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I am wondering what jobs in the field of Mathematics are (seemingly) always in demand. I am also wondering what jobs there are that are (once again seemingly) greatly Mathematically demanding in regards to either deep specialisation or great generality in the application fields.

For the second criteria, I mean that a great amount of learning must be done to understand the career. Whether that be learning a lot of content from multiple fields, or significant investment in a specialization.

More specifically, what fields meet both of these criteria?

Thank you for your time.

Note: If you wish, give it in regards to any location you wish, I understand this can be (and likely is) location reliant.

Display Name
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    I think this depends widely only where you are. – IAmNoOne Jun 06 '14 at 01:35
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    High school maths teacher. – user85798 Jun 06 '14 at 01:40
  • @Oliver I don't believe that would meet the second criteria. However, you have hit the nail on the head with the first criteria. – Display Name Jun 06 '14 at 01:41
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    Does engineering count? Besides fake engineering fields like enviromental engineering at least. I kid, I kid. – AnonSubmitter85 Jun 06 '14 at 01:42
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    Things that are mathematically challenging depend on your mathematical acumen. For some, human resources is mathematically challenging. – Emily Jun 06 '14 at 01:43
  • I was kidding... – user85798 Jun 06 '14 at 01:43
  • @Arkamisv I shall edit to fix that. – Display Name Jun 06 '14 at 01:44
  • Maybe if you're gonna to build an wireless router from zero and you must implement some fourier analysis, maxwell equations? – PPP Jun 06 '14 at 01:58
  • You just need to win a Fields medal or solve some known, standing problem which has been around 100 years or so. Then, you can go where you like and have enough $ The particular field doesn't matter so much. – James S. Cook Jun 06 '14 at 02:33
  • @JamesS.Cook I am not sure how that comment is helpful. I find the probability of myself succeeding in such exploits is $0$. – Display Name Jun 06 '14 at 02:37
  • @DisplayName in the field of mathematics proper there are really just two kinds of jobs: (1.) teaching (2.) reasearch. These are found at schools,corporations, or government labs. You can do them in whatever you like. Math is huge. There are endless answers to your question, I merely offer the most absurd one. However, the larger point, it is better to pursue your interests than to pursue a career. That is my opinion, I see too many people pursuing a career with no real interest and it corrupts the academy to its core. – James S. Cook Jun 06 '14 at 02:53
  • Try reading the answers to this question: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/365005/how-do-i-sell-out-with-abstract-algebra/371633#371633, or this one http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/71874/can-i-use-my-powers-for-good. – bubba Jun 06 '14 at 03:31

2 Answers2

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With the arrive of big data, Statistics, as a branch of Mathematics, is now in high demand. And the challenges there are in many areas. Buzz words like Machine Learning, Analytics, Computer Vision and so on have statistics at their core.

Personally, being a software engineer with a maths background, I recently engaged in postgraduate studies in statistics, and I can say that I've been headhunted couple of times since then. Lucky, my current position involves both, software engineering and statistics; but the interest from companies (mainly the big ones) is there!

carlosayam
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With regard to your first criterion, Actuaries are often in demand. That's not to say that there aren't Actuaries who are out of work. The "problem" with being an Actuary is that you've got to pass their series of 9 (or 10) exams, where not all of them are mathematically oriented. You can be an Associate Actuary by passing 7 exams, but that wouldn't be as advantageous as passing all of them.

With regard to you second criterion, the work may or may not be mathematically challenging, depending upon what you wind up doing. There are definitely mathematical challenges, but one could still be a highly paid Actuary and spend more of your time in the business end of things than the highly technical end of things.

Mitchell Kaplan
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