It is a discipline that has diverse applications in almost every job sector that you can name. We can see its application in computing to medicine. People who major in mathematics and other related fields of study such as statistics typically have good employment chances. If you are interested in this field, you may find it useful to learn more about the job options available to people with a mathematics degree. Thus, this article will analyze the top 10 careers in Mathematics that anybody who majors in mathematics should definitely consider.
Because even if your love for math may have begun as a pastime, with the right amount of expertise and dedication, you may turn it into a rewarding job. Besides, if you have opted to study mathematics as your main major, you should know which employment route you want to explore further. So, even before you formally graduate, you should know what you want to do.
Why You Should Choose Mathematics as a Major?
Before we dive into our list of top 10 careers in Mathematics, we should first know why math is a good major for you.
Do you enjoy identifying patterns and solving riddles and puzzles? You will be glad to know that math is a broad field of study that stresses logic and creativity. Besides, being able to apply mathematical principles and concepts is valuable in almost every other field. Thus, here are three compelling reasons to help you understand why you should too study mathematics:
Solve Real World Problems
Problem-solving is at the heart of every creative profession. Besides, learning math can help you to answer the following questions easily.
- How can transport companies set their schedule to fix delay time and repair costs?
- Can we substitute fossil fuels with ethanol?
- How can any illness outbreak spread amongst people?
- Can weather affect the forest fire? If so, how?
- How can we maximize the profit and compensate for the loss while investing?
Job Satisfaction
A math degree offers some of the most gratifying and fulfilling jobs. Besides, some of the highest-paying jobs are directly connected to mathematics according to CareerCast.com. It includes professionals such as statistics, financial assistants, engineers, data scientists, mathematicians, and actuaries.
Strong Foundation for Advance Studies
We believe that no matter if you want to pursue any other field, investing some time in mathematics still remains one of the most important things. Besides, people with an undergrad degree in mathematics easily get a role in law, business, medicine, commerce, and engineering.
After all, math majors typically have the analytical abilities that anyone may need to flourish in a workspace. According to one survey, people with a math degree performed better than 40 other fields on the Law School Admission Test or LSAT.
What Skills Do You Require for a Math Career?
If you have been fascinated by mathematics for a long time, you might have started practicing the following skills years ago. However, if you are new to mathematics, you have to find out what you require to make sure that you outperform in mathematics.
Creativity
The first thing that you need to make sure of is you are acquiring as much knowledge as possible while you are at college. Then, once start working, you will have to creatively turn your current knowledge into new and better techniques for dealing with challenges in your workspace.
After all, the basic objective of a mathematician is to resolve the problems at hand. However, if you can only answer issues that others have previously solved, you will not be able to get a high-paying job.
After all, mathematicians who merely reuse what they have learned in college are never true mathematicians. Because true mathematics is constantly on top of everything you can name. Therefore, you need to be inventive and creative if you wish to be good in your career with a math major.
Communication
Most people consider that a mathematician is an antisocial individual. Besides that, they consider that their minds are steeped with figures. On the other hand, any job requires its applicants to be good at communication, including math-related occupations.
Therefore, you must learn how to communicate your knowledge and expertise in the simplest way possible if you want to be good at your job.
So, whether your audience possesses a math background or not, you will need to make sure that they comprehend the value you are bringing to their organizations. On the other hand, even if you are an amazing math genius, you will struggle to progress if you fail to communicate your point to your colleagues and superiors.
Critical Thinking
Amongst the most essential skills that one requires for math has to be critical thinking. After all, one of the fundamental aims of math is to effectively study complex fields of data. Besides, your worth in your math career is directly proportional to your capacity to critically examine anything that you are assigned.
What are Different Mathematics Specializations?
A specialization helps students gain knowledge and abilities in a certain area of the field. Besides that, it also prepares them for leadership roles in those fields. Thus, here are a few specialties that students majoring in math can go for.
Logic
Students in the logic further study the work of the pioneers of the field. These include Tarski, Hilbert, and Turing. So, the course content includes all the fundamental concepts and principles of logic. So, students learn algebra, number theory, geometry, and much more. Moreover, courses on the importance of logic within computer science are also a part of this specialization.
Probability and Statistics
Students who prefer to specialize in Probability and Statistics learn about the stochastic framework. They also study tools for studying a wide range of random events and phenomena.
Besides, the course content contains numerical analysis, mathematical model construction, techniques for data analysis, and much more. So, students learn about information reduction, simulation methodologies, and many more.
Dynamical System and Differential Equation
This specialty focuses on perturbation theory and averages. Besides that, it also includes operators, dual spaces, topological equivalence, and much more. So, students investigate the quantitative and qualitative behavior of not only infinite but also finite-dimensional dynamical systems.
