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My math prof told me he did his undergrad because he loved math. When he graduated, there were no jobs for undergrads, so he did his masters to see where he would end up. He found the same thing happened. No jobs for a masters of math. He did his Phd and some postdoc work for starvation wages.
He became a professor at my Uni and despite still loving math, was the biggest proponent of students not pursuing pure math degrees. " It should only be pursued in small doses in pursuit of other fields, except in the case of the independently wealthy."
I have a math degree. I am far from independently wealthy. There are plenty of math-related jobs out there if you’re willing to stoop from the lofty perches of pure math. Statistics, data science, risk management, actuarial science, finance, accounting, operations research, optimization, computational mathematics, machine learning/AI.
The list goes on and on and on. Many of these jobs might be quite boring for someone who just wants to work on difficult proofs all day but they’re generally a lot better pay than any academic job below the tenure track (and way better pay than Starbucks).
Life is a lot tougher if you’re into physics or chemistry or biology. There you really do need a PhD to do anything and the research positions are extremely competitive to get.
Bless you for chiming in as first hand experience of my third hand story. However, I think your post reinforces my professor’s point more than it refutes it.
As someone in the field, you tell me how it really is. I interpret your post as reinforcing my professor’s point, rather than detracting from it.
Well it’s hard for me to say what your professor really meant. If he meant “there are no jobs paying math undergrads to write proofs” then yes of course, no one but professors or rich parents would pay for that. But all he said was “there are no jobs for undergrads/masters/PhDs” which to me implies that math grads are no better off than high school grads at getting a job, with which I would strongly disagree.
He said the only jobs for math grads were teaching math. High School Teachers in his country didn’t pay well. There weren’t enough professor positions for all the math grads and he struggled for a long time piss poor.
He saw his friends who took business, comp sci or engineering get high paying careers. He discouraged anyone from taking pure math, unless you were rich because it was a “luxury” to study it.
Ahhh, I dunno what country he’s from but in my country (Canada) there are loads of jobs for math grads. The one thing you have to give up on is pure math. No business is interested in paying someone to write proofs.
I did a major in computational math with a joint pure math. I took a lot of pure math courses and loved them but there’s no practical use for them outside of academia. It’s like learning to write poetry.
However, the skills of a mathematics grad and the broad applicability of mathematics to many areas of business, engineering, and science are undeniable. Even someone who has only studied pure mathematics has a huge advantage over someone who has an unrelated arts degree, for example, all else being equal (personal hygiene, social and communications skills).
All else is rarely equal though. But that’s another matter entirely!
What’s the difference between a phd mathematician and a large pizza?
The pizza can feed a family of four.
I would say π , unless the PhD mathematician is also well rounded.
I worked with a guy who had a doctorate in mathematics… He wrote documentation for the software the company produced.
My step mom has a master’s in math. She is also dumb as they come. She of course wss a math teacher at a private school. I tnimk its only thing you can do with such a degree. I should of stayed in college and got my English degree. Nor to teach just because I love it. But fuck student loans and how expensive higher education is to pursue.
I’m just glad that you didn’t inherit any of her stupidity.
Lose all your social skills. Forget basic hygiene. Insult people ignorant of your craft. Become stronger
Tom Scott looking rough.
Got it. *Downloads Chat GPT.
When they were studying physics, I was studying the sword.
Come back a lot older.
Study time travel. Come back younger
Younger, stronger, better
Faster, harder
First step: stop looking at the ceiling/ the fediverse and get out of bed
Second step: to be discovered once first step is achieved (impossible)
Stop calling me out
Second step is be independently wealthy
While you were watching Rick & Morty reruns, I studied the calculus
This guy has the best messages I just wish he didn’t sell AI-generated books.
Joined a cult. Took years to leave. It was all lies.
Who is he?
wizard
Uhm Actually™ he is a sorcerer because…that’s the name of his channel
