Real Life Experiences
Back to Careers in Mathematics

An actuary, a librarian, a director of pharmaceutical research-mathematicians are involved in more fields than you may have thought possible. The following professionals with degrees in math-related fields will tell you that they were guided toward their career path by the first great math textbook they used, a crucial internship, or the advice of an enthusiastic professor. There are many choices to make and elements to consider when choosing a career. The following individuals share their educational background, interests, and experiences so that emerging mathematicians—such as you—will benefit.

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Alex Karavousanos
Senior Director, Business Development, Reuters
BS in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Alex's Background
"From a young age I found mathematics interesting and challenging," recalls Alex, and when it came time to search for a job, his interest in math carried over. Alex naturally gravitated toward a career in which math skills were valued, if not required. He now works in business development and has found that "the analytical skills I developed though all of my courses gave me an excellent foundation that allows me to think creatively and structure interesting business relationships."

The Career
Initially Alex used his mathematics background to pass the National Association of Securities Dealer's series 7 exam in order to become a registered representative. "I enjoyed selling stocks but was interested in learning more about financial planning and stock selection." Alex eventually took a position as a research analyst with Market Guide, a small publicly traded company on Long Island that collected financial information on all publicly traded companies. After a series of acquisitions, this position became Alex's current position at Reuters. "My role here has a few different functions," says Alex, including managing and growing the revenue for an existing client base, structuring strategic partnerships with companies that will redistribute fundamental and estimates financial data, and facilitating the sale of data through existing channel partners. Alex told us that he "ended up in business development because of the creative and analytical nature of the job." Daily responsibilities include anything from responding to client inquiries to projecting and/or forecasting revenue models for various strategic partners. Alex believes that the future of financial mathematics careers is stable. "The financial services industry relies heavily on math and will continue to do so. The industry continues to evolve, but everything revolves around numbers-offering math folks many interesting opportunities."

Alex offers this advice: "I would suggest that someone majoring in math be open minded as to a career path. An analytical type of degree can be applied to many different roles and careers. I would recommend that students intern at a few different companies in order to get a good understanding of the different jobs with which a math degree could be associated."

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John Parkinson
Actuary, Vice President, The Savitz Organization
BA Mathematics, BA Economics, East Stroudsburg University

John's Background
The fear of math is not uncommon, even for math majors. John was an economics major when he discovered his mathematics interest and ability. "I came to learn that the foundation of some key economic principles was rooted in the application of calculus to those principles." John became fascinated and wanted to learn more. He ended up taking more mathematics courses, "this after fearing math for most of my life." In addition to economics, philosophy contributed to John's interest in math. "I noticed how many of the great philosophers were mathematicians. The two subjects have an interesting and natural connection."

In college, John found a subject that specifically sparked his interest -- Econometrics. "This course really influenced my decision to pursue a career in the field of applied mathematics. I found applying regression analysis techniques to economic problems and theory to try to determine explanatory variables and forecasting to be truly interesting." From there, the actuarial profession was a natural fit. "Embarrassing as it is to admit, I wasn't very informed about the actuarial profession in college. I stumbled onto the profession at a job fair my senior year and was quickly intrigued." After passing the rigorous professional exams, John entered "a field where I would deal with assessing the financial and economic impact of contingent events."

The Career
John is currently a consulting actuary for an employee benefits company. "We help companies determine their plan's financial liabilities." Determining these liabilities is dependent on quantifying expectations of future events, including how long the employee will live, when and how the employee will leave employment (termination, disability), how much money the employee will make during his/her career.

The future of financial mathematics careers is a bright one. John told us that while current actuarial science takes a deterministic approach to valuing financial liabilities, in the future, stochastic modeling should become more prevalent. "As financial analysis and modeling becomes more complex, the opportunities for mathematicians in business and consulting should increase greatly."

John recommends that students spend some time investigating what mathematicians are doing in other fields—but start early!

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Leslie Lahl
Developmental Editor, Mathematics, Brooks/Cole Publishers
BA, MA in Mathematics, Cleveland State University

Leslie's Background
Leslie taught at the undergraduate level prior to her career in publishing. When asked what led her to her current job, she said, "I know that a great book is priceless to a student. Of course having a good teacher is a plus too!" Leslie said that it was her first calculus course, and later a course in Abstract Algebra, that spawned her lasting interest in mathematics. "The subjects seemed so beautiful. They were interesting and challenging. I think it helped that I got to use two exceptional books for these courses. They were clearly written for the student: friendly but not condescending, concise but not terse, filled with illustrative examples that don't 'give away the store' but guide the user through the challenges of the material. These books made a huge difference. For me, they provided stepping-stones to go beyond the coursework assigned in each class. I started reading other math books on my own, and I went on from there."

The Career
Developmental Editors perform many of the duties that make a book ready for production. They shepherd the project through the editorial process, working closely with the author. Leslie told us that "As a developmental editor for math text books, I read manuscripts and use the skills associated with both an English major and a mathematician. I look at content on two levels: Does the material make sense from a mathematics perspective? Does it also clearly express the concept?" Leslie also works with reviewers during the editorial process. "For example, I send out the manuscript with a questionnaire that I develop and the reviewers are asked to answer questions regarding content and pedagogy. Their feedback is invaluable."

Leslie's math background is important during this review process. "I consider my background in mathematics to be a huge asset to my position. I am able to have discussions based on the subject matter. I also like this material and I'm genuinely interested in it. I think it really makes a difference that I can share this interest with the author and reviewers."

