Careers using Maths

[Berries]

Ok, background. My careers advice at school was non-existant. Parents left school at 15 & so didn't really know about a lot of the different career opportunities. Although I ended up in a job I do enjoy, I do feel there were a lot of other things out there that I would have liked to have done if I had been more aware of the options.
So, dd2 is talking tonight and wants to know what career she can have which will use a lot of maths and I come up with.....

ACCOUNTANT

I'm just as bad as all those careers officers aren't I? Anyway, I'm sure you lot can come up with lots of careers which use a lot of maths and don't require any ability to spell write essays. Then my dd wont look back in years to come & wonder why mum was such a numbskull.

BTW she's only 9 (y5) but obviously believes in forward planning

Statistician

Loads of job oppurtunities for statisticians in various different fields.

I work in the pharmaceutical sector- you can find more information about it here
careers in pharmaceutical statistics

or about statistics careers in general here

general statistics careers

A Teacher or lecturer!

Maths opens many doors imo opinion because it teaches you how to think analytically. I'm a chemist by training and accounty firms were always seeking out chemists to train because of our analytical training.

She will be able to do traditional vocational training like accountancy, actuary, banking etc or move into other areas like project management, business analysis, system engineering etc. Maths, chemistry, physics and any form of engineering are good degrees to have.

accountancy firms

Wow, thanks everyone, I didn't realise maths could lead to quite so many areas. Will print this off for her when she gets home (minus the derogatory comments of course ) She'll be really impressed.

I did physics which has a lot of maths in it. I worked as a computer programmer and I also did mathematical modelling.

Nine year old is young, and she might discover other things that she enjoys at secondary school.

A-level maths is a great preparation for lots of other careers if she decides she doesnt want to a maths degree.

I hope she carries on enjoying her maths.

Civil Engineering is a good broad-based degree from which you can move into lots of different fields - but it's still not particularly well-paid

You might find this useful, mathscareer

In fact read this guy's story and his response to someone who said that Maths was boring, here

Is she showing any aptitude for languages? Maths plus languages equals good career at GCHQ.

Thanks for all the info, at least I've got a much better idea now.

Not sure whether you can say she has an aptitude for languages. She does French at school & seems to be doing ok but suspect she's more science/maths based. Not sure she'd have the personality for GCHQ anyway

BTW, realise at 9 this could all change, but am trying to keep the 'mummy knows everything' myth alive as long as possible. Sadly she asked to see the mn thread, so maybe it's 'mummies know everything'

Would love to know what you think the 'personality for GCHQ' is, Berries.

Anyway, it's maths or languages, they're completely different careers. A few people have both (hm, the people you'd probably think have the 'personality' on the whole, they're often a little odd). Right now 'good career' is highly subjective though ... but 12+ years down the line, who knows?

I have to agree with actuarial work if she would like to make money. She is also likely to be the only female in the actuarial dept! As a profession they're not renowned for being the most socially skilled, however I do know a couple of actuaries who fortunately buck that trend

Sorry, meant that I suspect you would have to be more of a team player and more co-operative for GCHQ, neither of which are her stong points . If I suggest she has the personality of an actuary am I going to offend anyone

civil engineering

Heh, well if they let you stay as a mathematician you can can be as mad and as uncooperative as you like, provided you have a brain the size of a planet. But my husband was recruited as a mathematician, they made him into a programmer, and now he has to manage people. Shudder.

So being a comedian, like Dara O'Briain, who apparently has got a degree in maths, might not appeal then Berries?
(Mind you, Eddie Izzard started out as an accountancy student so there is hope for her yet)

When I was 17 and a maths duffer I had a holiday job on my dad's small computer company's switchboard. This was in the days when a laser printer was 20ft long and took 3 minutes to spit out a single sheet of A4. One day I had to take some post up to the programmers in the attic. They were all, in the nicest possible way, totally barking. They all had starred firsts from Cambridge. They all looked like Denzil Dexter from The Fast Show.
They had their own entrance at the back of the building to keep them separate from the flared brown suits and kipper ties of the Marketing Dept.

Lackofgravitas, in my experience the ones "they" let stay as mathematicians were actually so scarily weird no one would dream of asking them to do anything else!

We do quant analysts for banks, very good money and lots of different career paths.
According to our research maths was the second most common degree of newly minted millionaires last year. Physics was first, mostly because they are more likely to have done the "right" sort of maths.
Quite literally thousands of people with maths qualifications are sucked into banks, and usually paid quite well, and sometime very well. The highest we've yet seen was 90K + bonus straight out of university. As it happens she was female and of non-British origin, so it was hardly "jobs for the boys".

By contrast a key defect in the education of most Media Studies grads is their profound inability to give good head. That is the only way they will get employed in their chosen field. That's not my sentiment, but from a director of a media frim whose work you will recognise.
But I can understand if the latter is not a sentiment you want to share with your daughter.

Sorry, just come back to this one. Thanks everyone for your comments, and will definitely be encouraging maths rather than the media as a career

Anything with science in the name, including things like psychologist & sociologist. Anything that relies on statistics -- that includes medicine.

Working in a shop or a pub (lots of mental maths).
Owning or managing a business (you want to be able to understand the accounts).
Building industry: brickies need to calculate how many, quantity surveyors, architects.
Textiles: need to calculate areas, measure carefully, order right amount of materials for area needed.
Cooking: need to scale recipes up and down, order in right amount of materials, get value for money on items ordered.
Farming: lots and lots of cost scenario planning
Medicine

tbh, I'm struggling to think of a career path that doesn't use maths! Care-giving daycare? Horticulture? Cleaning?

My son has applied to study financial mathematics at university, he is clearly motivated by the long term financial rewards! As long as he can sit on his own in an office and not have to talk to anyone else he will be fine Some of the most boring sounding careers here would suit him just fine! ( Sorry, don't mean to offend any actuarists or accountants!)

This is a good website, I looked at it with my DS. www.mathscareers.org.uk/