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Careers in Mathematics
 Through the study of mathematics, students develop
their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
There are career opportunities in all sectors of business
and industry for individuals trained in the mathematical
sciences, which include computer science and statistics.
A mathematics background is also excellent preparation
for entry into several of the professions as well as
for graduate work in many areas.
Okay. So what can you do with a degree in mathematics?
Actually, just about anything. No really, we mean it
-- for pretty much any list you can make of aspects
you'd like in a job (dress up? just jeans? work with
people? work on your own? etc.), there's some mathematical
career that's right for you. One of the reasons that
mathematically-trained people are needed in almost
every field is that we are known for our excellent
problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Furthermore, according to the Jobs Rated Almanac by
Les Krantz, many of the most desirable careers (see
a cool
summary and a long
list and the 1999 and 2002 top-ten lists) are technical in nature and
require some expertise in the mathematical sciences.
Some of the career opportunities available to a major
in mathematics include:
Actuarial Mathematics - The application of mathematics,
particularly probability and statistics, to the insurance
industry. For more info, check out Be
An Actuary. Here
is also an actuarial
job search site and an actuarial
info and jobs site. There's a local company which deals
with worker's compensation (in fact, they do it for
XU). Here's their home
page and their jobs
page. Some
of their positions are actuarial in nature and require
passing actuarial exams, but others require a strong
math background and don't require actuarial exams.
Applied Mathematics -
Often this means working on problems in physics, chemistry,
and engineering from
a mathematical perspective. For more info, check the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics' career
site. Most government jobs, such as with Sandia, Argonne,
or Oak
Ridge National Labs, NASA,
or the Jet
Propulsion Lab, NIST,
or the Department
of Agriculture are within applied
mathematics. Some positions at the National
Security Agency are applied mathematics and some are pure mathematics.
Biomathematics - The application of mathematics in
the health sciences. It's an up-and-coming field, and
some say it's the next big trend within mathematics.
(Unfortunately, it's new enough that there are lots
of graduate programs, see google, but no findable career
sites as of this writing.) This includes bioinformatics,
a new sort of cs/math/biology hybrid field.
Biostatistics - The application of statistics in the
health sciences. Here's an overview
of biostatistics careers and the UWash and Emory biostatistics careers
pages.
Computer Science - A high level of mathematical ability
and background is needed. Check out the XU CS
program pages and consider a double major.
Financial Mathematics (or Mathematical
Finance) -
Mathematics used on Wall Street, for mortgage backing,
financial derivatives, and stock market analysis. The
U of Edinburgh has a good
description of the field;
here's a book list. The field is fairly new, and there
are lots of professional master's programs springing
up (see google and google).
Law or Medicine- A major in mathematics is a good
preparation for law or medical school.
Operations Research - The application of mathematics
to problems of optimization, especially in the field
of business. For more info, check out What
is OR/MS? and The INFORMS
Career Booklet on Is a Career in Operations
Research/Management Science Right for You?
Research Mathematics - The study of mathematics for
its own sake. Just about any mathematics faculty member
will be more than happy to chat with you about this.
As a career, this almost always requires graduate school;
to investigate the possibilites, think about doing
something during the summer.
Statistics - The study of methods for collecting,
classifying, analyzing and making inferences from data.
For more info, check About
Careers in Statistics at
the American Statistical Association's website. Here
is also a statistics
job search site.
Teaching - At all levels. Here's EducationWorld's
state certification listings, and UKY's
state certification search for secondary school teaching. To teach at the
community college level, you should get a Master's
degree (either in mathematics or a Master of Arts in
Teaching); to teach at the college level, you should
get a Ph.D. (in mathematics, mathematics education,
applied mathematics, or statistics). Here's an annotated
list of K - 12 math sites.
Technical Writing - This includes everything from
science reporting for periodicals to writing documentation
for computer software to editing textbooks. For more
info, check out Careers
in Science Writing or Careers
in Technical Writing or this technical
writing career profile. Here's a technical
writing jobs site. Here's
a math-specific
journalism site by MSRI. Also check
out this mini-biography of Allyn
Jackson, who is a
technical writer with the American Mathematical Society.
(Not in the mini-bio: she's trained in modern dance
as well...)
What about Graduate School?
Lots of opportunities are available to those with
a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In some fields,
such as biostatistics, finaincial mathematics, or operations
research, a professional master's degree is preferred
(or at least qualifies one for a higher salary). In
research mathematics, a Ph.D. is required. Keep in
mind: graduate school in the mathematical sciences
is often free. Most Ph.D. programs in pure mathematics
have financial support available in the form of tuition
waivers plus a research stipend or a part-time teaching/grading
job. This is also true for Ph.D. programs in statistics,
applied mathematics, computer science, and operations
research. Financial support for master's degrees varies
wildly from field to field and sometimes from school
to school; it's rarely available for pure mathematics,
but is much more available for applied mathematics,
statistics, financial mathematics, and biostatistics.
Books
Great
Jobs for Math Majors (review) is in the library
101 Careers in Mathematics (review) is in the library
Links to Other Math-Career-Info
Sites
The University's office
of career and leadership development assists students in their search for employment
by offering individual career counseling sessions,
by conducting an annual workshop series on interviewing
and resumé writing techniques, and by maintaining
a current educational, vocational and employer information
resource center. Each year over 100 corporate representatives
from national and local companies visit the Xavier
campus and conduct over 1,000 interviews for full-time
seniors and graduate students. Internship and part-time
and summer job referral service is also a function
of the office of career and leadership development.
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