“you should be a math major!”

Participate. Investigate. Educate.

“You should be a math major!”

Non-Academic Careers in Mathematics

Math majors

• High school math teachers• College & university math faculty (teachers,

researchers)

• What about non-academic careers for math majors?

Raytheon…

• A defense and aerospace systems company

• Who works there? • Engineers of all sorts

General, chemical, computer, electrical, hardware,

industrial, logistics, mechanical, reliability, software,

systems, test

Raytheon: Not just for engineers

• Raytheon also hires mathematicians• Wanted to hire people with graduate degrees in

math, not getting many applicants (Dorff, 2012)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymlnk_PDwnc

• Can be used outside the defense industry as well, e.g., by a health care professional to lift a patient from a bed to a wheel chair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymlnk_PDwnc



Mathematician Named Best Job for 2014

http://www.maa.org/news/mathematician-named-best-job-for-2014-by-careercast





1. Mathematician $101,3602. Tenured University Professor $68,9703. Statistician $75,5604. Actuary $93,6805. Audiologist $69,7206. Dental Hygienist $70,2107. Software Engineer $93,3508. Computer Systems Analyst $79,6809. Occupational Therapist $75,40010. Speech Pathologist $69,870


1. Mathematician

Midlevel income: $101,360

Key factors for ranking• Work environment• High income• Hiring outlook• Low stress


• Mathematicians have historically been thought of as academics, but they do so much more.

• They work in a variety of sectors, both public and private, including energy, transportation, IT, defense, and nonprofits (like MAA!!).


• Example: They figure out if it makes sense for Chevrolet to build a new model of car.

• Mathematics plays a crucial role in • Planning facial reconstructive surgeries.• Movie special effects (computer generated images).• Speeding up the internet.


3. Statistician


Key factors for ranking• Work environment• Hiring outlook


3. Statistician

• They work in medicine, business, industry, and government (e.g., law, finance, engineering, agriculture, ecology, pharmacology)

• Experts at • Producing trustworthy data• Analyzing data to make their meaning clear• Drawing practical conclusions from data


3. Statistician

• Example: Market researchHow many people are likely to buy that new

iPhone?What are promising locations for a new retail

outlet?


4. Actuary


Key factors for ranking• Work environment• Hiring outlook


4. Actuary

• They determine how long something is going to last.

• About 80% work for insurance companies estimating how long people are going to live or the statistical likelihood that they will get a particular disease.


4. Actuary

• Primarily at insurance companies, but increasingly are working in other industries:

How long will that bridge last? Is it time to replace that rail line?

Back to Raytheon…

• “They hire mathematicians” ??

• “Talent areas” -- http://jobs.raytheon.com/talent-areas

• Job search “Mathematics” -- http://jobs.raytheon.com/search?campusOnly=-1&talentArea=55901&c=

• No listings for “Mathematician” BUT…..

http://jobs.raytheon.com/talent-areas

http://jobs.raytheon.com/talent-areas

http://jobs.raytheon.com/search?campusOnly=-1&talentArea=55901&c

http://jobs.raytheon.com/search?campusOnly=-1&talentArea=55901&c

Modeling, Simulation and Analysis (Raytheon)Position Description

The Modeling, Simulation and Analysis Center (MSA) within the Systems Design & Performance (SD&P) directorate has the responsibility to provide, develop, and maintain performance and Operations Research simulations for all Raytheon Missiles Systems (RMS) products, support new business initiatives anddevelopment and execution of technology roadmaps.

Specific responsibilities include … test bed development and analysis, … development of high fidelity performance simulations, …and system performance analysis …

Outside academia, rarely titled “Mathematician” • Air traffic controller • Politician• Animator• Foreign exchange trader• Stockbroker• Urban planner• Forensic analyst• Market research analyst• National security analyst

Math “in the news”

• Finding the wreckage of the Malaysian plane that disappeared• Modeling ocean currents to make predictions

• Marketing science • Put people in a room, show them an

advertisement on a screen, track where their eyes are looking. That’s where we want our most important message to be.

Math “in the news”

• NYC counter terrorism group• Ground breaking research using visual

analytics for tracking.

• Smart hearing aids and noise cancelling headphones• Signals processing: filtering out noise and

amplifying the signal

Hiring outlook

• Change the Equation, Linda Rosen (May 2, 2014)

• During the recession 2009-12, for every qualified STEM professional looking for a job, there were 2 jobs.

• For every job, there were almost 4 non-STEM people looking for a job.

• Wall Street LOVES engineers, analytical minds, problem solving skills.

