What Can I do With a Degree in Math?
Career Center Library Resources
The Career Center Library has a variety of resources to help students explore potential career fields. These resources include information about typical responsibilities, qualifications, career paths, job outlook, salary, and related careers.
Books Specifically Related to Math Majors
- Careers for Number Crunchers & Other Quantitative Types
- Real People Working in Science
- Great Jobs for Math Majors
Vocational Biographies
Vocational Biographies describes the career success stories of 1001 real people. Search by career title, keyword, topic, and career cluster. Username: portland su and pass code: 3w9n
- Bank Examiner
- Actuary
- Financial Planner
- Bio-Medical Statistician
- Mortgage Broker
- Insurance Claim Specialist
- American Mathematical Society (AMS)
- Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)
- Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
- Society of Actuaries
- Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
Internet Sites with Career-Related Information for Math Majors
- What Can I do with a Major in...Mathematics — From the Career Services Office at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina. Includes a "representative sample of job titles of former [UNCW] math or computer science majors."
- Math — Lists potential job titles and related skills. From the University Career and Employment Services at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
- College Majors and Career Opportunities - Math/Statistics — Lists related occupations and types of employers. From Career Services, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
- Math — Lists job titles related to math majors. From the Career Exploration Center at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas.
- Mathematicians — From the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- Statisticians — From the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- Actuaries — From the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
- Mathematical Sciences Career Information — AMS-MAA-SIAM Non-Academic Employment Project. Contains many, many useful links. Current Career Profiles — From the American Mathematical Society. Profiles people who have made "nonacademic career choices in the mathematical sciences." Be sure to view AMS's Archived Career Profiles for an impressive selection of archived profiles. Profiles can be searched alphabetically. Career Profiles — From the Mathematical Association of America. These profiles "show you how the study of mathematics can prepare you for a range of rewarding careers in many fields. Those profiled work in well known companies, government agencies, the arts, and in professions such as law and medicine. Much of the material is geared toward the undergraduate student in mathematics."
- Careers in Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences — From the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
- Careers in Statistics — From the American Statistical Association.
- What is an Actuary? — From the Actuarial Science Program, Departments of Math and Statistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
- Be an Actuary — From the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries.
- Math: What Can I Do With This Major? — Outlines common career areas, identifies typical employers, and suggests general strategies to enhance employability. From Career Services at the University of Tennessee.
Internet Sites with Job Search Information for Math Majors
- Society of Actuaries - Job Link — Lists actuarial-related jobs.
- Sloan Career Cornerstone Center — Job listings for Math Majors.
- League of Oregon Cities — Intern Placement and Referral Service.
Places of Employment
Math majors may find employment in a variety of fields depending on their skills and experience. Places of employment for math majors include: government agencies, businesses (banking, finance, insurance, market research, etc.), and educational institutions.
The following list of employers and job titles was derived from the Career Center's jobs database where the employer specifically requested math majors. This list does not reflect all potential places of employment or kinds of jobs for math majors. This list does not reflect current openings.
