More Math Careers
This is a useful website on math careers from the Brigham Young University Math department:
About 40 or so careers are profiled here, like Mathematical Biophysicist, Foregin Exchange Trader, and Psychometrician. Each profile includes a salary range, educational requirements, job description, and potential employers.
Another nice potential answer to “When am I ever going to use this?”
2 Comments
Jack "Epic Fail" H · May 31, 2011 at 9:28 am
There are so many more than that as well–I can’t think of any industry that doesn’t need high level math people. Especially as web tech becomes more of the world’s revenue(1) this is more and more true. The people who are able to handle data and map out decisions will be those who will succeed.(2)
1= “The Internet accounts for 3.4 percent of overall GDP in the 13 nations studied. More than half of that impact arises from private consumption, primarily online purchases and advertising. An additional 29 percent flows from investments by private-sector companies in servers, software, and communications equipment. The Internet economy, now larger than that of Spain, surpasses global industry sectors such as agriculture and energy.” [https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Productivity_Performance/Measuring_the_Nets_growth_dividend_2812]
2= The United States alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical and managerial expertise and 1.5 million managers and analysts with the skills to understand and make decisions based on the study of “big data.” [https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_challenge_and_opportunity_of_big_data_2806]
MrHonner · May 31, 2011 at 10:02 am
Thanks, Jack–nice to get a relevant professional perspective. And with footnotes! Are you available to speak to high school students? 🙂
One message I try to get across to my students is that those who possess both analytic skills and the ability to clearly communicate complex ideas will always be in great demand in industry. As you point out, handling the data is only the first step–being able to make decisions and lead projects based on analysis is maybe even more important for certain kinds of professional success.