• Projecting a growth in computing jobs (in any industry or business anywhere) of at least 20% in the next few years.

Hiring outlook

“Mathematics and computational science are utilized in almost every discipline in science, engineering, industry, and technology.

New application areas are constantly being discovered and established techniques are being applied in new ways and in emerging fields.

Consequently, a wide variety of career opportunities are open to people with mathematical talent and training.”

(Careers in Applied Mathematics, SIAM)

Hiring outlook

2013 STEM job fair (BYU, Michael Dorff)

15 companies trying to hire math majors

Three were in finance (All three have summer internships for students):

• Goldman Sachs (global investment banking)• Capital One (banking and financial analysis)

Hiring outlook

2013 STEM job fair (BYU, Michael Dorff)

• RBS (global banking and markets)• One reason they hire math majors is their

attention to detail• Interview question: Suppose you

have a clock with an hour hand and a minute hand. The time is 1:25. What is the angle between the hands?

Growing fields to consider

• Systems biology (e.g., human genome)

• Data mining and analytics (e.g., recommendation engines)

• Computer animation, digital imaging, special effects (e.g., Pixar Toy Story, Transformers, Avengers)

Growing fields to consider

• Finance and economics ($$$$$$$$)

• Ecology and environment (e.g., management of ocean fisheries)

• Epidemiology (e.g., spread of infection)

Organizations that hire mathematicians

• Government labs and research offices (Sandia, Los Alamos, Office of Naval Research)

• Government agencies (e.g., NSA, DOD)

• Federally funded contractors (e.g., Mitre Corporation, RAND Corporation, Aerospace Corporation)


• Engineering research organizations (e.g., AT&T , Exxon, NEC, Schlumberger-Doll, IBM)

• Computer information and software firms (e.g., Adobe, Google, The MathWorks, Inc., Microsoft, Yahoo)

• Electronics and computer manufacturers (e.g., Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM)


• Consulting firms (e.g., Daniel H. Wagner Associates, McKinsey and Company)

• Aerospace and transportation equipment manufacturers (e.g., Boeing, Ford, General Motors, Lockheed Martin)

• Financial service and investment management firms (e.g., Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Prudential)


• Transportation service providers (e.g., FedEx, UPS)

• Communications services providers (e.g., Clear Channel Communications, Verizon)

• Chemical or pharmaceutical manufacturers (e.g., DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer)


• Medical device companies (e.g., Baxter Healthcare, Boston Scientific, Medtronic)

• Producers of petroleum and petroleum products (e.g., Exxon, Shell, Chevron)

• Consumer products companies (e.g., Procter & Gamble, Mars)


• Research institutes (e.g., Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications (IMA), Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI))

https://www.siam.org/careers/thinking/organizations.php



New edition

101 Careers in Mathematics

• Andrew Sterrett (editor), MAA (publisher)• $35 ($28 for MAA members) for print• $20 for ebook• http://

www.maa.org/publications/books/101-careers-in-mathematics

• Now in 3rd edition (1996, 2003, 2014)

http://www.maa.org/publications/books/101-careers-in-mathematics



101 Careers in Mathematics

• 146 career profiles (not 101!)• Appendices – Math Horizons articles

• “Seven Steps to Finding a Job” (updated in 2013)• “Interviewing Tips from the Pros” (updated in 2013)• “So You Want to Work in Industry”• “Teamwork – The Special Challenge of

Industry”

Carriage House Distinguished Lecture Series

• Features some of the foremost experts within the field of mathematics, known for their ability to make current mathematical ideas accessible to non-specialists.

• Topics focus on current trends in mathematics and the relationship between mathematics and broader scientific, engineering and technological endeavors.

Carriage House Distinguished Lecture Series

• http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/maa-distinguished-lecture-series/lecture-videos

• YouTube channel

• “Ted Talk” versions of recent talks

• Podcasts with Power Point slides

http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/maa-distinguished-lecture-series/lecture-videos




Cathy O’Neil, Johnson Research Labs

• Worked hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the middle of the credit crisis.

• Worked for RiskMetrics, a risk software company that assesses risk for the holdings of hedge funds and banks.

• Involved with Occupy Wall Street.


• Works as a Senior Data Scientist at Johnson Research Labs in New York.

(Note: It’s pretty traditional for mathematicians to work in research labs, “think tanks.”)

• Blogs at mathbabe.org


• Recommendation engines• Netflix recommends movies you might like based

on your previous ratings

• Google News recommends articles based on your previous reads.

