I want to know my options. I actually have a PhD and was offered a postdoc but had to decline because of Coronavirus. And now it is virtually impossible for me to find an academic job. I have no university affiliation. In math, any pause is disastrous for your odds of continuing because of how competitive it is.
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i know a math phd uber driver. make of that what u will
A quant? I dont know how realistic this it. My Product Manager is a Math Phd but he have 2 bachelor, one is math one is computer science.
Can you do modelling and analysis in any capacity? Banks, investment funds and other institutions handling data sets often are hiring for people with your skillset. You are comparatively lucky, as mathematics is much more difficult to automate compared to a lot of office work.
All the pure math people in my cohort became data scientists/ machine learners. I, who did machine learning in an applied math context became a professor, after stints on Wall Street and DoD.
Can you program? If not, can you afford to do a CS conversion masters? There’s still a huge market for programmers who can actually think and reason.
With statistics you can go to insurances or online gambling companies. With linear optimization skills into insurances, and R&D in tech companies. If you also have basics physics knowledge, then you can work for the military and defence companies for radar and rocket technologies.
I like math people; you guys are awesome
All the people who I know who majored in math eventually went on to accounting or financial planning/advising.
With the advanced of AI, most of applied side is AI driven. There may be so-called expert in math or statistics in the field, especially in academia. Pure math, on the other hand, would be somewhat AI-safe area and may be desired in private sector (insurance) or government (energy).
Become a quant and make a mint.
A lot of math phds work for the NSA, they might still be hiring. They are still running their paid internship program. You could look at community colleges or even high school. You could also become an actuary, but that’s more for BA math folks, I think.
Money is a number.
I know someone who’s working in encryption making fantastic money after their math PhD. It’s a great background to have for some high level shit.
I’ve heard you can make big money in finance with a math PhD.
Biology, medicine, defense, data, etc. kinda depends on your background honestly. If your PhD was in like… cluster algebra or whatever random niche thing without any other experience then get cozy in academia I guess lol
OP, my university (Mathematics department), hires a lot of people who have taken mid to long breaks from academic positions. Postdoc hires are the most common but TT positions as well.
Academia nowadays is ANYTHING but meritocratic – a lot of times people hire someone because they had a good vibe about you/liked you, not because you had X papers or an h-index above all other candidates. It depends entirely on who is interviewing you. A lot of senior profs at my department don’t really care about the H-index, but rather your story and why you want to do research. They want to access if you will be a good professional.
If academia is truly your dream, don’t even think for a second that “being out of the race for a while” disqualifies you.
There are 1001 reasons to leave academia for industry, but this is not one of them.