Career with maths or physics?

[Eastl]

DS has to choose his uni courses. He loves maths , he loves physics.
he thinks maths means some boring job in finance (😳) what else could he do? And what could he do with physics? He loves the order and logic of numbers, computer games, chess..we live in an area where there isn’t a lot of interesting jobs so it’s hard to imagine what’s out there.
thank you!

Following... Similar child!

Data science jobs. Statistician. A friends godson did maths and is a statistician with Chelsea FC.

DH has a maths degree and he's an actuary so might count as a boring job in finance! DD2 also did maths and she's a medical statistician working on clinical trials for cancer drugs.

Medical physicist.
Specialities include:
Radiotherapy planning
Radiation protection
Diagnostic Radiology/nuclear medicine
MRI/CT/PETCT/ultrasound/X-Rays
Optical imaging
Lasers
Computing and coding
Research

There are massive workforce shortages and it's a good career. Brilliant for equality too and you get NHS parental leave, pension...

You need a physics degree first and then apply through various routes.

Maths often leads into IT or statistics. We are crying out for medical statisticians to help with clinical trials.

Data Science
AI
Software engineering

But really, I'd advise them to do a degree in what they love the most and are good at and then the options will become clearer. Very few people know what they want to do at 17 or 18!

Take a look at this report from the Prospects website, which breaks down the broad categories of jobs and the top 10 job titles of newly graduating students, by degree.
luminate.prospects.ac.uk/what-do-graduates-do

I loved maths and physics and studied mechanical engineering at uni. There are SO many avenues to follow through engineering.

A lot of jobs just required a degree to show that you have a certain level of academic attainment/capability. The specific subject isn't always important. There are many graduate schemes in all kinds of fields that would be open to him with a maths or physics degree. Just pick the subject he loves the best, or a combination that he will enjoy and don't worry about job prospects for now.

I did physics and now work in medical physics. My dd did maths and is now doing a masters in medical statistics and data science and looking for a funded phd in this field.
Lot of maths and physics graduates end up in finance or computing as they pay well, but there are other options.

High paid jobs in AI Linear algebra is perhaps the most important mathematical field for AI and machine learning.

Quant- Quantitative analysts are professionals who specialise in “the design, development, and implementation of algorithms and mathematical or statistical models intended to solve complex financial problems, with an average salary of £78,166 per year.

Among the mathematicians graduates I know there are the following careers:

A couple with very interesting jobs quite high up in the Civil Service who started ofc in data analytics roles and rise through the ranks

Someone who came up with some very interesting conputer programmes based on complex mathematical algorithms that very few people understand and who founded a small company to explore the application of these programmes but then the company got bought for a 7 figure sum so now he just does maths and programming for fun as doesn't need to work any more.

Someone who works in University admin in the timetabling department and will talk for hours about the complex problems of scheduling timetables with hundreds of variables if you can't find a way to change the subject.

None of them seem bored with their careers.

Data scientist
statistician
economist

note that most economists study things other than money. Economics is actually a way of quantifying what drives decision making and outcomes.

these types of jobs can be had at many companies. Just a subset of what is out there: pure research for the public good, working for social media outlets to help them maximize their clicks, doing analysis for insurance companies, market research for any big retail company or advertising agency.

the economy runs on data. If you are good at math and can learn to program, you can have an excellent career.

you can also take those same skills and go the biomedical route. Every drug and medical trial, every big for a product that needs safety approval, they all have to analysis work done. Much of it has to be done to a particular regulatory standard. There are people who do that analysis and make sure everything is done by the book.

@Eastl what aspect of maths does your DS like best? Stats? Pure Maths? Mechanics?

My DS1 liked stats. He went to do Statistics at uni and is just starting his final year. Over the summer he did an internship in the actuarial department of a consultancy firm. He really enjoyed it and they have offered him a job for next year as a trainee actuary. It was all about analysing the statisticsl risk of extreme events due to climate change. The data is ultimately used to calculate prices for insurance, but the actuaries get to do the interesting bit.

My DS2 likes mechanics in both maths and physics. He's apply for Civil Engineering.

@Eastl My DH is a civil and structural engineer.At the end of his career now! Physics and maths are the main two subjects for this type of engineering. He could also look at mechanical, design, environmental, aeronautical and automotive engineering to name just the main fields. Lots of other specialist areas exist.

