Tell me about your careers working with statistics

[crackovty]

DS is interested in doing a degree in statistics, or a related course, such as MORSE. We just had a quick look at jobs being advertised by the Office of National Statistics and were slightly surprised that the salaries were so low, but perhaps we shouldn't be as they are Civil Service and not London-based, and maybe they make up for it with excellent training and benefits. I know many big companies employ people with stats skills for Operational Research, Data Science etc. If that's you, or someone you know, we'd be interested to hear about typical (or even atypical) career paths and to get an idea of future salary potential.

Pharmaceutical companies employ statisticians and statistical programmers which would pay reasonably well. Many offer placements for students and have graduate placement schemes.

I know a number of people who are statisticians. All work in Pharmaceutical industry large and small companies.

I did a year working in statistics role as my placement year from university at a Fuel Company. Was pure statistical anaylsis.

In banking, lots of people working in credit risk have a statistics background and the salaries are £££

There’s Information analysts in the nhs. Entry level is band 5. Takes about three years to progress to next band where I am which is £30k. Civil service is similar.

Better paid is banks and pharma.

I'm an NHS statistician which is band 8a. Living in the north east I have no salary complaints! My degree wasn't in statistics but I got there through a career in analytics.

These days, data science is a good skill to have. The courses should equip you for pure statistics but also offer more opportunities in an area that is booming, I would recommend looking into those rather than pure statistics unless pure statistics is the passion

DD2 is a medical statistician. She did a maths degree then a masters and works for a university clinical trials unit. She could earn more if she worked for a pharmaceutical company but is happy with the variety of work where she is for now. She wouldn’t have considered statistics before studying it a degree level.

I would have thought there were plenty of opportunities in data science as it’s a growing area.

Being an actuary is very well paid and involves statistics - some roles are more stats based than others. Can work in insurer, actuarial consultancy or one of the big four. But need to be prepared to sit professional exams, which aren’t easy.

I worked at ONS. The stronger ones can be promoted pretty soon to Senior Research Officer where the salary is in the high £30k's, and to grade 7 by the time they are 30 where the salary is about £50k. They aren't the norm, but it's certainly possible. There's the civil service fast stream too. A familiarity with stats is all that's required for some jobs, but the pure stats work, including interacting with experts at universities etc, is there if that's what you want to do.

There's a lot of new, interesting analysis being carried out at the new Data Science Campus including modelling etc. Have a look at datasciencecampus.ons.gov.uk/

Diversity and work-life balance are given very high importance. There's an internal Learning Academy which provides many training courses. There's a great sense of community, and a wide range of opportunity. It's nice to see your work on the news too 🙂 Oh - and they put me through my MSc, and they offer this in data science too I think. Salary is important, but so is the whole package.

I work in medical education, there are frequently stats jobs in this area and psychometrics which pay really well.

My partner and I are statisticians.

I am in London, in the civil service. I started off in a market research company on £20k. Moved in the civil service a couple of years later at £30k. Since then (7 years ago) I have moved around and I am now on £75k. I don't do much data analysis any more but I wouldn't have got to my role without it.

My partner started differently as he started in the civil service and then left for banking. In the 6 years he has been in banking he has become a director and is on 130k. He actually works with statistical models every day still.

My DB is a data scientist on 60k, South West so not London.

It's a growing field.

Working in data science and engineering is the place to be with salaries to match. Very cutting edge . I’d encourage a degree that teaches the fundamentals of statistics from first principals and some coding / computer science elements in R/Python. That will give you the foundation to get a grad job at 30k ish in private sector. The public sector has higher paying roles in the other departments as experienced hires but you’ll only need 3-5 years experience . ONS attract lots of graduates and is the obvious choice so they can pay less.

I did a maths degree 10 years ago and it allowed me to work across a range of roles in analytics ,statistics and data science. Now earning above the higher tax bracket in the public sector with flexible working and lots of family friendly benefits.

Peers went into accounting and actuarial sciences and all earn 50K+ as experts and much more in management roles. Any of these routes if salary and training is important apply for the big consultant firms and get the exposure ( and stress to match ) but these open doors after a few years.

Wish him the best of luck !

I work with plenty of statisticians (pharmaceutical). This can be specialising in clinical trials, product development (e.g. supporting R&D) or process improvement (e.g. supporting manufacturing).

Oh and salary wise all the ones I know are pretty experienced / senior so are on £100-150k.

To add, engineering process development and LEAN manufacturing can be a very interesting career choice.

Our LEAN leader earns approx £50-60k and is experienced, but not at the top of his earning potential. This is a small manufacturers, large companies do pay more.

I did a Maths and Stats degree and am now civil service statistician. I went through the fast stream graduate programme, started out on £32k and was on £50k within 4 years, based out of London. The same job would be £60k in London and I still have plenty of opportunities to move up or sideways.

There are a huge range of analysis roles in civil service, ranging from more traditional data collection and producing publications (think Census, Official Statistics) , to briefing Ministers on big issues of the day (e.g doing all the Covid analysis) to data science and programming.

Pros: Quite easy to move between roles, departments and even professions (eg could start as a Stato but move into an Operational Research role if interested); good work-life balance; plenty of training opportunities, both technical and softer skills, including being sponsored to do an MSc; getting to work on issues that affect every-day life and seeing your analysis in the headlines; roles available across the country and presence out of London constantly increasing; great analytical community and cross-government networks; job security.

Cons: May not be as well paid as private sector.

I am a Research Fellow/Evaluation Statistician in the NHS, Band 7. It is a very niche role in relation to health outcomes and health inequality.

I have a BA in Photography and English. A PGDip in Social Work. An MSc in Psychology, a Level 8 qualification in clinical psychological therapy and currently doing an employment based doctoral qualification in research, statistics and health equality. And thinking about doing a quick project management qualification.

If your son is going to go down that route (and I highly recommend he does) prepare him for a lifelong learning scenario

A bit of a side step away from those ideas suggested above, but data journalism is another area that demand is growing for and that requires a very good grasp of statistics. I'd imagine you'd still need a qualification in journalism to go with the stats side of things, but it's at least another avenue to consider.