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This is my personal advice, feel free to ignore it. I am only giving it to you because I was in almost the EXACT same situation. I also got my PhD in pure math (langlands) and was in a postdoc just like you, planning for the job market. I myself did NOT get an academic job despite applying to many places. On the note of academic jobs: the #1 thing over EVERYTHING else is connections. Connections are even more important than producing HIGH QUALITY papers. You need to be interesting and regularly communicating with 2-3 research groups around the world who CARE about your work seriously and might want to work with you (i.e. they should be showing some enthusiasm for your work). Your postdoc advisor(s) need to be behind you on this, they need to write you an amazing letter, and you need them to help you find these connections. But, you also have to strengthen/find them on your own. If you don't have good connections, FORGET about an academic job. (This was my #1 mistake, but I don't regret making this mistake for a variety of reasons -- if you want to talk more, feel free to contact me at jpolak (at) jpolak (dot) org). In terms of programming jobs: other people here will have better advice on how to get into that world.....but I will tell you something they might not. The programming/industry world has a HIGH CHANCE (not GUARANTEED) to be extremely boring if you are used to pure math. I don't mean they are intrinsically boring, but to the person who enjoys pure math, they aren't close to that style at all. The work style is completely different. My main advice then is to think about jobs OUTSIDE the technical sphere. Not that you will NECESSARILY need to go that route, but it is something worth thinking about. One of the best things about pure math is creativity, and the opportunities to express creativity like that in industry is rather low. Today it's all about specialized stuff that is very directed. For my, I went into something completely different: writing and photography. Not saying you will go that route, but finding something you like to do that is creative might be more enjoyable than doing something technical. Again, this advice is HEAVILY influenced by my personal feelings about what pure math is about, but basically, I submit that industry and pure math are SO different, that even non-technical fields can be more similar to pure math than programming. Finally, I will say that based on talking to SEVERAL former grad-student colleagues, my advice generally holds true. Industry can be amusing for a short time, but in the long-run, it's boring....just something to think about. Personally, I quit industry (programming/comp-sci stuff) this year because I hated it from Day 1 and I'm very happy I did. |
Here’s one second-hand data point to support that advice.
I do writing and translating (among other things), and in the past few years I have worked on a couple of projects with a former math Ph.D. candidate who is now an editor at an academic publishing company. I think his field was algebraic geometry. I met him only after he left academia and I don’t know exactly what led him to look for a job in publishing. He seems happy and motivated in his job, though, and has been a pleasure to work with. His first solo project was a book I had translated, and I occasionally had to advise him about the editing process. But he learned quickly and has since been promoted.