Jobs for Mathematics Majors

<p>Evidently, a lot of mathematics majors end up with jobs in finance, education, or academia. What are some other paths for mathematics majors?</p>

<p>Some other possible paths are programming, data science, or any other area that requires quantitative analysis. I especially recommend programming and data science. The software industry likes math majors quite a lot, since it’s a degree with plenty of rigor (even more so than computer science). </p>

<p>Be a unicorn, a data scientist with a PhD.
<a href=“Academic Researchers Find Lucrative Work as 'Big Data' Scientists - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/articles/academic-researchers-find-lucrative-work-as-big-data-scientists-1407543088&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The software industry also wants people with computer related degrees, not math. The average math major becomes a teacher. Want a bank job? Get a degree in either business, economics, accounting, or finance. Want a job in the computer field? Earn a degree or certificate in computer science, IT, or software engineering. Math majors dont have the skills to program. That requires computer courses.</p>

<p>How do I know?</p>

<p>I use to be a math tutor and an office employee at the math department at my college. </p>

<p>In my family, we went into the following after majoring on math: operations research, city planning and academia (with a PhD), options modeling on Wall Street. The physics major is now a science writer. Law school was also a possibility. In other words, a math major is very flexible and you are certainly not limited to the usual suspects.</p>

<p>My cousin earned a BA in Chinese and a master’s in economics. He works in Wall Street. Makes a ton of money. My best friend has a masters in music. He earned his certificate in software engineering. He works as a programmer full time while doing music on the side. A degree doesn’t grant anything.</p>

<p>The truth is that most math majors end up teaching. The average person in the finance sector have degrees in finance, accounting, economics, business, MBA’s, and etc. I use to be a math tutor. And a lot of my friends are still math tutors. Most of them get into education. It is rare to see a math major not teaching. </p>

<p>I personally don’t think a math degree is worth it. I am doing my masters in finance and a computer science certificate. Even though I needed 8 more classes to get my bs in math, I changed my mind. </p>

<p>It assumed that the Math majors going into the software industry either have a minor in CS, a dual-major with CS, or is a specialty major like Computational Mathematics or Math with CS option.</p>

<p>My dd was a joint math/cs major and has worked in software engineering, machine learning and data science. Well, to be fair, she also has a graduate degree in CS.</p>

<p><a href=“Career Services”>Career Services; look at the mathematics listing on this page! there’s research, government positions, non-profit work… there’s all sorts of things. you’d probably have to specialize in something depending on what you want to do, but math majors can go into all sorts of jobs. my sister’s a math major and she wants to do research and mathematical modeling.</p>

<p>You can find millions of listings for jobs for any major, but that doesn’t prove (everyone) will get that job. </p>

<p>My son is an applied math major and hopes to become an actuary.</p>

<p><a href=“Computational and Applied Mathematics < University of Chicago Catalog”>http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/caam/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Would this be a good degree for work in data science? Or is a PhD typically required?</p>

<p>My son is studying applied math and also plans on being an actuary. My sister does hiring and recruits heavily from one year masters programs in data analytics. A math major is a good preparation for that masters program. Starting salaries are 80k in NYC. </p>

<p>I just finished my Applied Mathematics/Statistics degree this past June. I started working in August. Apparently, I had blown my interview out of the water and an IT company was willing to take me on with some very limited programming experience. Fast forward with four weeks into my job and I have basically gone from zero programming knowledge to hanging in there with guys who have been doing this job for years. </p>

<p>I don’t plan to do programming forever. I’d say three years tops while earning a master’s in mechanical/aerospace engineering. It’s not the most interesting work. It does pay the bills, though. I have been told to do data science/analytics by some of my coworkers. It’s a minor interest of mine but not a big one. I’d rather study airplanes.</p>