Monday, October 28, 2013

University of Maryland Job Posting Mentions Quantum Computing explicitly!

The University of Maryland at College Park has its job posting up (its been up for a while). You can look at it here. I It lists THREE areas but says that they will take applicants from any area. This is believable since they only listed three. Had they listed (say) seven then I would not believe they are looking at other areas. What is the X such that if they list X then you believe they will take from other areas but if you list X+1 then you don't?

The three areas listed are:

  1. Cybersecurity
  2. Quantum Computing
  3. Natural Lang. Proc.
All three of these seem more particular than I usually see in job postings. That is, I've seen things like  Systems, Theory, AI. SO- is this unusual? I don't quite know--- I haven't been on the market for a long time.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:21 PM, October 28, 2013

    I think you have it backward. I think if they list a lot of areas then they are likely to accept other areas too, because they are just listing whatever areas come to mind without much thought, while if they list a small number of areas then they are unlikely to accept other areas because they actually have thought about it.

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  2. GASARCH11:27 PM, October 28, 2013

    I happen to know that Univ of MD really will take applicants from many areas; however,
    your point is valid in another sense--- its hard to know if a school really will based on the number of areas listed. The thought process could be what you say, OR it could
    be that they just want to emphasize a few areas but really will take in others.

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  3. Anonymous11:26 AM, October 29, 2013

    Most areas in job listings are very specific, with broad areas like systems or theory much less common. I think it discourages good applicants unnecessarily. Who really needs a professor in computational game theory specifically versus a theorist more generally?

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    Replies
    1. Unknown6:02 PM, October 30, 2013

      A CS department with a game theory lab.

      Think of it in terms of medicine. Would you prefer a top heart surgeon or a credible brain surgeon to perform your brain surgery?

      Grants are based on very specific proposals, which give rise to specific researcher needs in a lab, which already has picked a CS sub-area. Rare is the talent that can match years of experience, after all.

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