career advice

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I have a friend with AS who is having a bit of trouble deciding what kind of career would be best for him. He is currently majoring in math/stats and planning to become a statistician but is worried that it won't be the right job for him. He is very good at solving concrete math/stats problems and really enjoys it, but seems to have difficulty with abstract and theoretical problems and mathematical proofs involving abstract/theoretical ideas. This is one of the reasons he recently decided not to be a mathematician, the other being the long hours that they must work. He is also a highly logical thinker, has an very good long-term memory and very good writing skills-in a technical sense that is, he doesn't believe he is very creative (although I think he really can be pretty creative myself). He seems to have difficulty working in groups and learning hands-on things and making generalizations. Another important thing I should mention is that he was recently discouraged by an assignment that he-and everyone in his math analysis class, which is said to be the most difficult undergraduate math class-had difficulty with and didn't do too well on and he is maybe being pretty hard on himself because of it, although I'm not sure how to tell if that is the case or not. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions as to what kind of job would be good for him or if stats is in fact the right field for him to go into, or where we might get some information. Any help would be greatly appreciated, although of course if no one really has any ideas or suggestions that's ok too, as this is a rather complicated issue.

How about insurance accuary. What I think they do is determine the probability of a claim for a given set of circumstances.

Last edited by coyote on 29 Sep 2005, 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

How about controls or process control engineering (lots of fun math and building mathmatical system models).

Or maybe analog signal processing.- fun with forierr transforms, lots of neat applications.

I did chemical engineering undergrad and a Masters in Industrial engineering. from UW madison.

That is true and the enviroment can be AS friendly. Very little customer interaction. (I work in insurance).

Insurance underwriting is also math friendly.

Y

I'm a mathematician, working in air traffic control research. I never did well with theoretical math, but use applied math all of the time. It's fun!

Your friend could work in applied statistics or other branch of applied math. He could work in computers and systems, programming, and system design and engineering. He could work in testing and analysis. He could go in private industry or government. There are lots of niche jobs for mathematicians and statisticians beyond being a teacher.

I'd suggest following his desire to learn math/stats. The jobs will follow, maybe not at the start, but they will eventually. Personally I am having fun with my work. Challenges of working with and for people notwithstanding, I enjoy my work and can only think of two other places I'd rather be working.

Over half of my hours are worked outside a "normal" work schedule. There's not much overtime. I don't have to work on large teams. I'd say that's not bad for someone who didn't have a clue as to what he wanted to do after college, and that was 25 years ago.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, it sounds like he has a lot of different options. I think he will find this very encouraging and helpful

Mathogre:
There are lots of niche jobs for mathematicians and statisticians beyond being a teacher.


"Beyond" ?

Ah, that's true, i forgot teachers are the scum of the society, one cannot be more looser than a teacher, If your friend doesn't find anything he can revert to teaching, before going to SSI .

Ha ha ha ha!! !! !! !! You're funny!! !! !! !

You are joking, right? I assume that, given it was midge's friend, and given your singular interpretation of my words.

Thanks. I needed the laugh.

I was a trainee actuary for one and a half years, and I absolutely hated it.
I got the sack from my first company, and i decided not to even bother looking for another actuarial job after that.
Frankly, I blame my failure on my A.S.

But I found the job bloody boring anyway.
I worked, however, on the pensions side, which is supposed to be even more boring than the insurance side.

The study materials for the exams are full of some pretty heavy maths. There is some quite interesting stuff there, but the vast majority of it no one ever uses.
In the job there is a huge amount to learn: dreary legislation, arbitrary parameters for lengthy, dull calculations.
From what I saw, one really couldn't describe the majority of actuaries as a "mathematicians" at all.

There are other opportunities for actuaries apart from insurance firms and pensions consultancies. Actuaries who work for the government are the ones who do the most meaty statistical analysis - what fun! - because they're the ones who, for example, compile the mortality tables that other actuaries work from.
There is also an Actuarial Education Company in the UK, which employs tutors to help trainees with the study materials.