<p>How tough is competition to become a perma faculty member at a third tier uni or better? Are there tons of brilliant postdocs to compete with? How many, 2, 5, 10, 50? How brilliant, just good or very good?</p>
<p>Also, how much time in % do you estimate is spent on doing non-research as a postdoc? Such as lecturing, teaching grad studs, administration, grant writing? I imagine you get like 80% of the time to research, the rest goes to other stuff? Is math particularly different in this regard compared to other fields such as CS, theoretical physics, etc?</p>
<p>Furthermore, it the academic landscape likely to change for the drastically worse in 5-10 years time? You know, increased competition from China and India, national budget deficits, faculty retiring...</p>
<p>Reason for asking is I'm considering going into research.</p>
<p>Bump. And also, when researching in theoretical mathematics, since you don’t have a lab, do you still have duties such as adminsitration, grant writing, etc? Do you end up spending more time on teaching due to the absence of lab? I really would like to know this.</p>
<p>Also, anyone got an opinion on working as semi-perma postdoc and staff scientists? I wonder if they’re worth it or not. Again I would like to know if such positions exist in theoretical mathematics. Any information on how it is to be working as a theoretical, or heck, even applied mathematician would be great. I really need to find facts on it to decide for myself if I really want to commit to it or not. </p>
<p>I also appreciate if you can estimate how much time (In %, if possible) is spent on miscellaneous and boring things like doing paperwork and other forms of buzzywork. I would love to avoid that to the greatest possible degree.</p>