Mo Zongjian refused to write a recommendation letter for Zhang Yitang to find a job.
In the United States, people who major in pure mathematics can generally find a postdoctoral position at worst after graduation. Many people who don't even have a Ph.D. can find postdoctoral positions, let alone Ph.D. graduates from prestigious universities like Purdue University.
But because Mo Zongjian was very angry with Zhang Yitang and refused to write a letter of recommendation, Mo Zongjian’s own influence was not small, so no university or research institute accepted Zhang Yitang.
Zhang Yitang encountered obstacles everywhere and could not find a job in his field to make a living, let alone a teaching position, or even a postdoctoral position.
He has been homeless in many places. He has worked in Chinese restaurants and motels. He once had no place to stay but slept in a car and had meals with classmates studying in the United States at Peking University.
Later he found a job as a restaurant waiter at Subway (a famous fast food chain), responsible for washing dishes and delivering takeout.
While working in a restaurant, Zhang Yitang met a Chinese waitress from Shandong. Later, he got married and she became Zhang Yitang's wife.
In 1999, an alumnus who graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Peking University worked as a boss and opened several subway franchise stores in the United States. Then he accidentally learned that Zhang Yitang, a subway waiter, was a top student of Peking University. I felt sorry for his plight. After learning that he graduated from the Department of Mathematics, he asked him to help calculate the tax returns for several of his stores (taxes in the United States are extremely complicated and most people cannot calculate them). He was very satisfied with the tax calculation results, so he recommended him to other students in the same class. Tang Puqi.
Tang Puqi works in a large computer company. At that time, he went to New York for an academic conference and met this classmate from the chemistry department. After meeting Zhang Yitang, he learned that he was from the mathematics department, so he asked him about Computer algorithm problems. Unexpectedly, Zhang Yitang solved the problem in 3 weeks. Tang Puqi was shocked, so he applied for the patent in partnership with Zhang Yitang, and then recommended him to another classmate Ge Liming.
Gliming was very popular at the University of New Hampshire, so he introduced him to a job as a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire.
Zhang Yitang finally got a stable job. Although this job is very frustrating, it is a temporary job, and you are paid for each class, and the school can kick you out at any time. Moreover, lecturers are not considered scholars and are not included in the circle of scholars (assistant professors, associate professors, and professors are considered scholars). Just a teacher. Moreover, the University of New Hampshire did not arrange many classes for him, so his income was not much. Moreover, the University of New Hampshire is a very average university in the United States (Zhang Yitang became one of the few successful people in the school after becoming famous), and its mathematics department has little status in the industry.
But after all, it is a job in the industry, and with a pretty good income (compared to that of a waiter), I can concentrate on studying mathematics.