Guidelines for Job Applicants

The following guidelines for CV, Research, and Teaching Statements may be helpful to applicants for all positions (Morrey/RTG, tenure-track, and tenured).

The publication list is self-explanatory.

The DEIB (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging) statement below will only be needed from the potential finalists for the tenure-track and tenured positions.

It is not necessary to custom-design your CV, Research, and Teaching statements specifically for the UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics, but including information specific to us can be helpful. Information relevant to promoting DEIB in the profession and academia in general is always welcome.

The DEIB Interview statement will benefit from specific attention to Berkeley. 

CV

The CV should generally start with basic biographical information (education and previous positions). This is then a good place to list teaching experience (courses taught, research students mentored), service to your department, university, and the profession (editorships, refereeing, conference organizing, committees, etc.), professional recognition (prizes and grants), and special skills (languages, technology).

Research Statement

There are many web sources with advice on writing effective research statements, which we encourage you to consult. If you Google "research statements mathematics," you are likely to find the statements of many individuals. Here is some brief advice:

  • The research statement should discuss your past, current, and planned future research, why it is interesting, and if possible a bit about how it fits in with other research at Berkeley.
  • Readers should be left with a fairly clear idea of what you have accomplished to date, and what you plan to work on for the next few years.
  • Most readers of your statement will not be experts on your particular topic, but you can also expect a few knowledgeable readers. Your statement should contain useful information for both.
  • An effective means to that end is an executive summary of one page or so, describing the background to your area of research, its importance, some landmark results, and, in non-technical terms, where your own results fit in and how they advance the subject. This summary can close with a pointer to future directions.
  • The summary can be followed by a more technical discussion addressed to readers with increasing expertise.
  • Short statements can be quite effective. (As in, people may actually read them.) If your statement runs over ten pages, it is far too long.
  • Tenure-track and tenure applicants should include some discussion of opportunities for and achievements in research mentoring associated with your research program.
  • To name or not to name? If you are applying for a postdoctoral position, you should identify potential mentors at Berkeley. For tenure-track and tenure positions, you are expected to formulate and conduct your own research program. So, while it is good to indicate potential interactions and collaborations here, this is not a key part of the statement.
  • Tenure-track applicants: We will be interested in your thoughts about mentoring graduate students and postdocs, for instance, what research directions you might suggest.
  • Tenured applicants: We would like to hear about your record in this respect.

Teaching Statement

You are welcome to consult the ample web advice available, such as:

Here are some additional points to mind at the Department of Mathematics:

  • Our lower-division classes are large (250–500 students). A record of teaching large classes with teams of TAs is a plus, but not a requirement; you will not be asked to do that right upon arrival. (Note: Post-doctoral fellows are not normally asked to teach those classes.)
  • All the same, some experiences you may have had elsewhere (such as the flipped classroom) may not be easily transferable here.
  • Even techniques suited for small classes (5–10), such as individually tailored reading or project assignments, may not translate so well to our upper-division or basic graduate classes, which have 25 students and more. On the other hand, they can work for small advanced graduate classes and graduate or undergraduate seminars.
  • There is also ample opportunity to run reading courses and mentor undergraduates on research or thesis projects.
  • One feature of our student body is its diversity, most relevant being the diversity of mathematics background, experience, and aims. Many of our lower division students and majors are eyeing careers in applied or data science, and mathematics includes key skills for them to master. Others end up doing fabulous things in mathematics graduate school. The challenge will be to address all these groups of students in your class, meeting their needs and holding their interest, while delivering the course content at a pace that is often brisk.

It is suggested that all of your statements include information relevant to our department's and university's aims in furthering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in education, academia, and the profession at large.

Statement for the DEIB interview

For tenure-track and tenured positions, an interview on this topic will be conducted with all proposed finalists. In preparation, contacted candidates will be asked to send in a short statement to serve as a basis for discussion. We are interested in learning about specific actions you have taken and your plans for future action upon joining our faculty to further diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy:

  • Past activities might include work through institutional organizations (e.g., departmental committees, student groups, organs of professional societies) or outreach that you have carried out independently.
  • For your future plans, we wish to know about your interest in committee service as well as initiatives you might want to bring to Berkeley.

Our DEIB evaluation is not based on your own personal identity or experiences. However, if you believe that these are relevant to explaining your motivations, you are welcome to describe them (though to reiterate: this is not required).

We have already mentioned the diversity of our students with regard to their mathematical preparation and aims. Concomitant with this is the cultural, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of our student body (see for instance 2020 admits and UC Berkeley student demographics). The university's approach to DEIB statement can be found at OFEW.

Your written statement will serve as the basis for a discussion with (a) member(s) of our Equity and Inclusion Committee. As such, it is not necessary for you to elaborate on the statement; there will be ample opportunity for that during the discussion. A list of relevant activities you have undertaken and planned together with brief descriptions of each suffices.