studying statistics - career options?

[grimster]

hi, what kind of career options do i have if i i.e. get a masters degree in statistics? previously i studied abstract algebra, but found it to be a bit too theoretical. i did finish my masters degree, but i really don't want to work in abstract algebra for the rest of my life. so now i'm taking a few courses in statistics(multivariate analysis, etc).

are there any courses or 'themes' you recommend taking? should i eventually get a masters degree in statistics as well, or is single courses 'enough'?

what do i need to get a job in the financial 'world' or as an analyst for say an oil company? is 'pure' statistics enough, or is finance courses required...?

[JasonJo]

most likely financial courses are needed as well.

if you arent so sure about what to do, but you have a strong background in stats and prob, head over to actexmadriver.com and purchase an actuarial exam manual. its 75 bucks usually, you could easily pass the first Exam and get a job.

just another option

[Learning Curve]

A lot of statisticians work for businesses and predict future product sales/business growth. They also do surveys in the best interest of whatever the company is doing.

I'm in a Stat's class, and I hate it. It's not challenging, just very, very dull.

[Poop-Loops]

Same. But I got tricked, though. It's a 200 level course at my school, which is up there with Diff EQ's, linear algebra, and multivariable calc. So, I thought it would be challenging for me and useful. MAN was I wrong. Most of this stuff I was taught in high-school and that parts that I wasn't, are a) really easy and b) the teacher spends a lot of time on it, so it's not challenging at all. Oh well, easy 4.0 I guess.

But, I did talk to a lady that did statistics stuff in grad school (Ph.D. in stats?) and she said later on it gets REALLY complicated and mind-numbing. So maybe it's just the intro class that is really easy.

PL

[leon1127]

Same. But I got tricked, though. It's a 200 level course at my school, which is up there with Diff EQ's, linear algebra, and multivariable calc. So, I thought it would be challenging for me and useful. MAN was I wrong. Most of this stuff I was taught in high-school and that parts that I wasn't, are a) really easy and b) the teacher spends a lot of time on it, so it's not challenging at all. Oh well, easy 4.0 I guess.

But, I did talk to a lady that did statistics stuff in grad school (Ph.D. in stats?) and she said later on it gets REALLY complicated and mind-numbing. So maybe it's just the intro class that is really easy.

PL

Consider that you need to process 1 billion data on your head simutaneously. I really think that is complicated. lol

JKJK

[Matt1]

Same. But I got tricked, though. It's a 200 level course at my school, which is up there with Diff EQ's, linear algebra, and multivariable calc. So, I thought it would be challenging for me and useful. MAN was I wrong. Most of this stuff I was taught in high-school and that parts that I wasn't, are a) really easy and b) the teacher spends a lot of time on it, so it's not challenging at all. Oh well, easy 4.0 I guess.

But, I did talk to a lady that did statistics stuff in grad school (Ph.D. in stats?) and she said later on it gets REALLY complicated and mind-numbing. So maybe it's just the intro class that is really easy.

PL

I am finding my undergraduate introductory probability and statistics course extremely challenging. hmm....

[Poop-Loops]

Well, maybe you're taking a real course in it, then. It's about 2/3rd (or maybe even 3/4ths) through the quarter already, and all we've covered are:

What is a variable, different levels (ordinal, nominal, etc), very briefly touched over experimental design, some probability (also just glossed over it, we never even got to the fun card problems, just the very basic ones), standard deviation and such calculations (maybe about 4 or 5 equations total), and now we'll be doing stuff with normal curves for the rest of the quarter. But the teacher told us not to worry, we'll never actually work with the equation, just the table and calculator. =/

I just do homework from other classes in that class. :P

PL

[Matt1]

Well, maybe you're taking a real course in it, then. It's about 2/3rd (or maybe even 3/4ths) through the quarter already, and all we've covered are:

What is a variable, different levels (ordinal, nominal, etc), very briefly touched over experimental design, some probability (also just glossed over it, we never even got to the fun card problems, just the very basic ones), standard deviation and such calculations (maybe about 4 or 5 equations total), and now we'll be doing stuff with normal curves for the rest of the quarter. But the teacher told us not to worry, we'll never actually work with the equation, just the table and calculator. =/

I just do homework from other classes in that class. :P

PL

Yeah, compared to your class, my class is extremely intense. My class covers representation of data (easy), probability, random variables, probability distributions (uniform, binomial, bernoulli, hypergeometric, poisson, gamma, normal, exponential, chi-square, t-distribution, etc), sampling theory, central limit theorem, confidence intervals, regression analysis, statistical hypothesis tests, etc...

And of course things like variance, standard deviation, and various other basic statistics are covered. I am finding the course extremely challenging.

[Poop-Loops]

Hahaha! My class is a walk in the park compared to that. =/

Oh well, what can I do about it now? At least my multivariable calc and C++ classes are challenging me. :)

PL