Jobs for someone with my math apititude?

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<p>On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being Terence Tao (Terence</a> Tao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) How naturally gifted (i.e. not based on effort) does someone have to be at math and math related subjects (i.e. stats, game theory) to be successful in the following:</p>

<p>finance
political science (more practical types not like political theory but like stat analysis, game theory, and modeling)
accounting
business
business law
Investment Banking</p>

<p>It seems like all good careers require ridiculous knowledge of math. Like someone told me if you want a career in anything business related, math is the best undergraduate major (more then economics, BA, accounting, econ-math, etc.) </p>

<p>Im good at math (took Calc BC back in high school and did okay until some medical problems crept up before the AP test). However, I am by no means a math whiz. Making it worse is that my math self-confidence is close to 0 so I don't tend to be very confident when taking tests.</p>

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<p>If you completed calculus BC in high school, you should be good enough in math for any of the above subjects. Of course, you may have to take additional math and/or statistics in college for some of them.</p>

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<p>Accounting? Zero. Auditing requires a little bit of stats, but in an applied way, not in a theoretical way. You need to be able to use tables or a calculator for interest rate problems; depending on your school, you might need to be able to memorize the formula. Cost accounting has a little multiplication. For the rest of it, addition and subtraction is enough to get you through school, and once you’re out in the world, the computer does all that stuff. There’s next to no math in accounting.</p>

<p>It helps a lot to be smart, but you don’t have to be mathy.</p>

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<p>you only need to be avg in math for any of the majors you mention-- they are not rocket science…</p>

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<p>Actually, in each of the fields you mention there is a wide range of activities, some of which ARE rocket science, in a sense, and others of which are almost entirely math-free.</p>

<p>Finance is an area which has been largely taken over by math types. You don’t necessarily need a lot of math – I have worked as a lawyer on finance projects my whole career, and I have seen very little that required more than basic algebra to understand – but there are a lot of very mathy people in the field, and some of them do very sophisticated things.</p>

<p>Investment banking is part of the finance world.</p>

<p>“Political science” is a purely academic activity. People who work in politics often have no understanding of math beyond basic statistics, if that. On the other hand, if you are going to be doing serious work with polling or demographic strategies, you are going to be dealing with advanced math. Game theory IS math.</p>

<p>Business, other than finance, generally requires no more math than is taught in middle school. Not even that much, maybe. But it often does require some facility with numbers. In business, people often use numbers to communicate, to set targets, to make the case for what they want to do. Depending on how math-phobic you are, that may oppress you. And that goes double for accounting.</p>

<p>Here’s something to consider: Many people who are turned off by math in school get turned on to math later. Either because they see how it is used out in the real world, and that matters to them, and gives them the motivation they need to learn more, or because higher-level math deals with problems that are very different from Algebra I or Pre-Calc. It is lots of very careful logic layered step by step into complex, beautiful patterns; it isn’t so much plugging numbers into formulas and performing calculations.</p>

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<p>"Here’s something to consider: Many people who are turned off by math in school get turned on to math later. Either because they see how it is used out in the real world, and that matters to them, and gives them the motivation they need to learn more, or because higher-level math deals with problems that are very different from Algebra I or Pre-Calc. It is lots of very careful logic layered step by step into complex, beautiful patterns; it isn’t so much plugging numbers into formulas and performing calculations. "</p>

<p>Very well said, and so true!</p>

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<p>From what I’ve observed, those who are good in accounting have a certain mindset and a sense of logic that’s not necessarily mathematic. Does that make sense? It’s not so much the math - it’s more the thinking and the approach to problems.</p>

<p>As JHS, you can’t be an accountant and be afraid of numbers - but you don’t have to love them, either.</p>

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<p>Investment banks are hiring math majors, not finance majors, to write computer algorithms for equities trading.</p>

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<p>Hedge funds are hiring people with top notch math skills as analysts to produce investment models. Needless to say they are compensated VERY well.</p>

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<p>The most advanced math required for accounting is division (depreciation). As scout59 said, it takes some logic to do well.</p>

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<p>One of my sons is getting an MPP–master of public policy. He likes that there is a good amount of basic quant skills involved, but it definitely engages his policy wonk side.</p>

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<p>I love your scale – “from 1 to Terry Tao.” I’m also a huge fan of the genius professor. Excuse my linguistic meandering. There is simply a wealth of tangential topics I can pursue here.</p>

<p>To Business: My background in finance can only partially answer your question; specifically, I can tell you what kind of quantitative competency is expected for banking and finance. </p>

<p>Note that any maths (yes, maths) from calculus and beyond will never be invoked in investment banking, private equity or hedge funds. But why do firms expect you to take this and other courses and, moreover, do well in them? It turns out financial firms are much more interested in the general penumbra of aptitude that comes packaged with each academically high-performing applicant. What do I mean by this? </p>

<p>Well, to do well in an introductory calculus, ordinary differential equations, and linear algebra (the standard mathematical fare for underclassmen), it takes a certain intelligence and mental acuity. But what separates the budding mathematicians who codify their logic and arguments in epsilon-delta proofs from the “blue collar”-smart future investment bankers is very different from what separates those successful Goldman Sachs/Morgan Stanley applicants from the inclusive population of non-maths majors. Those who earn a coveted slot at an investment bank tend to be the ones who aren’t necessarily able to digest Rudin ([Principles</a> of Mathematical Analysis (International Series in Pure and Applied Mathematics): Walter Rudin: 9780070542358: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Mathematical-Analysis-International-Mathematics/dp/007054235X]Principles”>http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Mathematical-Analysis-International-Mathematics/dp/007054235X)) in a single setting; rather, they are the ones who find a way to cram the minimum amount of material required to secure a top mark on an exam in the minimal amount of time (an optimization problem in itself!), juice extra points from positive off-line interactions with the teaching staff and professors (we are known for our charisma and preternatural ability to launch into rapport with just about everyone), and continually buffer their final score tally with “cruise points,” which are almost passively-earned points from a variety of minority contributions to your final grade, such as homework assignments, class participation, in-class pop quizzes, etc. </p>

