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What careers are available for math majors?

Math major and business minor #math #business

business math
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Sindhu’s Answer

Brooke, a few options (not a comprehensive list):
Operations Research Analyst: perform data analysis to improve operations or take out cost from organizations. This role can be as a consultant or within a large organization
Management/Strategy Consultant/Analyst: offer their clients recommendations on strategic/management problems using skills in communication, research, problem-solving, and analysis
Financial Analyst: prepare and analyze financial plans and forecasts to help leadership/management make data-driven business decisions. These role exist in many large organizations like financial institutions, consumer packaged goods companies, health care organizations, etc.
Actuary: analyze the financial consequences of risk using math, statistics, and finance in fields such as commercial real estate and health insurance
Investment Banking: offer their clients financial advisory services for raising capital, mergers and acquisitions, etc.

Hope that helps.
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Shiyoung (David)’s Answer

Hi Brooke!

If I were you, I will think about becoming an Actuary! It is a business professional who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs. (Detail definition and role could be found by below link)

https://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/actuary/what.html?p=what#:~:text=An%20actuary%20is%20a%20business,to%20insurance%20and%20pension%20programs.

You might need to prepare actuary exams like CPA exams. You need to pass a series of exams to earn an actuarial designation through the Casualty Actuarial Society or the Society of Actuaries. However, one can begin a career as an actuary by passing the first two exams and then taking subsequent exams while working as an actuarial assistant. (Refer to the below link for further details)

https://math.cornell.edu/actuary-careers#:~:text=The%20Actuarial%20Exams&text=While%20still%20an%20undergraduate%2C%20one,by%20the%20Casualty%20Actuarial%20Society.

Lots of my friends majoring statistics became actuaries and they all are very satisfied with their work life balance! You could ask your seniors about actuary job and get more detail feedbacks! Hope it could help you choose your future career.
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Tiffany’s Answer

Hi there! If you are interested in an out-of-the-box position around mathematics and are interested in sports, ESPN has a Stats and Information Group, which consists of analysis, tracking, research, predictive metrics and more. Some students don't know these roles exist, but we have a department of over 100 people, many with a mathematics background!
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Andrew’s Answer

It is quite an irony in that my degrees are all in physics but ended up in a professorship in mathematics and statistics for 14 years before my retirement. The reason is that with a strong background in mathematics, one can venture boldly in practically a wide range of quantitative and analytical field.

Based on your question, I would assume you are not interested in landing on a viable career path upon graduation. If this is the case, you are in a good position to leverage your mathematics education on any business-related jobs.

If you are interested in a career in mathematics or related areas, you do need an advanced degree. In this case, you need to consult your math professors on what branch of mathematics you would like to go into for your masters’ degree and beyond.
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Lisa’s Answer

The great thing about majoring in mathematics is that you earn so many transferable skills that can lead to an extremely wide variety of jobs! Some examples of these skills include critical thinking, problem solving, analytical skills, and data analysis. So that pretty much means you’re qualified for any job that requires these skills!

One of the first decisions you’ll have to make when it comes to careers is deciding whether or not you want a career that will involve math on a daily basis. If yes, you’ll want to think about quantitative careers (see next paragraph), and if not, you’ll want to think about what other responsibilities you might want to have on a daily basis in order to help narrow down your career options. Neither is better than the other, they’re just different!

One really great resource for you to continue exploring careers that involve math (quantitative careers) is the Mathematical Association of America’s Career Resource Center. They have a lot of great info about careers, advice for students, and job postings as well. Access it here: https://mathcareers.maa.org/

Lisa recommends the following next steps:

Think about what job responsibilities you would enjoy (quantitative or not)
Review MAA’s career center resources.
Start looking at actual job postings on websites like Indeed and other search engines to see some examples!
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Elizabeth’s Answer

I personally went the math track, but then changed my major to statistics in undergrad because I loved applying math to everyday problems and even business problems. It is not necessary to change to a statistics major to do this. Math and statistics helps predict if a customer is going to stop buying a product, purchase your product, future revenue of a company, not payback a loan, etc. If your desire is to apply math, then you can look into an entry level data science role, go an actuary path (probability in insurance), etc. You can do any of these with a mathmatics, statistics degree, operational research, or data science (depends on the school). The pay is outstanding and job satisfaction is incredibly high. Also, these roles withstand economic hard times. Switching jobs is also very easy considering there are not enough of these professionals in the field. Communication will be important so be sure to practice explaining difficult math concepts in easy terms to people who do not understand or struggle with math. You will have to explain your work and the benefit of using your work in business decisions in very simple terms.

Elizabeth recommends the following next steps:

Research data science jobs and profiles on linkedin
Consider where you want to apply your math skills: finance, sports, pharmaceuticals, human resources, retail, restaurants, any field just about!
Learn basic Python. Lots of tutorials out there.
Definitely, take a job being a math tutor. It will teach you how to explain math concepts and you will learn math on a deeper level. Plus you make a bit of $.
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Donna’s Answer

Math has a lot of transferrable skills and careers. Talk to people that are actuaries, mathematicians, teachers and engineers. Know that if you love math, the best companion with any of these careers is technology courses! Double major with an IT degree and you will now go wrong. If you like math, I hope you also like working with spreadsheets, algorithms and macros. Good luck!

Donna recommends the following next steps:

Think about other things that go along with Math and rank if you could work with them all day (spreadsheets, children or laboratories)?
Talk to people in careers that are of interest - use LinkedIn; eveyone loves to talk about themselves.
Talk to spouses of people with 'Math' careers and ask how available they are to their families.q
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