8 answers
Kennady
Student
4
Questions
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What's the most your math degree is applied in your daily life?
#math #mathematics #career-options #life
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8 answers
Cassandra Quinn
Data Analyst
1
Answer
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Updated
Cassandra’s Answer
Hi Kennady!
I got a degree in Mathematics and had this same question for a lot of my studying. I had no idea what a career in Math would look like outside of becoming a professor, until I started applying for jobs. I paired my Math degree with a minor in Computer science, and my career journey has consisted of plenty of critical, logical problem solving. I use math everyday with coding and data modelling. Of course each day is a bit different, but I use the language Python daily to solve problems with either statistics or data manipulation and modelling. Another common language for jobs related to a Math degree would be SQL, which is also used daily to find data you might need to analyze.
There are a lot of jobs that would love to hire someone with a math degree, as it requires a lot of logic and tough problem solving. There are jobs heavier on the math (Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Actuaries, etc), and some that require you to be a strong communicator to help make the connections between the business and the math (i.e. Business Analyst). A degree in Mathematics is very flexible for your future career journey!
I got a degree in Mathematics and had this same question for a lot of my studying. I had no idea what a career in Math would look like outside of becoming a professor, until I started applying for jobs. I paired my Math degree with a minor in Computer science, and my career journey has consisted of plenty of critical, logical problem solving. I use math everyday with coding and data modelling. Of course each day is a bit different, but I use the language Python daily to solve problems with either statistics or data manipulation and modelling. Another common language for jobs related to a Math degree would be SQL, which is also used daily to find data you might need to analyze.
There are a lot of jobs that would love to hire someone with a math degree, as it requires a lot of logic and tough problem solving. There are jobs heavier on the math (Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Actuaries, etc), and some that require you to be a strong communicator to help make the connections between the business and the math (i.e. Business Analyst). A degree in Mathematics is very flexible for your future career journey!
Peijie Yang
Product Quality Engineer/Software Engineer
4
Answers
Austin, Texas
Updated
Peijie’s Answer
Hi Kennady,
In my daily job as an engineer, I need to do calculations for analyzing large amount of data.
As a ordinary person, I use logical thinking to convince people. Do quick calculation when buying stuff.
In my daily job as an engineer, I need to do calculations for analyzing large amount of data.
As a ordinary person, I use logical thinking to convince people. Do quick calculation when buying stuff.
Mark Berquist
Actuary
4
Answers
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Updated
Mark’s Answer
I have a mathematics degree and am an Actuary. I find it to be a very good career.
This website has more info: https://beanactuary.org/
This website has more info: https://beanactuary.org/
Saxonny Rich
Customer Success Manager
3
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Saxonny’s Answer
Hi! I got my undergrad degree in math and masters in education then became a high school math teacher and used my knowledge of math every day, however not at the level to which I had studied mathematics. After 6 years of teaching, I changed careers and although I don't explicitly use mathematics every day, the problem solving skills that I acquired while obtaining my mathematics degree have stayed with me and remain useful for my personal and professional life.
Joseph Neilson
Radiation Detection Physicist
224
Answers
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
I did a physics degree, rather than maths, and went into a physics career. My degree still covered quite a bit of maths, though, and it might be worthwhile knowing what parts I still use and what parts I don't.
For what I do, the vast majority is high-school algebraic manipulation and rearranging formulae. Exponential growth and decay is very important (half-lives in radioactive decay); and so the logarithm rules are very helpful. Bits of calculus is used for rates of change, but I almost never have to know how to actually work through the maths of the solution, it's usually just a case of plugging numbers into a Computer Algebra System or numerical PDE / finite-elements tool. I also use a lot of the statistics bits for uncertainty analysis (although very rarely need to look into the statistics in great depth, usually the simple rules of thumb like "sqrt(N) for Poisson counting" are sufficient. Regression and curve-fitting is always of use in the sciences, too.
That's probably the core of what I actually use. I'll sometimes encounter concepts from the more abstract maths topics in published papers I read, but it's not usually a case of needing to understand the ins-and-outs of what it is and how to solve and manipulate it; usually just having a rough idea of what a notation means and having an inkling of the concept behind it is enough to understand what is meant in enough detail to get what I need.
