Employment-Related Article

From Both Sides of the Employment Register Table

Navah Langmeyer
National Security Agency

Introduction

The Beginning of My Job Search

Orlando

I was traveling for several weeks before the meetings, so I picked up the materials in Orlando rather than having them mailed to me. This meant that I did not see a list of the schools participating in the ER until I arrived at the meetings. When I sat down to make my interview requests, I noticed that almost all of the schools were small liberal arts institutions. This was not a problem, as I preferred to work in such a place. I also noticed that I had previously considered few of the schools present. This was a problem. I knew almost nothing about most of the schools on the list, and I didn't have many resources in Orlando for gathering information. I first selected the schools to which I had already applied, and then I selected schools based mostly on geographic location and religious affiliation. I did not select any nonacademic employers. I ended up with several interviews through the ER, including one with one of the three schools that had contacted me earlier.

Of the interviews, only three seemed to hold any real promise. Two of these three were mutually requested, and the third was requested by the school mentioned above. The other schools which I had not requested proved to be unacceptable for various reasons, such as a very high teaching load, a strong religious affiliation which I felt would be restrictive, or a difficult geographic location. I did not consider the schools that didn't request me serious employment possibilities. I did try to approach all the interviews with the same level of interest and enthusiasm, regardless of the situation.

The questions I was asked most frequently were: Why do you, having spent ten years studying in research institutions, want to come to a liberal arts school? What is your teaching experience? Are you interested in directing undergraduate research? Do you know anything about our school? What are your plans for future research? What balance of teaching and research are you looking for? I expected these questions, and I was prepared for them. One school asked me several questions that seemed to come out of a management course, such as "What is your greatest strength? What is your greatest weakness?" I was unimpressed with this interviewing technique. It felt inappropriate, and I immediately wrote that school off my list.

I generally didn't have to ask too many questions. By the time I received a short description of the school, the department, and the position, and answered some of the above questions, the fifteen minutes were over. I did ask about teaching and research requirements and student body composition. I decided that questions about tenure requirements were premature. I made sure to tell all interviewers about the talk I was giving in a paper session and the poster I was presenting at the AWM Workshop on Saturday, and I offered to send everyone a preprint I was finishing. I also was very open about my situation with my husband. I don't think that this is good for everyone, but it is what I felt comfortable doing. I followed up all of the interviews with letters when I returned to Ann Arbor.

A week later, Mark and I interviewed at the NSA. We were very impressed with the people we met, and our feelings about working there were much more positive after the visit. I received invitations for on-site interviews at the three schools that pre-arranged interviews with me, and none at any other schools. The first interview was for a tenure-track job at a small liberal arts school in California. I was very interested in this position, especially after visiting the school and meeting the faculty. The second interview was for a tenure-track job at a research university in the Midwest. After this second interview, I received an official job offer from the school in California; Mark had not heard from any school close to it.

I had a week to decide. I contacted the NSA and explained the situation. A few days later, I received an offer from the NSA, and was told that Mark would receive an offer. We discussed our options. What were they? We could move to expensive southern California, where I would have a job and Mark would be unemployed until he found a job which probably would not be in mathematics. We could wait and see if both of us received offers at schools within 90 minutes of each other. Or we could both have stable employment in Maryland. We concluded that the best choice was for us to take the jobs at the NSA. I contacted the school in California and very regretfully turned down their offer. I informed the other two schools that I had accepted a position at the NSA. My job search was over, I was gainfully employed, my degree was earned, and I relaxed for the first time in six months.

My job search was relatively successful. It helped that I made some tough decisions before starting the search rather than waiting for problems to arise, in particular deciding that Mark and I would not live apart and that I would be open about our situation with prospective employers. In retrospect, I would have done only one thing differently. I would have made more of an effort to contact schools that interested me outside of the ER, both prior to the meetings and using the message board at the meetings. For various reasons, I did not take enough initiative in obtaining interviews. I present myself very well in person, and I should have exploited that ability more than I did.

San Diego

Being an interviewer is at least as exhausting as being an applicant. The anxiety level is much lower as an interviewer, but there is little down time while interviewing. I didn't interview long enough to fall into a daze, but I can easily imagine that happening.

My co-interviewer and I opened each interview by asking, "What do you know, or think you know, about the NSA?" Some people knew quite a bit, while others had very little idea of what we do. We then discussed the NSA's mission, what areas of mathematics are used here, what a mathematician could expect as an employee, how we personally felt about working here, and what the training program was like. The best interviews became conversations at some point, rather than lectures, in which the applicant asked questions and expressed opinions about what we said. This happened in most of the interviews. I was surprised that everyone asked about application procedures before we brought them up. We then explained about the application requirements and process, and the interviewing process. By this time the fifteen minutes were over.

Communication skills, flexibility, and the willingness to work in groups are extremely important at the NSA. We were impressed with people who demonstrated these characteristics during the interview or in their past work. We were less interested in people's specific areas of research than in their general interest in learning and using mathematics. Enthusiasm and sincere interest made an interview memorable. Finally, name-dropping did nothing to impress me, and I had a hard time getting excited about the applicant who had the flu and looked like he was about to pass out throughout the interview.

In Closing

Finally, to those who are looking for a job: don't have high expectations for the ER. The probability of any one individual getting a job from an employers at the ER is small. Despite this, I found the ER a good experience. It gave me needed interviewing practice and was a confidence builder. After the ER I felt prepared for all longer and on-site interviews that came my way.