MAA Blog: Why Not Both?

By Jasmine Ng

After graduate school in mathematics, most people continue in academia or find a job in industry. I never thought I would actually end up in both!

Teaching has always been my true passion. However, after deciding to obtain my Ph.D. in pure mathematics, I thought that research would be my eventual path. In the end, my passion for research waned during the last two years of graduate school. So, the straight line to my future career started to look very curvy. Moreover, I had no academic siblings working outside of academia. So, there were always the questions "What does a life outside of academia look like for me?” and “Can I survive in industry if I have only ever known academia?" floating around in my mind.

Since I didn't have a clear idea of what I really wanted to do, I applied for everything to cover my bases. This included jobs at research-oriented universities, teaching-oriented colleges, government agencies and laboratories, companies on Wall Street, consultant firms, insurance companies, Teach for America, you name it!

I did that, so you don’t have to. I don’t recommend applying to that many jobs. So much stress and so little sleep! Luckily, I received several offers from teaching-oriented colleges. The problem was that they were all on the East Coast. You see, there was this boy waiting for me back home in Southern California… Yes, I was a member of the Two-Body Problem Club. So, imagine my excitement when I received an offer from an online math education company that was located in Southern California! To be perfectly clear, I didn’t just go home for the boy. The company was a great fit for me because it was an industry job that was teaching-oriented. I had always wondered if I could survive in industry, but I loved teaching. This job was the best of both worlds.

I very much enjoyed my first full-time job. The environment at my industry job was vastly different from the academic settings with which I was familiar. The work was fast paced, with deadlines and product releases every few months. It was new and exciting!

I did miss teaching in a classroom a lot, though. So, I decided to apply for some full-time community college mathematics faculty positions. I decided a community college was the best place for me since I just wanted to focus on teaching. I ended up accepting a tenure-track position at El Camino College in Torrance, CA, and I am very happy that I made the switch from industry back into academia.

I am now in my ninth year at El Camino. Even though I have taught many courses more than once, there are always new experiences awaiting me each semester. One semester, I had a student give birth part-way through the course. She came back after only four weeks to not only finish the class but do very well in it. I was amazed and so proud of her! Another semester, I was literally sued by a student for giving him a failing grade. The judge in small claims court asked him why he thought he deserved a passing grade instead. The student replied that it was because he did all of his homework. Needless to say, the judge ruled in my favor. I love that my job is never boring, and that I have so many interesting stories to tell about it!

I should add that I didn't give up on industry entirely. I never actually left that first job. I became a part-time consultant instead. Sometimes, there is juggling to be done in order to finish my responsibilities in both jobs and spend time with my husband and two young children. However, I am grateful that I am able to do both at the same time. I took a bit of a detour, but I finally ended up where I belonged: one foot in industry, one foot in academia. I wouldn’t have it any other way.