For what I do, the vast majority is high-school algebraic manipulation and rearranging formulae. Exponential growth and decay is very important (half-lives in radioactive decay); and so the logarithm rules are very helpful. Bits of calculus is used for rates of change, but I almost never have to know how to actually work through the maths of the solution, it's usually just a case of plugging numbers into a Computer Algebra System or numerical PDE / finite-elements tool. I also use a lot of the statistics bits for uncertainty analysis (although very rarely need to look into the statistics in great depth, usually the simple rules of thumb like "sqrt(N) for Poisson counting" are sufficient. Regression and curve-fitting is always of use in the sciences, too.
That's probably the core of what I actually use. I'll sometimes encounter concepts from the more abstract maths topics in published papers I read, but it's not usually a case of needing to understand the ins-and-outs of what it is and how to solve and manipulate it; usually just having a rough idea of what a notation means and having an inkling of the concept behind it is enough to understand what is meant in enough detail to get what I need.
Elizabeth Castillo
Recent graduate, Aspiring College Advisor
6
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Elizabeth’s Answer
Hi Kennedy!
Piggybacking off of Joseph's answer, it really depends on the field of study or career you are going into. For example, engineers sometimes study past this concept called discrete math which is helpful for computer science and mechanical engineering, while artists can incorporate math into their art if they so please. Data scientists work with coding and math to understand statistics. Architects and sculpturists use math in different ways. Learning more about something is never bad; its just different information. I am sure that depending on whatever field you decide to go into, the curriculum will prepare you with the amount of math you will need to know for the career.
Here is a link that talks about Mathematics as a career and the skills used by mathematicians and people who use math a lot in their careers: https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/careers-in-mathematics/
If you are looking for something more: you can look at multidisciplinary and mathematics which can show you how different academic groups (super cool!) or search "(whatever you want, ex: art) and mathematics" in Google and see what comes up! Happy searching!
Piggybacking off of Joseph's answer, it really depends on the field of study or career you are going into. For example, engineers sometimes study past this concept called discrete math which is helpful for computer science and mechanical engineering, while artists can incorporate math into their art if they so please. Data scientists work with coding and math to understand statistics. Architects and sculpturists use math in different ways. Learning more about something is never bad; its just different information. I am sure that depending on whatever field you decide to go into, the curriculum will prepare you with the amount of math you will need to know for the career.
Here is a link that talks about Mathematics as a career and the skills used by mathematicians and people who use math a lot in their careers: https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/careers-in-mathematics/
If you are looking for something more: you can look at multidisciplinary and mathematics which can show you how different academic groups (super cool!) or search "(whatever you want, ex: art) and mathematics" in Google and see what comes up! Happy searching!
Colin Chummers
Vice President Supply Chain
3
Answers
San Francisco, California
Updated
Colin’s Answer
I use my math training every day in my job, and it's one of the things I always look for when I'm hiring someone.
Douglas Lemmo, P.E.
Consultant, Owner at Power Generation Consulting Services
132
Answers
Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Updated
Douglas’s Answer
Hi,
I am a Mechanical Engineer and while in college I had the full range of math classes that all of the different types of Engineers take. However, depending upon which area of Engineering you go into you may use a lot of what you studied in college, or very little. A design engineer might use quite a bit, a sales, manufacturing or field engineer might use less. It depends on the job you have. You will never know how much of your math training you will use until you get into a specific field and select a specific job which is why there is a lot of math training in the STEM field. All will use their math background because, most importantly, math trains your mind to think logically and to focus on a problem. As a mechanical engineer I primarily used algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
Good luck,
Doug
I am a Mechanical Engineer and while in college I had the full range of math classes that all of the different types of Engineers take. However, depending upon which area of Engineering you go into you may use a lot of what you studied in college, or very little. A design engineer might use quite a bit, a sales, manufacturing or field engineer might use less. It depends on the job you have. You will never know how much of your math training you will use until you get into a specific field and select a specific job which is why there is a lot of math training in the STEM field. All will use their math background because, most importantly, math trains your mind to think logically and to focus on a problem. As a mechanical engineer I primarily used algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
Good luck,
Doug