Non-academic mathematics careers

[PhysicalAnomaly]

Hi,

Out of curiosity, what kinds of non-academic mathematics careers are there?

One I've heard of is industrial mathematics - pure maths is applied to a range of puzzles - and the service is sold as a type of consultation. Has anyone else heard about this and does anyone know of companies that do this?

What other options are there for a PhD or BSc in mathematics?

 

[chiro]

Hi,

Out of curiosity, what kinds of non-academic mathematics careers are there?

One I've heard of is industrial mathematics - pure maths is applied to a range of puzzles - and the service is sold as a type of consultation. Has anyone else heard about this and does anyone know of companies that do this?

What other options are there for a PhD or BSc in mathematics?

The American Maths Society (AMS) has a list of profiles of people in many sectors. They range from actuaries to cryptographers/cryptanalysts to statisticians (many different fields) to financial engineers to all kinds of analytical and modelling (math that is not the catwalk type) positions.

Pretty much anything that can be modeled, torn apart, formulated, hypothesized, conjectured, logically decomposed and in any sense mathematically made use of (ie data/information about anything) involves mathematics and there's quite a bit of jobs out there that fit this.

 

[chiro]

The link to the American Mathematical Society is http://www.ams.org You can look up career profiles if you navigate accordingly.

 

[PhysicalAnomaly]

Indeed, there is a wide variety, but what are the actual chances of landing such a jobs? Is there a lot of competition for industrial/research/finance/consulting jobs amongst mathematicians? Also, none of the statistics or information on the site actually says how math grads fare against graduates of other fields.

 

[khemix]

Indeed, there is a wide variety, but what are the actual chances of landing such a jobs? Is there a lot of competition for industrial/research/finance/consulting jobs amongst mathematicians? Also, none of the statistics or information on the site actually says how math grads fare against graduates of other fields.

Its difficult to land a job when you only have a degree related to it. As of now, financial sectors are not going to hire many math grads because they lost faith in them due to the crisis we have now. Also, why choose you over someone who studied 4 years for the job and knew what they wanted from the start?

Simply put, if you want to do mathematics study it. If you have other jobs in mind, get a degree in that.

 

[chiro]

Indeed, there is a wide variety, but what are the actual chances of landing such a jobs? Is there a lot of competition for industrial/research/finance/consulting jobs amongst mathematicians? Also, none of the statistics or information on the site actually says how math grads fare against graduates of other fields.

Well I don't know about chances being the latest quant but there are quite a few different areas that employ mathematicians based on their educational experiences and where relevant, experience as an RA or as an intern in a company.

I'm not sure about other countries but australia typically always has demand to fill existing spots for qualified statisticians. They come under many labels and generally require very specific or specialized statistical training, but the positions are there. I'm not sure how this is in other countries though.

I suppose if you look hard enough there's jobs everywhere for the right person. I wouldn't just limit the town/city/state you're in simply for work anyways.

 

[harvellt]

My good friends brother has a physics degree with a math minor, and he works for a retail chain analyzing the time it should take processes and all that. Efficiency Expert I think is his exact title. Makes $75k a year and gave him a car strait out of his undergrad.

 

[samspotting]

That would fit under operations research. I am not sure how big that field is.