<p>Hi everyone.
I will be starting my junior year at Cal State Long Beach as a junior Math major this coming fall and am beginning to formulate what sort of career I want after school. </p>
<p>What I've come to realize is that I really really enjoy being outside, and it doesn't necessarily even have to be a forest or some scenic park. I would rather work all day installing parking lot light fixtures than sit in a cubicle all day, all things being equal (I've done both during summers). </p>
<p>I wanted to parlay my math degree, if possible, into something outside the cubicle and was thinking about getting a GIS certificate, in hopes of snagging something more outdoorsy. Should I just change majors to something like geology? Any experience of a math major working outside the office? Any career suggestions?</p>
<p>You reminded me of one of my geology professor saying that there aren’t enough geologists who are trained in math and computer science. He encourages all of his students, particularly the graduate school-bound ones, to pick up a minor if not a double major.</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about geology to give you career advice; I just wanted to throw out there that geology and math seem to go together well. Maybe you can talk to a geology professor in college and find out more?</p>
<p>b@r!um, thanks for the idea. I looked into it and it looks like a lot of oceanography/geology masters programs don’t expect you at all to be an earth sciences major and often look favorably on math majors! So this is definitely something to explore. yay!</p>
<p>I would second the idea of a math major moving to geology. A ton of fields in the earth sciences actively seek out mathematicians - climate modeling, physical oceanography, physical sedimentology, glaciology, hydrology, geophysics…the list goes on and on. For extra fun, since most people don’t discover geology until later in their college careers, a geology major is by no means a requirement even in top geology graduate programs.</p>
<p>Want to figure out how to change Mississippi River management practices to save New Orleans from drowning in the next Katrina? Study how past climate change correlates to extreme weather events? Determine the likelihood that the Greenland Ice Cap will survive a few centuries of global warming? Calculate the recurrence intervals of major earthquakes and tsunamis? These are all current major problems in the geosciences that would benefit from a mathematician’s expertise, but would also get you outside in interesting places. Hard to not recommend that, really.</p>
<p>I agree with LAGator that none of these jobs will get you outside every day, but you can certainly change the odds in your favor.</p>
<p>This is reassuring to hear. Now, for geology graduate programs, would it be beneficial for me to try to get some research experience in undergrad? Should it be related to geology, esp. considering that I’m not an earth sciences major?</p>
<p>If you want to work outdoors or in nature - get your Math concentration in Statistics. You’ll be able to pair that with ANY discipline as most of the sciences have a noticeable LACK of knowlege/know-how when it comes to statistical analysis.</p>
<p>Research experience during undergrad is always going to benefit you in grad school - it lets you figure out what kinds of projects you like (and don’t like!) in a lower-stakes environment. Especially if you are a non-major, put yourself out there to get involved in a project and get your feet wet. REU projects are a great place to start (Google it), as well as just walking up to a professor you find interesting and volunteering to work in their lab (which doesn’t always work, but is more successful than you might expect).</p>