what can I do with my degree in mathI like math, that's why I majored in it. Then I graduated from college, had no clue about what I wanted to do, so I settled for a low paying job at an IT company where I do mostly maintenance programming (small custom changes and other menial stuff). It is a low paying job: $35k/year in a major metropolitan area. Salary asides, this is not the job I had in mind when I decided to study math. I just took this job as a last resort after being unemployed for almost a year. I would like to get a job where I do math. I want a job where I will be writing computer programs that involve understanding of concrete mathematical concepts. Something that has to do with geometrical shapes and stuff like that. Writing algorithms is beyond my current skill set and not something that I'm interested in. I also do not like statistics so jobs such as: actuary, statistician, etc are out of the question. Can someone give me a concrete list of jobs that might suit my interests? I also need to know the type of companies I should be sending my resume to and the exact positions I should be applying for. 35k is a good starting salary right out of college. Take the job and use it to expand your horizons and get a clearer idea of where to go next. Remember, you are going to work for them, not marry them "35k is a good starting salary right out of college. Take the job and use it to expand your horizons and get a clearer idea of where to go next. Remember, you are going to work for them, not marry them" 35k/year is not a good salary if you live in a major metropolitan area and certainly not when you consider that you were also invited to interviews for jobs that paid 20k more per year. Salary is not my primary concern, though; I' ll take a salary cut for a job that I love and enjoy doing. I have had my current job for over a year and I don' t want this to be the job I took while I found something better and then find myself ten years later still doing it. I feel chest pains when I am at work and I can' t concentrate. I feel very uncomfortable at my current job and want a new job. No offense and thanks a lot for your help, but I didn' t post my previous message because I wanted to be talked into keeping my current job.
Until I saw "Writing algorithms is beyond my current skill set", I thought NSA. So I guess any companies doing security work is out. So, "geometrical shapes" would make me think graphics hardware companies, like Nvidia or ATI (now, part of AMD). Possibly Microsoft. Possibly look into the Linux open source work on 3D graphics manipulations. No money, but it helps the resume. Have you considered why the interviews did not pan out? Can you go back to the college placement office? As I' m about 15 years ahead of you (as I can guessing from your post), I can share what not to get into. Finance, cold calling, financial advisor. I also worked for a number of years for 2 large multi-national companies and got up to about 92K in a metropolitan area. Those two jobs never really gave me the satisfaction of using my math skills, or so I thought. I wasn' t real thrilled with either of those two jobs, honestly. Don' t expect that your next job will be all about how great you are at the skills you sharpened in college with those discrete math type classes. At most, I probably used 10% of the knowledge I learned while getting my math degree in an actual job situation. The typical employer is more looking at your background and trying to figure out if you have the makeup to handle their workload, the pressures of external forces around you and other non-tactile elements that show that you do well under heavy stress. I guess you have to ask yourself what drives you....If its money, go learn one of the latest coding languages where someone will pay you $100/hr to crank out code. If you took the same type of classes I took in getting my degree, you' re smart enough to learn anything! If its teaching others and seeing the ' ah hah' moment on a 15-year old' s eyes, you may have to take a middle school or high school teaching job that pays only $15/hr. Figure out the things that you love to do and look in those industries for something that may be able take advantage of your analytical mind. Maybe what makes you happy in your job is that they let you wear jeans to work everyday and you get to leave early when you have to handle family type stuff. Or, summer' s off isn' t such a bad perk either. Being really happy and making a lot of money is kind of hard to do, unless you' re really lucking and play a professional sport or something. By the way, I really suck at cold calling and my chest pains have now moved to my head. So, my job as a financial advisor will be winding down over the next few weeks. I' ll be keeping up with this post to get some ideas on where my next move will be. I honestly don' t know where to begin. Maybe back at the college career advisor. | |
|
Career Tips
|