Top 10 Careers in Mathematics
With a maths major, you can choose to train for any teaching position at high school or college or work in a variety of other fields. You may considerably boost your career chances by combining mathematics with specialty disciplines such as economics, computer science, applied mathematics, statistics, engineering, and quantitative sciences.
Besides, if you are an engineer with strong mathematical skills, you should consider a career in chemical engineering and electrical engineering. Because these engineering fields require individuals with a thorough understanding of math.
In addition to that, you can also work in business, research, social services, teaching, public sector projects, and many other career paths.
With that being said, let us dive deep into our list of top 10 careers in mathematics.
1. Mathematics Professor
One of the most common professions for a math major has to be a math teacher in our list of top 10 careers in mathematics. Depending on their qualifications, expertise, and skill, a math teachers can choose to work at schools, colleges, or universities.
For a certain curriculum or syllabus, some institutions demand a Bachelor of Education degree and competence to make sure they are achieving their goal of excellence in academics.
A math teacher is responsible for planning lesson plans, assigning homework and assignments, and preparing students for tests and quizzes. In addition to that, they also need to teach students various aspects of maths. Moreover, teachers can also choose to collaborate with online schools and colleges to help students apply for higher education and courses.
2. Financial Planner
A financial adviser or planner assists people and organizations to manage their financial issues. They are basically great at creating actionable financial solutions for the finances of their customers.
A few of their main work include setting financial goals, identifying risks, and assisting with the pension or investment plans of their customers. They also assist businesses in analyzing and judging the stock market, real estate investments, and much more.
Furthermore, financial analysts may analyze financial records to review and propose portfolios. In addition to that, they analyze different business patterns relevant to their customer’s businesses. Then, they evaluate and recommend the best portfolio options.
Financial analysts also assist their clients in identifying investment possibilities both locally and globally. Besides that, they work on staying relevant to legislation and regulations affecting their client’s business.
3. Statistician
Most public sector organizations, corporations, and businesses need statisticians to collect and analyze raw data. Among the fields in which statisticians work are medicine, government, journalism, agriculture, finance, ecology, and many more.
As statisticians, they basically collect raw information and evaluate and analyze it. Then, they draw conclusions to help assist their customer in making the right decisions for their business. In addition, they create questionnaires and data-collecting surveys.
For the above work, statisticians utilize and try to come up with new mathematical principles, theories, and techniques to address issues. These include business, engineering, and the sciences.
Moreover, statisticians also collaborate with chemists, material scientists, or engineers to evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs.
4. Data Analyst and Data Scientist
We had to add data scientists and analysts as part of our top 10 careers in mathematics for its popularity amongst people with mathematics as their major.
We have many statistical tools and analytical approaches at hand to assist businesses and other professions in interpreting data. Data analysts use these techniques and tools to basically assist businesses in understanding their performance.
They study trends and patterns in consumer behavior, sales, company workers’ productivity, and other elements. Besides, they also develop reports based on their analyses. Then, they hand over these reports to the management of the company.
A data analyst position has several ranks and plenty of possibilities for growth after a few years of hands-on experience.
Similar to data analysts, data scientists are also responsible to find useful insights from complicated raw data. Data analysts, study raw data using already existing tools and systems. On the other hand, data scientists often create new algorithms, tools, and techniques to address and resolve business challenges for their clients.
If data science seems amusing to you, you will be glad to know that you few organizations also hire people with a master’s degree in math whereas others require the applicant to have a Ph.D.
5. Market Researcher
The job of a market researcher is to identify what items should any business offer, and how should they market them to reach their goal. Market analysts burn the midnight oil to find potential solutions to issues like these. They bring statistical analysis to use in order to determine what products the masses are willing to invest in. Besides that, they also analyze how much the potential customers are ready to pay for these products.
So, the market researcher collects consumer data for their clients. Then, companies use this data to set objectives and plans, expand their business, and stand up against their competition.
Moreover, market researchers also create surveys and studies. Besides that, they follow market trends and offer all key information to their clients who further study these data and take decisions based on the results they draw. Moreover, you will also have the opportunity to lead a team of researchers once you gain enough experience and competence.
6. Mathematician
The first profession you see when you search for the top 10 careers for mathematics is no doubt mathematician. Students who choose mathematics as their major become mathematicians.
These are people who are so fascinated with the subject that they never want to leave it. In an environment where automation and artificial intelligence are jeopardizing so many jobs, the need for mathematicians will continue to rise until at least 2027.
Mathematicians work in the field of pure numerical analysis. Although mathematicians work on issues that are relevant to the physical world, their job description does not frequently include making real physical measurements. On the other hand, mathematicians work with abstractions and attempt to resolve the most complex numerical connections known to man.
Moreover, several mathematicians opt to move beyond the strictly academic and work on real-world challenges. These experts are known as applied mathematicians. Besides, they typically work on complicated problems in industry, administration, or engineering.
