For many people, math is something they want to avoid. Bad memories from school and not being able to understand algebra haunt them deep into adult life.
For others, though, math is a vocation. It’s something they love. In fact, it’s almost a creative pursuit sometimes. It’s fun to play around with logic and see what results you can come up with.
If you love math, we have some good news: there are plenty of careers out there begging for people just like you.
Physicist
Becoming a physicist requires a lot of work upfront. You’ll have to get at least a master’s degree, and preferably a doctorate.
Physicists fall into two categories: theoretical and applied. If you go in the applied direction, you’ll use mathematics to validate your experiments. You’ll focus mainly on statistics, using a range of data modeling tools to assess the statistical significance of your results, and whether they fit the theory.
If you become a theoretical physicist, you’ll work primarily in the realm of mathematical concepts. Your job is to develop mathematical models of the world that applied physicists can test. You’ll need to be a math whizz and understand how mathematical concepts link to physical principles.
Mathematician
Having an interest in math is helpful if you want to become a mathematician. Again the work you do can be either pure or applied. In pure mathematics, you explore the entire math “space,” looking for new connections, logic, and results. Your goal is to develop math concepts just for the fun of it and see where they lead. Universities are the primary math employers, though you may also find roles in statistical agencies and mathematics organizations.
Applied mathematics involves taking abstract math concepts and attempting to find uses for them in the real world. Often, the applications of mathematics don’t become obvious until many years after their discovery.
Biostatistician
Of all the jobs you can get with a data science degree, becoming a biostatistician is among the most interesting. These professionals have to combine medical and statistical knowledge with business acumen to deliver value to the marketplace.
Being a biostatistician, you’ll crunch patient data looking for patterns, be involved in clinical trials, and develop medical software. You’ll work with a range of public health bodies, drug companies, and private-funded research institutes. If successful, the entire field of medicine may come to rely on your research for making sound decisions about which way to proceed and what standards to implement.
Neuropsychologist
Neuropsychologists are individuals who contribute to the understanding of the brain. Their goal is to look at it piece by piece and then try to figure out what each part does in regulating behavior and emotions.
Neuropsychologists use a range of professional measurement equipment during the course of their work, such as fMRI and PET scans. These techniques let them take a closer look at patients’ brains so that they can analyze them for differences to uncover the causes of diseases.
To become a neuropsychologist, you’ll need a background in science and to train in a medical capacity. Your main skills will be analytical, investigative, and deductive. These practices naturally appeal to math lovers.
Financial Analysts
Science isn’t the only field that relies heavily on mathematics: so too does finance and economics. Hence, becoming a financial analyst could provide you with an extremely lucrative and rewarding career.
Financial analysts assess the financial health of businesses and, sometimes, individuals. They can either be freelance or on the payroll of large corporations full-time.
Financial analysts help clients make decisions about what to do with their money. They assess risk and return, and suggest portfolio asset allocations based on the investors’ objectives.
In some cases, financial analysts join rating companies. In this capacity, their job is to explore the capacity of countries and companies to repay their debt. They then ascribe a letter rating to them, ranging from AAA+ all the way to junk status.
Financial analysts may also work for security and pension firms. Here the goal isn’t to manage the portfolio of a single client, but those of thousands of customers. Analysts help providers settle on the investment strategy likely to yield outsized returns.
Financial Quantitative Analyst
Sometimes called “quants,” financial quantitative analysts’ job is to research financial products and help people make better investments. They create financial models to simulate risk values and risk and predict macro trends that could affect the entire economy. They also advise their clients and risk, price movements, and other factors related to portfolio values.
Top quants who use data to predict the market can make a fortune. Sophisticated analysis keeps them one step ahead of their peers, leading to massive returns and financial rewards. On the flip side, if you’re not successful, you can find yourself kicked out pretty quickly.
All of the big investment banks hire quants. Starting salaries are extremely high and go up considerably if you are successful.
Statistician
Commercial applications of pure mathematics are few and far between. Occasionally, organizations will hire an in-house mathematician, but it is exceedingly rare.
By contrast, a lot of firms require statisticians to help them crunch all the data they collect. To become a statistician, you’ll want a master’s degree in statistics. You’ll need to understand multivariate analysis inside out, as well as a range of regression models. You’ll also want to have an understanding of parameter spaces so you can develop appropriate statistical models for the data you encounter.
Drug companies regularly hire statisticians. These in-house number crunchers take results from clinical trials and present them in papers that the company publishes to prove the effectiveness of its products. You’ll also be responsible for analyzing cohort data, seeing how particular interventions affect people through time (such as taking a certain supplement, eating a particular diet, or changing their lifestyle in some way).
In summary, there are plenty of careers out there for people who love math. If you are extremely skilled in what you do, you can have fun and earn a small fortune at the same time.
