- #1
Jamin2112
- 986
- 12
I always see "Mathematician" listed as one of the best jobs.
This makes no sense to me. My friend posted this article on Facebook today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/19/cnbc-best-and-worst-jobs-of-2014/7881247/
Where do publications get the idea that the job Mathematician is a job that exists in the first place? It's not just that article; I've seen other articles that put Mathematician on a list of best jobs.
Ok, to be fair, I just typed in "Mathematician" into Indeed and got some results: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=mathematician&l=. So there have been about 3 listings for the position of Mathematician in the entire nation in the last 15 days (Indeed is a very comprehensive job listing site). Technically, some people do make a living as a Mathematician, but in trivial numbers. To me, it seems strange to list something as a "best job" when only 100 or so people in the entire country are probably making a living doing it. Might as well list "United States Senator" as one of the best jobs.
Since I'm already diverging into a rant, I'll say that I'm always shocked by articles that hype up non-engineer STEM. I think that article does so because a high school senior or college freshman who reads it will get the impression that going into Mathematics or Statistics is a good idea because it would directly correlate with a type of job that exists and is satisfying and in-demand. What he or she might not realize is that very few people actually work as Mathematicians, Statisticians or Actuaries. I don't know anyone in real life who works as one of those. All my friends I graduated with in Math are either going into teaching or working as software developers or data analysts.
Thoughts?
This makes no sense to me. My friend posted this article on Facebook today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/19/cnbc-best-and-worst-jobs-of-2014/7881247/
Where do publications get the idea that the job Mathematician is a job that exists in the first place? It's not just that article; I've seen other articles that put Mathematician on a list of best jobs.
Ok, to be fair, I just typed in "Mathematician" into Indeed and got some results: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=mathematician&l=. So there have been about 3 listings for the position of Mathematician in the entire nation in the last 15 days (Indeed is a very comprehensive job listing site). Technically, some people do make a living as a Mathematician, but in trivial numbers. To me, it seems strange to list something as a "best job" when only 100 or so people in the entire country are probably making a living doing it. Might as well list "United States Senator" as one of the best jobs.
Since I'm already diverging into a rant, I'll say that I'm always shocked by articles that hype up non-engineer STEM. I think that article does so because a high school senior or college freshman who reads it will get the impression that going into Mathematics or Statistics is a good idea because it would directly correlate with a type of job that exists and is satisfying and in-demand. What he or she might not realize is that very few people actually work as Mathematicians, Statisticians or Actuaries. I don't know anyone in real life who works as one of those. All my friends I graduated with in Math are either going into teaching or working as software developers or data analysts.
Thoughts?