When you think about math, especially math in its pure form, numbers and letters, written, abstract, sometimes it’s hard to see how it can be used practically. There’s a meme going around on Facebook this tax season that says “I’m so glad I learned how to do parallelograms instead of taxes. It’s really come in handy this parallelogram season.” As sarcastically funny as it is, it’s a reflection of how a lot of people think about math in school and how they learned it – impractical, dated, a joke. What we, here at Mathnasium of Cherry Hills try to teach, is that like many things in life, math builds on concepts. Understanding concepts as a whole allows kids to better critically think, which is a skill set they will need their entire life. While parallelograms may not be in everyone’s career future, there are so many professions that are expanding in our economy that do prefer or require math degrees.
Math degrees can open doors to lots of potential careers, including many that are new and upcoming because of advancements in technology. In these careers is where math becomes real for a lot of people – it’s where all that abstract math learned makes sense. Math majors are constantly exploring new challenges as more is discovered in the field. Here are some of the career paths you can take with a math degree.
Logistics
With the business world moving at a rapid pace these days and many wanting tight reigns on supply and demand, logisticians have stepped up their roles and become exerts in supply chain movement. Monitoring production, transportation, supply and demand are all parts of being a logistician and they often have business critical impacts. For instance, if an Apple logistician loses sight of a shipment of iPhone 7s going to all Northern California Verizon stores and the phones are delayed by a week, it could have very severe financial consequences both Apple and Verizon. That’s a lot of pressure! It’s complex calculations that are used to ensure supply chain dynamics work like they’re supposed to in order to make the company’s bottom line good. Math graduates are perfect for this kind of job!
Research
Marketing agencies, retail businesses and IT groups regularly need research to help improve their business. Many of them go as far as to hire researchers to specifically put together data sets for them to fill knowledge gaps and present to consumers and clients. The data is then used to market better or improve service. There is also research that needs to be done for universities and journals regularly, especially if they are publishing material that needs to be quantified. That’s where number crunching comes in! These jobs are ideal for those with math degrees and are very stereotypical when math graduates think of the type of work they can engage in and even though they aren’t as common as positions in the tech world, they do exist.
Engineering
Despite that there are engineering specific degrees, math majors often also make their way to engineering, because engineering is almost entirely comprised of math. Math meets practicality in engineering and math graduates are often good at coming up with real solutions to field problems in engineering which is why they make suitable candidates. There are technically 6 types of engineering, with the most common are civil, mechanical and electrical. It’s likely that more advanced careers in engineering might either require a more advanced degree or experience. Math majors can usually find their way in at an entry and level and work their way up, with a company sometimes paying for them to go back to get a more advanced engineering degree.
Aerospace
Previously many thought that this was considered more part of engineering, however, as research for military and space programs continues, both the private and public sectors are realizing that math graduates can help with future problem solving. Math experts tend to be logical, pragmatic thinkers which enables them to come up with solutions to very real world problems. Ever heard the phrase “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to…” Well, a lot of aerospace professions are literal rocket scientists and the truth is, there may be more schooling beyond just a bachelor’s degree to work on aerospace projects. A bachelors or masters in math is certainly one of the degrees that can get you there.
Despite that most students may never use parallelograms again in their regular day to day jobs, it’s important to note the amount of jobs that do use math every day. Building and understanding math concepts from an early age is important and might even set your kid up to be a math major someday. So, come on over to the math side and come visit us at Mathnasium of Cherry Hills! We are math experts and tutors that can help.
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