He could be an architect. He should look beyond the actual pure subjects to see if solving problems might suit him more. There’s a big shortage of civil and structural engineers plus he could use this degree (MEng ideally) to move into many numerate jobs if he changes his mind. He might be happier with a more dynamic job finding practical solutions. DH was a born solutions person!

Wow, thank you everyone! Sorry for the delay in replying.
son Doesnt t know enough about maths to know what area he likes - he’s just a natural matmatician and problem solver, according to his teachers.
it all sounds very positive and I’m very pleased your children and friends have found interest ones - I didn’t know most of them existed.
I think he’s picked a combined maths and physics degree, mathematical physics, which seems very sensible of him, so panic over, I guess.
hes just struggling with the Personal stetment for UCAS now. That will be my next thread!

My DS loves maths and physics and has just started a degree in civil engineering ( with maths, further maths and physics A Levels). I think he decided during the pandemic that he didn't want a job WFH ( having seen us do that!). He wanted to be out and about, as well as screen work in an office. He also loves the idea of building bridges, tunnels, railways, roads infrastructure.
He's in his first year and loving it so far. There's a shortage of civil engineers so hopefully he'll never be out of work.

@northernsouldownsouth There are loads of jobs in those fields. However he needs to be aware that designing bridges is usually the job of structural engineers and tunnels too. The jobs doing these areas of work on big projects can be static with not much site work. When DH started out (in the dark ages) you could be MICE and IStructE. He’s now a Fellow of both but he’s very very unusual now. Mostly you have to choose which qualification to follow. When DH started out, he used to spend time in the office designing a bridge and then a road section but not get out on site until construction started. Not sure if the engineers follow up on site these days regarding the big infrastructure projects. There’s also a lot of temporary offices housing HS2 engineers who design as they go along!

As A contrast, smaller consulting engineers will have a variety of work and I can assure him, there’s plenty want good grads. I would suggest he does MEng if he’s not already.

Of the people I did maths at uni with these were first jobs I can remember
. Software engineer
. Accountant
. Met Office x2
. Lawyer
. Scientist
. Civil service
. Teacher

Bear in mind that "mathematical physics" is not "maths and physics". It's more like the really really theoretical end of physics. He may not get to do the practical lab work that plain Physics students get to do. Make sure he's read the list of modules that he'll study on his chosen course and is happy with them.
Although lots of places will let you move between the different Physics courses in the first year.

wow, thank you everyone.
jellybabies save lives thankyou SO MUCH for this - he was trying to work out the diffrence today - the modules look very similar. he has picked maths and physics at the moment, as it looks more comprehensive and in detail, or in his words,'more to do'. (crazy boy) that is a great tip about the lab work - he struggles with writing and doesnt like writing up experiments.
well done to your son northernsoul
and thank you - any more tips about the difference between mathmatical physics and maths and physics really welcome!

Back in the dark ages I did maths & physics; I'm now a medical physicist (shout out to the others on this thread!).

in my experience, maths and physics is more flexible (you can do practical physics and really really abstract maths if that's what you want to do) but there are more compulsory modules (because you have to cover the basics of both). Whereas mathematical physics is more centred on the overlap between the two.

Ultimately I don't think it matters much - there can be movement between courses and choosing a uni is probably more important than the tiny differences between the courses.

I did theoretical physics (same thing as mathematical physics, my uni had a maths physics department where I took most of my modules). I'm an actuary now, but I never would have dreamed that would be where I would end up at 17. I like to say that TP is maths applied to physics, and actuarial science is maths applied to finance.

Any mathematical degree opens a huge number of doors these days. Make sure he does plenty of programming (should be inevitable in maths and physics degrees these days) and stats (which my degree certainly lacked, but things may be better these days).

As per PP, he also needs to decide how he feels about being in the lab. I didn't set foot in a lab for the last two years of my four year degree, which was right for my interests and the safety of all around me , but he may feel differently.

DS has a Physics degree and is a forensic accountant

People I know with those degrees do

• goldman sachs & other big finance
• GCHQ (spying / decoding messages)
• big tech - amazon / meta / google etc
• data science
• artificial intelligence / machine learning
• science of almost any form
• economics

I should've mentioned DH also did (experimental) physics, he's in radiotherapy research now.