Thread: Careers for Math majors?

hey guys, I recently had to stop going to school. Mostly due to my own stupidity of not getting though it when I should have and now I am 25 married and have a beautiful baby girl that I need to help support. When I went back to School two years ago I was going for a Biological Systems Engineering degree, I am now working full time and not able to go to school I have been trying to figure out a way to get my degree and get out of a dead end IT job. I have been looking at my course load for the engineering degree and I need 3&1/2 semesters left of full course loads but if I were to switch to a math major I only have about 8 classes that could be completed in a year and a summer. My question is do any of you know what type of jobs there are for a B.S. in Math or do you need your M.S. in math to really do much with it? Any advice would be helpful. As a P.S. I really hate doing math for the sake of doing math...I figure if I was making more than 45k/year It would do a lot to alleviate that part of it and I do not think that I would be good at teaching either.

I don't know how things work in the US, but a Math degree can open all sorts of doors if you are a lateral thinker.

There's teacher, of course, which does not suit everyone. I had a few friends of mine picked up as "analysts" for various Govt. departments; meteorological applications; finance applications; science & technology; IT. Anywhere maths is needed in industry, I can almost guarantee you there is a shortage of good people to fill the spaces.

Do yourself a favour and (1) Talk to people in your math department; (2) Talk to people at your University careers office; (3) Pick up some statistics courses - data analysis and the principles upon which it is based will never see you out of work.

Good luck.

James.

James nailed it on the head. Some people in the US can also work in data storage engineering. I asked a guy that work for Seagate and he said it was preferred to have a strong math background.

Well, these days a B.S. in math will probably get you an entry level job in pretty much anything that requires analytical skills, but if you're not good at it or don't like it, the degree won't be of much help after that.

I'd suggest that you think more about what kind of job you'll be interested in doing. The most important thing you can get out of your math classes is better analytical thinking, and may be a little bit of familiarity with particular tools/methods (as James said statistics should be near the top of your considerations).

I'd concentrate on preferred vocational goals first. The road ahead is easier to visualize if you have some idea of where you want to go. You may not be able to plot a path to an ideal career, but knowing what that might be can give you some hints on secondary paths.

I hear you man. I'm a 25 year old married man with a B.S. Applied Physics. Everything I've looked at up until now wanted someone with an engineering degree. I have changed my focus to technical sales. I'm not saying that's what you should do.