Last year of grad school, now looking for a position

[tgc]

Hello,

I'm in my last year of a math Ph.D program.  I have some original results, I'm currently writing up my dissertation, and I'm defending in spring of 2017.  I'm in the market for a job beginning in fall of 2017.  Should I start looking now, or is it too early?

Thanks.

[rising_star]

What kinds of positions are you looking for? Academic positions starting in fall 2017 will typically begin advertising after July 1 of this year (2016), so you wouldn't really want to apply for those yet unless it is your absolute dream job and you'd regret having not applied. The hiring timeline for positions in industry varies but you'd probably want to be within 6 months of graduating when you apply.

[juilletmercredi]

Yes, it's far too early. Generally speaking for academic jobs that start in the fall of 2017 you would start applying between August and December of 2016, with interviews generally taking place between November and March of 2017. For industry jobs the application period would be even later - like rising_star said, you'd want to be within 6 months of graduation (unless you are applying for competitive Wall Street quant positions or consulting positions - those have application cycles like academia, whereby you'd apply around October).