<p>Your ability to master these softer skills are not clear from the single data point of your final grade. Instead, it is just another tiny diamond on the enormous histogram of trials and tribulations suffered during your undergraduate years that encode your entire life, which is eligible for professional scrutiny. </p>

<p>Ultimately, the maths (look, the UK uses this term, and it just stuck) you need to know for finance will never even exceed algebra, as many of the models you construct for valuation or capitalization require basic arithmetic operations at best. [Side note: a good example to see is the set of quant questions tested on the GMAT]. So, if you aspire for finance, and when you finally do take calculus, remember that even if you will never need to consider situations that involve dangling catenaries or proving the existence of fixed points for continuous functions on the job as an Investment Banking Analyst, you can be sure that your academic and soft-skills success in securing high grades will have been responsible for your future successful candidacy at the Bulge Bracket.</p>

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<p>Even this?</p>

<p>[Black?Scholes</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Black–Scholes model - Wikipedia”>Black–Scholes model - Wikipedia)</p>

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<p>But I wonder why mathematical talent is often associated with accounting… back in high school my parents said that accounting was a good fit based on the kind of math talent I had back then.</p>

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How many jobs do they have that require that level of math ?</p>

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<p>I second what others have said ~ if you made it to CalcBC, all of fields you mentioned are reasonable to pursue.</p>

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<p>You don’t need to be a math genius to work in any of those fields, and I’m also going to argue that you don’t need to be very naturally gifted, either. Most of success in the business world isn’t necessarily predicated on natural gifts but on perseverance, hard work, networking and a little luck.</p>

<p>I would say quantitative political science would probably require the most “innate ability” simply because a lot of that is going to be developing new theory in the area and doing hardcore research, and you need to be able to think abstractly and theoretically about math and stats. Finance maybe the second, if you are doing some modeling there too. It depends on what you do; some people do research developing new financial models or on markets. But I would be willing to bet money that the majority of people successful in finance, accounting, business law and investment banking aren’t more than above-average in quant - and even then, they’re above average because they like math and they practiced it.</p>

<p>I think a math major is a great major for a business-oriented student but I think econ-math could be better. And it depends, too. If you want to be an accoutant, an accounting major may be better.</p>

<p>*"Here’s something to consider: Many people who are turned off by math in school get turned on to math later. Either because they see how it is used out in the real world, and that matters to them, and gives them the motivation they need to learn more, or because higher-level math deals with problems that are very different from Algebra I or Pre-Calc. It is lots of very careful logic layered step by step into complex, beautiful patterns; it isn’t so much plugging numbers into formulas and performing calculations. "
*</p>

<p>This is SO true. I liked math in high school but I really started to LOVE math my senior year of HS when I had a calculus teacher that was an engineer in a former life; he taught practical calculus (AP, but in it’s applications. As in, this is what calculus is used for). And then I loved it some more in college when I got into statistics. It makes me sad because I wish more math teachers would teach you applied math/practical math rather than just giving kids problems with no context. If they had the context, maybe they would care more.</p>

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Maybe you were very good at arithmetic.</p>

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<p>Right, not in the front office side where all you do is fill in premade excel spreadsheets, but I don’t think this is really a viable career path for most. The turnover in Ibanking is 90+% at 5 years as its both not a sustainable lifestyle for most and it has a very flat structure(lots of new analysts every year, not a lot of directors). </p>

<p>But in finance in general, quant work is by far the most rapidly expanding field due to both the nature of the business (lots of data) and regulation rules around capital and loan loss reserves. It’s also fairly recession proof.</p>

<p>To answer your question:</p>

<p>finance- a good deal with interest rates and such, but can be done without much innate ability. Picking up a math minor is an amazing resume builder and usually only requires vector calc
political science (more practical types not like political theory but like stat analysis, game theory, and modeling) - Big data is growing, easier to get in on the IT side than the PhD math side. IT requires a fair to strong math aptitude.
accounting - none really except some valuation techniques for financial instruments. much more memorization
business- too broad. Generic white collar job? Arithmetic/Excel mastery
business law- to get into a t14 to get into this field, you’d need a high LSAT meaning above average apititude.
Investment Banking- Not much past basic business understanding, so a good understanding of algebra. Its all the interview, school status, and resume. The actual work is fairly repetitive especially at the analyst level.</p>

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<p>I have never known a CPA who wasn’t a “math” person rather than an “English” person. I’m sure they exist. The math isn’t difficult, but I do think it takes a person who is comfortable and likes working with numbers. Some people, and I’m thinking of some of my “English” friends, HATE numbers. They are scared of numbers. They run from numbers.</p>

<p>Personally, I thought numbers were cool. I particularly liked the multiplication tables and how nice and even they were, the tricks for them, how they lined up. I am a very detail oriented, analytical, logical person–most accountants are.</p>

<p>Accounting doesn’t take high-level theoretical math.</p>