Help me think...careers in math?

<p>My son is a junior - 1st or 2nd (depending on which list you check :) ) in his class at a public high school. His thoughts so far are to major in something sports related - (I know, tough field, lots of applicants, blah, blah, blah) broadcasting, sports management, communications/PR, media or something along those lines. I also know the "all boys love sports" thing. But since he's been 5 yrs. old and reading, the first thing he has done is grap the sports page in the morning. The first thing he does when he gets home from anywhere is sit down at the computer and get updates. He has researched sports media personalities and listens to podcasts religiously. </p>

<p>That being said, he has mentioned a couple of times lately that he's wondering if he should do something with math. All his grades are good of course, but he seems to really enjoy the challenge and success of succeeding in math and his test scores in class and on testing in the past has been very strong in math. (taking his first ACT next week). Does he LOVE math? Not sure. </p>

<p>Math - not my strength. When he's asking for careers in math, besides the obvious - accountant, math teacher - I"m not sure what to tell him. Ideas please?</p>

<p>If he could combine the two - sports and math - he may be in heaven. And for the record, he does well grade wise in science - seems to really like Chemistry (more math involved, right?) but didn't like the biological sciences so much so far. </p>

<p>Thanks for any wisdom you can share...!</p>

<p>applied mathematics is a booming field. think of all those mathematicians at google working on algorithms to determine what marketing to put on your search results. Since there are lots of statistics associated with sports, he may be able to turn an applied mathematics degree into a sports-related career.</p>

<p>a zillion years ago, when I was majoring in math I had a similar dilemma - not interested in teaching and not qualified to be a genius. I decided to do a computer science degree too, and have worked in software for my entire career.</p>

<p>math is a great major. good luck</p>

<p>sports and math</p>

<p>um ... a bookie?;)
the engineering fields are quite math intensive as you probably know.
Stats is used in many fields-
um math isn't my forte, so I will have to think on it.</p>

<p>he could teach math at a middle school or high school and coach sports...</p>

<p>the son of one of my professors was a professional sabermetrician, but I imagine these jobs are few and far between. Sabermetrics</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>Nate</a> Silver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>I grew up loving the Cubs and math. I wanted to grow up to be the sports statistician that fed Mr Brickhouse all the info on Santo,Banks,Becker, Fergie and Kissinger.
But instead I went to Depaul and became an accountant. Then I was accepted to IIT to take advanced Statistics and possible become an actuary. But love of sports got in the way and one cold morning I shunned my helmet for a warmer knit cap....concussion can wipe out alot of education in just a few minutes.</p>

<p>For math: insurance, actuary,CPA,construction management,and statistician.</p>

<p>I was a math and econ major. I started as an actuary (or study to be an actuary) out of school. I found it to be too boring (morbid), too hard, not enough money, then went to structure MBS (yes, those exotic derivatives that brought the economy down), then moved over to IT (never took a CS course). I don't think I ever used any math I learned in college, but it taught me a lot of discipline and how to be a good problem solver. </p>

<p>Math is a tough major, especially when you get to higher level math courses. Most employers are impressed with a math degree, even more so if you could get good grades. My older daughter, who is a math major also, is a great poker player.:)</p>

<p>The NSA sponsors quite a few scholarships, fellowships and internships in math. They have a lot of mathematicians at Fort Meade.</p>

<p>I have a nephew good in math, he majored in econ at an ivy, where he played a sport. He was recently laid off from his job at an investment bank.</p>

<p>He's taking GMAT for business grad school. While getting MBA he'd like to work in some capacity, possibly assistant coaching, with the team at one particular school (we have a family "in"). His goal is to become financial administrator (I don't know the proper term) for a university, or for their athletic department.</p>

<p>He has talked about teaching before, but he isn't sure what level he'd be interested in - middle school, high school -don't know. </p>

<p>I think working in an athletic department in some manner for a university would be of interest to him. Again, either media wise, promoting, or something along those lines. He is an awesome speaker/ speech writer and great before an audience. He loves presenting/giving speeches/speaking in front of a crowd. Guess that would also help him to be comfortable in front of a class of students and still be entertaining.</p>

<p>There are a lot of mathematicians in various roles on Wall Street.</p>

<p>Though I think the combo of sports management and math/finance would make him a sought after manager for professional athletes.</p>

<p>Yup, tons of math majors on Wall Street. Not that I would recommend that as a career path these days. I think the founder of 538.com was originally a sports statistician.</p>