• Notable difference: Google News doesn’t know if you LIKE the article, but it does know you READ it, whereas with Netflix, you rate the movies.


• Latent factor analysis• e.g., sentimentality (chick flicks)

• Latent topic analysis • e.g., DIY series

• Co-visitation• If you and someone else have been reading lots of

the same kinds of articles, or listening to lots of the same kinds of music, then you’re probably going to like something ELSE that person likes, but that you haven’t tried.

Karen Saxe, Macalester College

• Chair and Professor of Mathematics

• Consults with city governments

• Just ended a term as AMS Congressional Fellow in Senator Al Franken’s office

Karen Saxe, Macalester College

• Served on Minnesota Citizens Redistricting Commission, created to draw congressional districts following the 2010 census

• Carriage House lecture: A Mathematical Adventure through the Census, Reapportionment, and Redistricting. November, 2012.

Richard DeVeaux, Williams College

• Professor of Statistics• Data mining and statistical consultant

• American Express• National Security Agency• Office of the Attorney General of Vermont• Comptroller's Office of New York state• Others


• Carriage House lecture: Data Mining: Fool's Gold? Or the Mother Lode? April, 2012• Can government agencies really track what you are

doing?

• Do credit card companies know what you are going to purchase before you do?

• How much of your information do you want available via social networks, and what are they doing with it?


• Carriage House lecture: Data Mining: Fool's Gold? Or the Mother Lode? April, 2012• Data mining and analytics

• Just statistics? Yes and no.• Process that uses a variety of data analysis tools

to discover patterns and relationships in “big data” (e.g., terabytes per hour) that may be used to make valid predictions using models created.

Other mathematicians doing interesting work

Sommer Gentry – Math & Medicine

• Is a mathematics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy

• Does operations research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

• Made national news when she teamed up with her husband (a surgeon) to find a more efficient way to match kidney donations

Eric Murphy – Math & National Defense

• Has a Ph.D. in complex analysis

• Works in the Pentagon as an advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on how to best move supplies and troops in and out of foreign countries such as Afghanistan (operations research)

Industry problems vs. academic problems

• A solution to a problem in industry can be very different from a solution to an academic problem. In industry, a group is usually given a problem with a timeline and is told to come up with the best possible solution within that time frame.

• They are not necessarily looking for an exact answer but the best possible approximation given the constraints.

• Once the time period is over, the group will move on to another problem. They don’t have the luxury of exploring nooks and crannies of a problem.

Micheal Dorff

• Prepares students for industrial careers by engaging them in research problems that come directly from business, industry, and government.

• Also aims to increase awareness among math faculty and undergraduates about non-academic career options.

• Students work on a semester-long research problem as part of a class.

• Undergraduate research is a high impact practice shown to improve students’ skills in:• Problem solving• Critical thinking • Independent thinking• Communication

All these are valued by employers of math majors

• 2014-15 is first year of project, Year 2 applications will be accepted early in 2015 for summer 2015 (one year commitment)

• Michael Dorff (BYU), Suzanne Weeks (WPI), Reza Malek-Madani (USNA)

http://www.maa.org/programs/students/undergraduate-research/pic-math-preparation-for-industrial-careers-in-mathematical-sciences




Web resources

• www.maa.org/careers

• http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/maa-distinguished-lecture-series/lecture-videos

• http://www.maa.org/programs/students/undergraduate-research/pic-math-preparation-for-industrial-careers-in-mathematical-sciences

• www.siam.org/careers

• http://weusemath.org

• http://www.amstat.org/careers

http://www.maa.org/careers








http://www.siam.org/careers

http://weusemath.org/



http://www.amstat.org/careers

http://www.amstat.org/careers

References

• Sterrett, A. (Ed.). (2014). 101 Careers in Mathematics (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.

• Careers in Applied Mathematics [brochure]. (2008) Philadelphia, PA: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

• Dorff, M. (2012). Non-academic careers, internships, and undergraduate research. Paper presented at the Trends in Undergraduate Research in the Mathematical Sciences conference, Chicago, IL.

References

• O’Neil, C. (2013). Deciphering recommendation engines.

• Saxe, K. (2012). A Mathematical Adventure through the Census, Reapportionment, and Redistricting.

• DeVeaux, R. (2012). Data Mining: Fools Gold? Or the Mother Load?

All three podcasts retrieved from http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/maa-distinguished-lecture-series/lecture-videos



Questions?

Contact Information:

Linda BraddyDeputy Executive Director

Mathematical Association of [email protected]

www.maa.org

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.maa.org/

“you should be a math major!”

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