Academic Job Search: Writing a good CV, research statement, and teaching statement

I won't give you boring details of how you should format your CV, there's enough resources out there that give you much better advise than I ever could, instead I will tell you what you can and should do during graduate school, to generate the content for your CV and statements.

Please keep in mind that I was specifically looking for post doctoral research positions in mathematical biology. If you want to land a teaching or tenure position, some rules might be different.

Job Application Timeline

• Academic Jobs beginning fall 2011 (June – September)
• Deadlines for postdocs: as early as November 2010
• Asked for letters: September 2010
• CV, Research Statement, Preprint/publications/thesis
• Draft of Research Statement August/September 2010
• CV: first version in 2008, career services, periodically updated
• Jobs are advertised on https://www.mathjobs.org/
• http://notable.math.ucdavis.edu/wiki/Mathematics_Jobs_Wiki
• Discussed everything with my advisor, proof-read by advisor, several friends proof-read my statements, department head, career services
• Compared CV and statements to those of other mathematicians

Application Process

• Through http://mathjobs.org
• Cover letter
• Name of position and school
• find department head’s name
• Possible collaborations/groups, i.e. Mathematical Biology, Symbolic Computation
• Mention possible collaboration in research statement
• Mention possible new curriculum/teaching methods/undergraduate research in teaching statement
• 1-3 hours per application
• ~30 applications
• 5-10 applications to specific research positions not in Academia:
• Research Hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, Microsoft Research, Cancer Systems Biology Group
• Application directly to senior researcher 

Create Content for your Research Statement

• Talk to your advisor (and other faculty) about your goals
• Participate in conferences and workshops
• Explore local options
• SIAM seminar
• Department Math Seminars,  Physics seminar, Graduate student speaker series, Symposium, … (read all announcement emails!)
• Workshops (NSF math institutes)
• Poster presentations
• Leadership role (SIAM, SGTA, student organization, organize a seminar…)
• Letters of recommendation
• 2-3 research letters, 1 teaching letter
• Knows you and your work in detail
• Well known
• Your advisor can suggest letter writers!

Create Content for your Teaching Statement

• “Show, don’t tell”
• I’m the best teacher in the world.
• My section scored highest, best rating on evaluations, …
• What have you accomplished that distinguishes you from other teachers?
• Teaching large/higher-level course?
• Anything that’s not standard curriculum (Mathematica)?
• Review sessions/material for all sections?
• Tutoring? Volunteering with high school events/girls’ math day/Kids’ Tech University? 
• Do something special now, so you can write about it, when you apply 
• Tell GTA supervisor about your career goal, he/she might have “special tasks” for you 
• Special course to teach 
• Special leadership roles as senior TA
• Be a good colleague 
• Be on time, be prepared 
• Participate in department events (Visitors’ day, peer mentoring, …) 
• Be friendly and helpful to your fellow colleagues (share notes, offer to substitute, …) 
• (especially in a small department) you are hired as a team member, not a 9-5 teacher 

My Advice

• Have a goal, know what’s necessary to accomplish it, work towards that goal
• Take any help you can get, don’t be afraid to ask
• Good Luck!

I hope this article makes you start thinking about your CV before you actually have to write one!