BIG Jobs Guide: Business, Industry, and Government Careers for Mathematical Scientists, Statisticians, and Operations Researchers

by Rachel Levy;Richard Laugesen;Fadil Santosa, Richard Laugesen (Contributor), Fadil Santosa (Contributor)

Jobs using mathematics, statistics, and operations research are projected to grow by almost 30% over the next decade. BIG Jobs Guide helps job seekers at every stage of their careers in these fields explore opportunities in business, industry, and government (BIG). Written in a conversational and practical tone, BIG Jobs Guide offers insight on topics such What skills can I offer employers? How do I write a high-impact resume? Where can I find a rewarding internship? What kinds of jobs are out there for me? The Guide also offers insights to advisors and mentors on topics such as how departments can help students get BIG jobs and how faculty members and internship mentors can build institutional relationships. Whether you're an undergraduate or graduate student or a job seeker in applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, or operations research, this hands-on book will help you reach your goal, whether landing an internship, getting your first job or transitioning to a new one.

141 pages, Paperback

Published June 29, 2018

Reviews

[A · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a high school student considering a career in math-related subjects (e.g. engineering, physics, computer science, chemistry), chapters 4 and 7 might be helpful for you.

Chapter 4 has a brief discussion considering fundamental courses (e.g. probability, calculus, linear algebra) and "more advanced" optional courses (e.g. electromagnetism, cryptography, control theory) that math students can take throughout their degree. Additionally, Chapter 7 presents the some generic types of jobs for people with a math-based background: research, consulting, finance and data science.

For everyone else (i.e. undergraduates, graduate students and faculty) this book might be unfulfilling. The chapters related to finding a job, preparing for interviews and such don't provide a specific insight for math-related careers in industry. You can easily find such advice elsewhere (e.g. quora and reddit), and save your money and time.

Any interested reader should search for the table of contents of this book. If you know nothing about the subject of the book, then it might be worth to buy it, since the authors' advice is pretty solid and it is a good starting point for your own research. But it's very misleading to promote this book as more than generic advice with a math flavor.

[Zach Schlamowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview covering many aspects of preparing for, seeking, and obtaining non-academia jobs in the mathematical sciences. Though I was disappointed when I realized my expectation of descriptions of specific jobs was not present, I found this to be an insightful and thorough (yet easy to read!) guide to the world of math jobs. The authors do a fantastic job making the book useful to an extremely wide audience—from high schoolers and young undergraduates all the way through tenured faculty members, in math-affiliated fields from pure mathematics to operations design—but reading it early on would allow younger students to gain forward thinking scope of their potential path (and how to guide it!).