Questions tagged [career]
For questions about careers and jobs in mathematics (inside and outside academia)
183 questions
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Retiring early to pursue research in Pure Mathematics
I would like some advice in my situation. I am currently a medical student at the verge of graduation. I will start practicing after 2 years. Where I work, the pay is very good for physicians and I ...
54
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4
answers
8k
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My dissertation is wrong, but I already defended. How to remedy?
When I first started working with my PhD advisor, he gave me a problem to work on. When my 5 years was about to be up, I had not published any papers but managed to write up solutions to two ...
44
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4
answers
5k
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How long are you allowing yourself to be stuck on a problem? How do you know when to stop?
I searched for this question on the site but couldn't find it, so I'm asking it.
As a researcher, how long do you allow yourself to be stuck on a problem before deciding to move on? And how do you ...
64
votes
5
answers
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Is this a bad moment for a math career?
Addendum 11-29-2025:
I feel like reproposing this question, since AI is developing and perhaps the answers given almost one year ago can be validated or updated. I add some info on me, since what I ...
5
votes
1
answer
437
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How can I get into further study and research? [closed]
I have completed my undergraduate with a major in mathematics, however I was unable to properly apply myself for a variety of personal and medical reasons, and so was unable to achieve a suitable GPA ...
15
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6
answers
2k
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What does keep you "doing what you do"? [closed]
I am towards the end of my Phd (with some difficultues to overcome, I can say I am really satisfied about it) and I was wondering about what to do next. There are basically two paths: academia or ...
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48
votes
4
answers
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On what basis does a paper get accepted into a top journal?
Since the initial question was closed, but seems to be attracting a lot of discussion even after the fact, some of the comments qualifying as full answers IMO, I believe it is a reasonable question to ...
7
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3
answers
2k
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What are journal rankings that employers look at? [closed]
What are journal rankings that employers look at?
There are few questions on this topic already, but I don't think they fully address my question. Please close this one if it is not appropriate for ...
39
votes
3
answers
4k
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How to write mathematics without typing?
What solutions exist for mathematicians who need to write papers, but can't type? (I'm an early-career research mathematician and I can't type for the next few months.)
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1
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2
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Are there grants supporting sabbatical year in US? [closed]
I am a tenured mathematician at a university outside of the US. I would be interested to spend my sabbatical year in one of the US universities.
Are there grants I can apply to partially support my ...
2
votes
0
answers
464
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How to handle a research identity crisis
I have studied applied math and got a PhD (3yrs) in that field with applications in fluid dynamics. Then in my first postdoc (1.5yrs) I did again a postdoc in applied math but studied applications in ...
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4
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Research in mathematics without a degree in mathematics
This question might not make much sense or be a big deal for someone but I genuinely would like to know the opinions.
I am currently a software developer in a small start-up. I had to drop out of ...
-4
votes
1
answer
688
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Amount of mathematical knowledge required for starting Ph.D. in pure mathematics [closed]
How much mathematics should one know before starting a Ph.D. program in pure mathematics? For example what topics one must understand well to pursue a Ph.D. in US University in Number Theory (...
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64
votes
10
answers
14k
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What do you do when you're stuck?
I'm pretty sure almost all mathematicians have been in a situation where they found an interesting problem; they thought of many different ideas to tackle the problem, but in all of these ideas, there ...
6
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4
answers
661
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Funding programs for mathematical research [closed]
In the USA, as far as I know, the main grants available to mathematicians are collected on the NSF or the AMS websites [please, correct me if this perception is inaccurate]. On the other hand, for ...