However, conceptual mathematicians are exclusively concerned with abstract problems. These mathematicians assist in the development of human civilization by enhancing our understanding of how the worlds of mathematics and physical reality interact.
It is evident that obtaining a math degree is the best option if you want to be a mathematician. However, it is also apparent that becoming a mathematician is not the only job you can accomplish with a math degree. To be a professional mathematician, you must appreciate numbers for what they are rather than what they can achieve in the world.
Besides, to make an impact in the realm of theoretical mathematics, you must have the skill and unwavering commitment.
7. Aerospace Engineer
An aerospace engineer is always on the cutting edge of developing new spaceships, planes, and missiles to keep their country strong and their industry progressing.
Aerospace engineers create innovative technologies to keep items in the air for extended periods of time. Like other engineers, they are responsible for coming up with brand-new concepts from the beginning. Therefore, the creative side of mathematics is very important in this area.
Furthermore, aerospace engineers employ math and physics to create new airframes, wings, motors, and other components for airplanes and other flying machines. Besides, they create trials for their innovations and decide how to incorporate them into realistic flying vehicles.
Thus, we can say that aerospace engineering is frequently an area of endless trial and error. Therefore, if you become easily frustrated, you should consider a different career.
To be a successful aircraft engineer, you must have a strong mathematical foundation. Because you will spend a significant amount of time as an aerospace engineer working with rockets.
To be a successful aircraft engineer, you must have a strong understanding of mathematics. Because you will spend a significant amount of time as an aerospace engineer working with rockets. Because you will spend a significant amount of time as an aerospace engineer playing with rockets, you will also need to grasp how mathematics connects to the actual world in order to find out smarter ways to keep those rockets in the air.
Moreover, aerospace engineers work for federal agencies such as NASA as well as famous aerospace corporations such as Northrop Grumman. So, we had to include it in our list of top 10 careers in mathematics.
8. Physicist
To conduct their work efficiently, physicists must certainly master mathematics. It is nearly hard to be a physicist without having a minimum of one degree in mathematics. Therefore, if physics is your chosen career path, you should focus on math during your undergraduate studies. There is no doubt that it is a wise decision.
A practicing physicist’s environment is anything but academic. To be a great physicist, you must make precise observations of the natural environment. Then, you translate these findings into sophisticated mathematical computations.
Physicists study the functioning of the physical cosmos. Therefore, from Isaac Newton to the great Stephen Hawking, physicists have long attempted to improve mathematical models in order to better comprehend how the universe works.
The realm of physics has gotten considerably more difficult over the last decade or so. Because scientists have had to struggle with the very irrational and non-mechanistic realm of quantum physics.
Therefore, physicists with powerful mathematical abilities are in higher demand than ever. Because the regional and global physics community seeks to develop new models that efficiently explain the newest paradoxes produced by reality.
Although physics is a more practical field than many other mathematicians’ occupations, you will still require your math abilities to flourish as a physicist. Because physics is the art of converting the mysteries of reality into the dialect of numbers. Thus, your capacity to examine observations and put them into equations will be crucial as a physicist.
9. Economist
I assume that you all will admit that money is simply numbers with a monetary value associated with it. Therefore, math majors naturally become excellent economists. Thus, if you are a math whiz, economics is the field for you.
Besides that, we believed that one of the more robotic paths you may pursue in your math career is that of an economist. After all, market analysis is nearly entirely analytical. So, by studying markets, you can predict how they will perform.
As an economist, you may work for a think tank and do economic research for policy purposes. On the other side, you may work for a company and assist your bosses in increasing their earnings.
Furthermore, to earn a successful career as an economist, you will generally need at minimum a master’s degree. Although it is feasible to find work as an economist with only a bachelor’s degree, you will need to demonstrate to a prospective employer that you can offer more value than your competing candidates with more schooling and training.
10. Actuary
The last job in our list of top 10 careers in mathematics is the actuary. The majority of actuaries work in the insurance business. They detect, assess, and manage the cost of uncertainty and risk using ideas from mathematics, economics, and statistics. Besides, they use a variety of business tactics and tools, including as investments, retirement funds plans, and insurance plans. Their main purpose is to assist customers in limiting risks and increasing profits
Moreover, they also assist enterprises and customers in developing risk-mitigation plans. Therefore, actuaries are critical members of the insurance sector. And they must be proficient in complex statistics and modeling software, math, management, and economics.
If this seems interesting to you, you might be wondering how to become an actuary.
After accumulating some years of expertise in risk analysis, you can choose to become an actuary. Because actuaries handle complicated issues in order to quantify risks for businesses. Moreover, actuaries can operate in industries such as insurance, healthcare, finance, and banking.
Furthermore, they also assist firms in developing policies by betting on risks and unanticipated events.
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