Timeline for "Industry"/Government jobs for mathematicians
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 27, 2017 at 6:28 | history | edited | Benoît Kloeckner | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Updated, seven years later.
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| Sep 27, 2017 at 6:08 | comment | added | megaproba | @Pete L. Clark: Sorry, I indeed had a professor from Canada, precisely Quebec. | |
| Sep 27, 2017 at 6:06 | comment | added | megaproba | @Pete L. Clark: "French universities are almost 100% French citizens". Let me just disagree with this statement. I have experienced two French universities one in Paris and one in Province. While it is true that 100% of the faculty speak French. It should be also said that, in addition to French faculty members, there are a lot of top foreign professors. From what I remember: Sweden, Iran, Germany, Italy, Russia, Hungary, China, Maghreb, Czech, Belgium, Chile. It is true that I never seen a professor from the UK, US, Canada or Australia. | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 18:04 | comment | added | Igor Pak | I once tried to figure out the relative value of US vs French salaries and found it exceedingly difficult, mostly due to uncertainties in the US social benefits' costs. Even ignoring the health care costs, the universities have different and hard to calculate pensions (say, UMN very generously paid me extra 13% to my 401K, while MIT paid only 5% but had a separate pension plan). Some universities pay tuition for children, some don't. Often, the salaries tend to lag behind inflation with some full professors getting less than new assistant professors, which makes comparisons even harder... | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 15:08 | comment | added | Ben Webster♦ | I'll just note, the disparity between American and European salaries is understated by Pete's numbers, as money doesn't go as far in France as in the US (roughly 90% as a far according to the OECD). Not to mention that Pete's number for an assistant professor is pretty low if you have any summer support. | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 11:56 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | Upon reflection, I don't want to give the idea that all Americans choose their jobs based on salary considerations. In my case, out of my PhD I had two postdoc offers, one in the US and one in Canada. The US postdoc paid about 50% more than the Canadian postdoc, which in turn was not much more than an NSF graduate fellowship. I took the Canadian one, even though -- as I didn't properly appreciate at the time -- it meant moving to a different country, with all the rigamarole that involves. Although a few Canadian readers may be surprised to hear it, I don't regret my decision. | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 11:49 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | ...As for the figure you have cited for a CNRS salary: I can hardly imagine the American mathematician -- provided only that s/he knows how to convert Euros to dollars -- who will not cringe at the figure you've provided. By way of comparison, every year the NSF offers a number (I don't know the exact number, but it's significantly larger than $2$) of graduate student fellowships: these pay just over 2000 euros a month. The average starting salary of an American assistant professor at a "Research I" university is roughly 4600 euros a month. | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 11:48 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | @Benoît: thanks for your response. I sense you're right that I was overstating things a bit (and certainly you know far better than I): in the last decade the liquidity of students and jobs within the EU has increased considerably. But for an American (or Russian, Japanese, etc.) to get a job in France: that seems like a tall order... | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 7:26 | comment | added | Benoît Kloeckner | @Pete L. Clark: there is also a possibility to be hired in France without speaking French so well (although you should be willing to learn): CNRS offers each year a few positions (one or two !) partly dedicated to attract mathematicians with some experience (typically, four years in academia) from abroad. It is called CR1 (Chargé de recherche de première classe), and like any other position in CNRS there is no teaching load, although you can easily give a course (usually at graduate level) if you want to. The starting salary is something like 2300 euros a month. | |
| Jun 18, 2010 at 7:17 | comment | added | Benoît Kloeckner | @Pete L. Clark: you're right that it seems especially difficult for a young mathematician from abroad to get hired in France without any preliminary contact (and I know at least one case of a very good candidate that is unlikely to be hired this year given her rankings); however, a fair number of successful candidates are, for example, from Italy (I think of candidates that had their PhD there). Concerning the salary, you are perfectly right but it is still sufficient to live quite comfortably, except if you need to find an apartment in Paris. | |
| Jun 17, 2010 at 16:58 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | @Benoît: I cannot help but notice that the faculty at French universities are almost 100% French citizens and/or obtained their degrees from French universities. (I don't blame anyone for this.) I would think that as an American, say, applying for such a job, the competition would be especially harsh. Also, from what I've heard, salaries for a Maitre de Conference position are somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of that of an American assistant professor position. (Nevertheless part of me finds such an option attractive. If only my French were better it might be a serious consideration...) | |
| Jun 17, 2010 at 16:13 | history | answered | Benoît Kloeckner | CC BY-SA 2.5 |