The American Astronomical Society publishes a monthly index of jobs in astronomy from tenure-track to one year sabbatical fill-ins and post doctoral research appointments. We also use the index published by the American Physical Society in their monthly magazine 'Physics Today'. Astronomers also use their own network of contacts to sniff out jobs that do not get posted, or find out what jobs are about to be posted so they can apply in advance.
Job searching is not a fun process, and especially so in astronomy. When I entered the job market in 1982, there were about 95 Phds awarded that year in astronomy. For some reason, there are now over 120 per year, despite the fact that not that many new positions have been added to compensate for the continued over-production of talented individuals. This means that many individuals will simply have to find non-astronomical careers after working so hard to get a Phd, and getting a taste of how exciting a full-time career in astronomy can be. These are extremely exciting times in astronomy thanks to new generations of telescopes being built and used. We seem closer now than ever before to a string of history-making discoveries about the origin of the universe, its evolution, and detecting planets around other stars. Many astronomers will do anything to hang onto their careers long enough to experience the thrill of these new discoveries.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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