Guest post by Diane Boumenot, Manager, Membership and Programs, American Mathematical Society
I want to alert the blog readers that much has changed this year about how the Employment Center will operate at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, January 13-16, 2010. Registration and scheduling are now completely electronic, and registration is free.
We have a new website which combines our job listing service (EIMS) with the Employment Center data. The jobs are publicly viewable and new listings are coming in daily. Note especially the jobs that have the tiny “EC” logo, meaning that job will be interviewed for at the Employment Center.
Register at the website at any time from now through January 13, but be aware that employers will probably start setting schedules in late November, so early registration is important (you will see that a deadline of November 2 is suggested). Applicants register by creating an account, answering some questions, uploading a few general application documents, and checking the “click here if you will be attending the EC” button on the main page of their account. They also mark any unavailable times on their schedule grid.
Joint Math Meetings registration is necessary since there will be no admittance to the room without a meeting badge. This is required by the Joint Meetings Committee which oversees the meeting. It is not a new requirement, but enforcing it at the door (instead of during the registration process) is new.
After perusing the jobs, applicants use the “request an interview” buttons on the job listings to indicate that they would like to interview for that particular job. They enter a brief note or cover letter and attach a few documents from their account if the employer does not already have their full application elsewhere. There is no limit on the number of requests that can be made. Once a request is made, the employer may or may not respond by entering themselves into the applicant’s schedule. If they do, the applicant will see the appointment and its duration on their schedule. Only mutually available times can be used, so keep your schedule up to date. This scheduling is by mutual agreement only – the applicant requests, and the employer agrees or ignores it. Therefore, it is possible that some applicants will end up with no interviews.
Applicants should check their accounts for “New messages” and “Interviews” noted in the EC box on their “my account” screen. Note there will be no paper messaging on site since interview arrangements are now made through the system. If applicants accept a private invitation to interview (not through the system) they will want to mark that time as unavailable in their schedule grid.
The job market seems to be shifting earlier, so many employers are accepting applications now (through mathjobs.org or other channels) and plan to conduct some short list screening at the EC. So early registration, and clicking through to request appointments wherever reasonable, is important. So far, there are 32 employers and 253 applicants registered.
AMS staff are here to answer questions. Call Steve Ferrucci or Diane Boumenot 800-321-4267, ext. 4113. Good luck with the job search!