Questions tagged [career]
For questions about careers and jobs in mathematics (inside and outside academia)
37
questions
335
votes
16
answers
156k
views
What's a mathematician to do?
I have to apologize because this is not the normal sort of question for this site, but there have been times in the past where MO was remarkably helpful and kind to undergrads with similar types of ...
175
votes
8
answers
19k
views
How to escape the inclination to be a universalist or: How to learn to stop worrying and do some research.
As an undergraduate we are trained as mathematicians to be universalists. We are expected to embrace a wide spectrum of mathematics. Both algebra and analysis are presented on equal footing with ...
164
votes
21
answers
25k
views
When should a supervisor be a co-author?
What are people's views on this? To be specific: suppose a PhD student has produced a piece of original mathematical research. Suppose that student's supervisor suggested the problem, and gave a few ...
52
votes
4
answers
8k
views
Changing field of study post-PhD
I am doing my PhD in algebraic graph theory, for not much more reason than that was what was available. However, I love deep structure and theory in mathematics, and I do not particularly want to be ...
17
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Contacting an eminent mathematician
I have recently started a PhD. and am researching an area that two now eminent mathematicians devoted considerable time to in the 1980s. However, there appears to have been fairly moderate focus on ...
51
votes
8
answers
14k
views
The "derived drift" is pretty unsatisfying and dangerous to category theory (or at least, to me) [closed]
I'm currently a young, not-so-young mathematician, finishing its second postdoc. I developed an interest for rather different topics in the last few years but constantly, slowly converged towards ...
41
votes
6
answers
23k
views
"Industry"/Government jobs for mathematicians
Suppose that you graduate with a good PhD in mathematics, but don't necessarily want to go into academia, with the post-doc years that this entails. Are there any other options for continuing to do "...
31
votes
11
answers
9k
views
Switching Research Fields
I am a recent PhD specializing in algebraic geometry. But I also want to do research in some other areas of math (e.g. quantum computation, compressed sensing, and PDE's). What would be a good way of ...
29
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Collaboration or acknowledgment?
This post is a sequel of: When should a supervisor be a co-author?
This time the topic is about the interaction between two professional mathematicians (in particular junior-senior, but not ...
18
votes
2
answers
4k
views
The non-traveling mathematician problem
This is a career question. I have just begun a research postdoc position in Southern California. It has been hard, but I've enjoyed teaching my first graduate courses and working on research and ...
10
votes
9
answers
28k
views
Starting PhD at the age of 25 [closed]
For over an year I have otherwise been pretty active on MathOverflow but for this question I would like to remain anonymous.
I would be starting my grad school in Fall 2011 in the US while in the ...
157
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Resources for mathematics advising.
This question is possibly ill-advised. (If it is not right for this site I will delete it.)
I, suddenly, have students.
It is very clear to me that there is nothing in my education that has ...
121
votes
16
answers
34k
views
How do you keep your research notes organized? [closed]
One of the things I struggle with most in doing research is keeping my notes organized. Since research tends to do a lot of branching, keeping notes in a linear fashion seems useless to me. On the ...
102
votes
12
answers
31k
views
Where are mathematics jobs advertised if not on mathjobs (e.g. in Europe and elsewhere)?
My impression is that in the US, there is a canonical place for finding math jobs, namely mathjobs.org. For those of us who live and apply for jobs elsewhere, life is more complicated, and searching ...
53
votes
8
answers
11k
views
Publishing a bad paper?
First, I apologize if mathoverflow is a bad fit for this question, but it is the only place where I can think to get advice from professionals given my circumstance. I'm also sorry about any vagueness ...