Math Related Careers


Many people think of mathematicians as rather abstract impractical people, but actually math is one of the most marketable job skills there is. There are literally thousands of kinds of math related careers, and some of them commands a tremendous amount of respect, to say nothing about the money! Of course the most common math related career path is to teach mathematics. High school and middle school math teachers are actually required to have a lot of mathematic background. You need to know way more than simple high school math to get that job. As a matter of fact, an undergraduate degree in mathematics is almost as useful as a teaching degree in most districts.

Then there are the higher-level math related careers. There are some great careers in mathematics in research and development fields. A lot of these overlap with engineering, but you don't necessarily need to be an engineer to get into them. Being able to deal with complex mathematical equations and logical thinking is in some ways better training for a program like software design or electronic engineering than is studying the field.

Since I am currently enrolled in an undergraduate mathematics degree program, I've been thinking a lot about what sort of Math job I want. I think for me the best math related career would probably be something in cryptography. I have always been fascinated by code breaking and, in the current political climate, it is absolutely necessary to have intelligent people working to decipher the enemy's communications. There are math related careers in counter terrorism, security, and systems analysis that work directly to help our nation's infrastructure stay strong and protected. It would be neat to do something that is simultaneously so interesting and so important.

Then again, I might want to get into academia. Working as a college professor is a little harder than it used to be. It is difficult to get tenure nowadays, and job security is on the way out. Nonetheless, it is still pretty cushy by the standards of most jobs. The great thing about getting college math related careers is that you have so much time to do research and theoretical work. Rather than spending all of your time working on assignments, you can publish your own original work. For me, this would be a dream come true. If I go to graduate school, it's definitely something I'm going to consider.