Math What kind of work is available for pure mathematicians who don't want to teach?

[resolvent1]

Are there particular jobs that would be suited to such individuals, besides say programmer or actuary? Or jobs that such people tend to congregate to?

I ask this because I've found over the course of a couple of years as a grad student that I'm not too interested in teaching - though teachers seem to be the primary output of my department.

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

Just how "pure" are you talking about? Like what branches specifically interest you?

 

[resolvent1]

To be specific, the computational side of commutative algebra and algebraic geometry. Groebner bases and the like. So it's not as if there are no applications, and consequently programming is one natural route. However, I'm not expecting that a company would pay me to sit around and think about theorems. More generally, I'd like to get an overview of where PhD graduates who get their degrees in pure math have generally ended up, other than academia. Surely such people exist, but I've found it very difficult to find what they've been up to, other than vague references to "industry".

 

[creepypasta13]

More generally, I'd like to get an overview of where PhD graduates who get their degrees in pure math have generally ended up, other than academia. Surely such people exist, but I've found it very difficult to find what they've been up to, other than vague references to "industry".

you can find this out by asking your math dept about its PhD graduates, looking at the 'recent graduates' sections of math dept websites for other schools, doing a search on Linkedin for Math PhD's, look on SIAM, etc. I'm sure some of them also go into government and defense-related positions, such as working at RAND