liberal Arts Colleges
If you are applying to liberal arts jobs, you should have more data available to make a case for your teaching prowess. You should craft a teaching portfolio including
| Teaching Evaluations
Summarize these in a table.
Presenting data in a more user-friendly format (for example giving
percentages of 4s and 5s rather than the average score can have a bigger
impact) makes it more readable.
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| Syllabi
Include a sampling of course
syllabi you have written, especially those for courses referenced in
your teaching statement.
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Outside Resources and Job Lists
There are several websites dedicated to helping you navigate the job search and to providing lists of jobs in the mathematical sciences.