<p>Wall Street is as good a career as it ever was, slow hiring for a bit and subject to changes, regulations and reduced salaries like everything else. The only people whose salaries and job opportunities don't seem to be subject to cycles are sports and movie stars.</p>

<p>A lot of people mentioned this, but if he does like baseball, baseball statistics is a great career if you can really get into it. It's what I want to do! If he got a good start and good credentials, he could go far and be of great use to teams looking for roster advice. I'm sure this applies to other sports to a degree, but baseball is VERY numbers oriented.</p>

<p>Just want to second and third the possibility of statistics as a major. It can lead to a career in any number of areas--demand is high. There is a sports statistics section in the American Statistical Association, so it can be an avocation if not a career. Good luck!</p>

<p>I think I"ve read before that sports statistic jobs are rare - would be interesting to talk with someone who does this to hear more about how they do their job and what their training was...</p>

<p>OP - There are many, many career paths for math people, even in professional sports. The bigger issue for anyone interested in a sports-oriented career is "what new do you bring to the game?" New training methods? better marketing? cheaper transportation methods? improved nutrition? Etc. etc. etc. It's not enough to love sports, any more than it's sufficient to love Chaucer or Keats.</p>

<p>Anyone know which profession is made up of members who consistently report the highest levels of satisfaction, year after year? Actuaries!</p>

<p>The actuarial profession is involved in many industries these days - primarily insurance and pensions, but in other fields where calculations of the probability of a loss, and the allocation of resources to investments are involved. Many of the most complex financial instruments that exist these days are designed with actuarial involvement.</p>

<p>I'd imagine there is a way to combine this with sports, somehow....</p>

<p>Anyway, actuarial science is a great field, and actuary fellows (the designation you receive when you pass the series of exams) are extremely well paid.</p>

<p>Once of the cool things about becoming an actuary is that you can start taking the exams pretty early in your career, I believe even before you're out of college. And while you're working, your pay is typically tied directly to how many of the exams you have passed (out of a series of 9 or 10 as I recall.)</p>

<p>I agree with CanyonCreek-actuary is a great profession, very well paid and highly respected! Disclosure: My H is one and I think he's the best!!</p>

<p>You can start taking the Actuarial exams during college and many newly graduated students interview for jobs with a few exams under their belt (the early ones contain probability and statistics material that is covered in college). It is also true that most companies give monetary incentive for passing exams, and in the good ol' days, they used to allow "study hours" as well. Being a Fellow In The Society of Actuaries (FSA) and passing all the exams is equivalent to a post-grad degree in Math. It's a professional society and having that FSA designation is a credential recognized everywhere. There are recruiters who solely recruit actuaries for the various companies that need them.</p>

<p>And the Actuaries I know that combine Math and Sales skills (which are relatively few and do not include my H) are the really successful people like CFO's and CEO's. Having technical smarts and the people skills is an awesome combo and perhaps the OP's son has just that rare combination.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

<p>I think he would enjoy being an applied statistician.
[Applied</a> Statistician: A description for the applied statistician job<a href="There%20are%20jobs%20for%20applied%20statisticians%20in%20many%20areas%20-%20marketing,%20manufacturing,%20biostatistics/epidemiology,%20insurance,%20many%20branches%20of%20the%20federal%20government%20-%20and%20the%20jobs%20may%20have%20different%20names%20in%20different%20fields,%20but%20these%20are%20jobs%20for%20people%20who%20like%20math%20and%20like%20to%20used%20their%20logic%20and%20math%20skills%20-%20and%20a%20computer%20-%20to%20answer%20questions,%20figure%20things%20out.">/url</a></p>

<p>I agree he would be very entertained by some of the statistical stuff that comes from American Statistical Association folks who are sports lovers. Chance magazine comes out quarterly, and it's $40 per year so that is $10 per issue, but this might be a good holiday gift for him. It is, if you can imagine, an entertaining math/statistics magazine.<br>
[url=<a href="http://www.amstat.org/publications/chance/index.cfm?fuseaction=previous%5DSome"&gt;http://www.amstat.org/publications/chance/index.cfm?fuseaction=previous]Some&lt;/a> articles from previous issues of Chance](<a href="http://www.job-descriptions.org/applied-statistician.html%5DApplied"&gt;http://www.job-descriptions.org/applied-statistician.html)
Order form:
<a href="http://www.amstat.org/publications/pubs_individual.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.amstat.org/publications/pubs_individual.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>