- Advocate for Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (AWSEM) — AWSEM Group Leader
- AFS Intercultural Programs — Statistical Survey Analyst
- Blue Reference — Software Developer (entry level, QA Engineer (entry level)
- Boeing Company, The — Estimating and Pricing Specialist 1
- Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) — Physical Scientist (Power Operations Specialist), Interdisciplinary: Hydraulic/Mechanical/Electrical Engineer, Physical Scientist
- BrainChild Education Center — Math Tutors
- Cadmus Group, The — Analyst, Statistics
- Cayuse Technologies — Software Developer
- Chrome Systems Corporation — Content Developer
- City College of San Francisco — Institutional Research Officer
- City of Hillsboro — Management Analyst, Police Project Manager
- City of Salem — Engineering Technician II, III, Traffic Technician, CADD Technician
- Community Cycling Center (CCC) — Statistics Analyst
- Contra Costa County — Weights and Measures Inspector Trainee
- Dean Runyan Associates — Research Assistant
- Ernst & Young — Transfer Pricing Staff
- FanBox — Software Engineer
- First Investors — Financial Services Representative
- Genisis Financial Solutions — Risk Analyst
- Grays Harbor College — Research Analyst 2
- HP Northwest — Defined Contribution Plan Analyst
- Hollywood Entertainment — GIS Analyst
- HSBC USA — Customer Information Management Analyst, Credit Risk Analyst
- Intel Corporation — Semiconductor Manufacturing Technicians
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — Operations Research
- Kumon Math & Reading Center — Math Tutors
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — Summer 2007 Research Program
- Lincoln County, Oregon — GIS Survey Technician 2
- Lincoln County School District — Curriculum Resources Teachers
- Executive Learning Center — Fulfillmetn Coordinator
- Merix Corporation — Laboratory Technician I/II
- McKinsey & Company — Organization Survey Analyst
- Microsoft — Test Apprentice Program (9-month, paid, full-time employment and training for non CS/CE majors desiring to become software developers); Full time Project Manager (PM), Software Development Engineers (SDE) and Software Development Engineers in Test (SDET)
- Milliman, Inc. — Pension Administrator (Defined Contribution)
- Musician's Friend — Marketing Statistician
- Northern Illumination Company — Quotations-Lighting
- Northwestern Mutual Financial Network — Financial Representative
- Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service — Wheat Lab Supervision
- Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services — Insurance Examiner II (Financial Insurance Examiner)
- Oregon Department of Human Services — Research Analyst III
- Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) — Engineering Specialist I (Survey Drafter), Engineering Specailist 3 (Project Inspector), Debt and Investment Analyst
- Oregon Mutual Insurance — Statistical Analyst
- Oregon State University (OSU) — Postdoctoral Research Assistant
- Oregon Youth Authority — Research Analyst III
- PacifiCorp — Scheduling - Planner, Associate (Energy Portfolio Analyst), Career/Associate Risk Analyst (Derivatives Modeling), Senior Regulatory Analyst
- Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission — AKFIN Analyst/Programmer
- PB Consult, Inc. — Software Engineer
- Portland General Electric (PGE) — Business Applications Analyst III
- RealNetworks — Software Design Engineer
- Saif Corporation — Assistant Actuary
- Seattle City Light — Strategic Advisor for Integrated Resource Planning
- Seattle-Northwest Securities — Public Finance Associate
- Sokol Blosser Winery — Accountant
- Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) — Analyst II - 1 (Statistician)
- Standard, The — Technical Analsyt
- The Regence Group — Workforce Ananlyst 1, Strategic Planning Analyst
- US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) — Engineering Aid/Technician; Interdisciplinary, Entry Level, Power Engineering
- US Bureau of Reclamation — Mechanical Engineer
- US Department of Agriculture (USDA) — Agricultural Statistician, Auditor, Applied Mathematical Statistics Careers
- US Department of Energy — Assistant Manager for Research & Development General Engineer, Phsyical Science
- US Department of Labor — Mathematical Statistician
- US Forest Service — Supervisory Statistician, Statistician
- US Navy Recruiting, Portland District — Math Instructor
- US Office of Personnel Management — Presidential Management Intern
- Verizon Communications — Network Engineer/Outside Plant Engineer
- Washington Department of Retirement Systems — Senior Researcher
- Washington State Department of Revenue — Research Analyst I
- Wilshire Credit Corporation — Data Analyst, Pricing Analyst
- Xerox Corporation — Engineer
- Resources for Undergraduates in Mathematics — From the American Mathematical Society.
- Mathematics Information Servers — From the Mathematics Department, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
- How to Prepare to Find a Job in Industry — Edited transcript of a conference presentation by Stanley J. Benkoski. Suggests possible strategies for finding a job in industry. "The target audience for this presentation is a second year graduate student in Mathematics [but] any graduate student, or undergraduate student, or faculty member will also find some useful information in this presentation."
- Job listings for Ph.D.'s — Employment Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences, Employment Listings in the Mathematical Sciences.
Department of Mathematical Sciences - Portland State University