Leslie feels that the primary responsibilities of a D.E. won't change significantly, even with the advent of things like "books on demand" and other emerging electronic formats. "The actual format of the book may vary, but we still need to develop the content. I think that the way I do my job will change, naturally, with advancements in technology. I perform a large portion of my job using e-mail as communication, sending out things electronically. The speed of communication has accelerated the rate at which a developmental editor is expected to produce the end product. I have to stay on top of changes in publishing software and other PC developments." We asked Leslie for some general advice for students and other emerging mathematicians, "As early as you can, start talking to your professors about what you can do with a math degree. Get internships. Foster an appreciation of other subjects as well. A good general background comes into play when interviewing for a job, and performing that job. You might be a brilliant mathematician, but can you express your ideas clearly and effectively?"

Other jobs with related responsibilities: Acquisitions Editor, Book Editor for elementary and secondary mathematics textbooks, Educational Software Developer

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Barbara Hamilton
Manager, Information Support Services
Institute for Defense Analysis
BS, MA Mathematics
Central Michigan University
Masters in Library Science
Rutgers University

Barbara's Background
As a child, Barbara Hamilton helped her older brother with his math homework. She considered this to be one of the early signs that she had a knack for mathematics. Barbara remembers her sixth and seventh grade teachers as being particularly pivotal. "My math teachers realized that the kids at that age are at all sorts of different levels mathematically." In college she chose mathematics, even though she was faced with other options. "I found the more 'practical' majors (like accounting) really boring. I liked chemistry and physics also; I even worked in the chemical lab during the summers doing quality assurance (where I was hounded by the chemists to change my major from mathematics to chemistry, but I liked mathematics better.)" After college, Barbara worked as a cryptologic mathematician for the Department of Defense. She also worked for Renaissance Technologies, where she wrote documentation that would describe the software used for modeling the commodities market. RenTech used mathematical models to forecast the market, and thus trade accordingly.

The Career
Barbara is currently in charge of the mathematics library for the Institute for Defense Analyses; Center for Communications Research Division in Princeton, New Jersey. IDA is an FFRDC (Federally Funded Research and Development Center). "We do research work for agencies in the Department of Defense." The IDA's library of books, journals, and electronic materials has been in existence for nearly forty years. As fate would have it, Barbara was looking for something new when the position opened up. "I was offered a temporary research job, but wasn't sure I wanted to do that anymore. While we were negotiating this position the librarian retired (with rather short notice) and they offered the job to me. I took it and then got a Master's in Library Science." Barbara uses her math skills everyday in the library. "I sort of live in both worlds. Because of my MS in Mathematics, I can understand what my clients are trying to ask me. And with my MLS, I can understand what Librarians mean." Daily responsibilities include buying books for the library. "I complain to publishers about high prices," she jokes. She makes sure the library is getting what it needs. She also supervises typists who prepare reports for their sponsor on the work that their research staff is doing, and corresponds with the research staff to make sure they have the appropriate research materials.

As far as advice goes, Barbara suggests the students take classes that they're interested in, "You'll learn more," she says. She suggests getting an early start. "If I could do it over again, I would start looking at potential careers earlier. I waited until my senior year before I started thinking about a career."

Barbara feels that in general, mathematics and research have a very bright future. Barbara told us that, "research into mathematical theories and ideas is not shrinking. Over the past few years, the IDA has started looking into new areas of mathematics that we were not interested in before. I think there will always be new things to discover in mathematics, as long as people keep looking."

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Dr. Jeff Sachs
Director and Senior Investigator
Applied Computer Science and Mathematics Department
Merck Research Labs, Merk & Co., Inc.
Sc.B. and Sc.M. Applied Mathematics, Brown University
Ph.D. Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Jeff's Background
When Jeff was a small child he always wanted to be a doctor. He told people that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon. "But I was always surrounded by and enjoyed science and mathematics, largely because my father was a physics professor. Also, I was lucky enough to go to the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools elementary school where the science curriculum (and teachers!) were inspiring, and I lived only about four blocks from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago." When he was 11 he learned Fortran, a scientific and mathematical programming language. "I remember thinking 'well, that's it for medicine, I think I want to do this science and math stuff instead... It'll be fun to use computers to do that."

Jeff entered college as a physics major, then changed to mathematics, and then to applied math. "My switch to applied math was partly due to the great teachers I had. Another part was feeling that I didn't think like a physicist when I solved physics problems, yet wanted to feel a connection between what I studied and its practical application."

Many courses have affected Jeff's career choices. "Certainly the style of research and analysis in applying continuum electromechanochemistry taught by my thesis advisor Alan Grozinsky and his advisor Jim Melcher had and continues to have a profound influence on my thinking. One of the most important skills I learned from Alan was scientific writing. I still hope to someday be as clear and concise as I was after he edited my work!" Specifically, some of the courses Jeff mentioned that made a difference in applying Jeff's course of study to his career are: Differential Equations, Stochastic Processes, Partial Differential Equations, Asymptotic Methods, Fluid Mechanics, and numerical analysis. "Also my non-math graduate courses in mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and physiology have had a great influence on my ability to collaborate effectively in multi-disciplinary environments."

Jeff worked in academic labs during his summers in high school and as an undergraduate, mostly doing computer programming (software engineering), but also some lab work repairing instrumentation and building things. After graduate school he worked first in academia in applied physics at University of Tokyo, in math and computer science at Clarkson University, biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, and at NIST in the biotechnology division. He then went into industry, working for a mathematics consulting firm. "This was a great educational experience, as I had an excuse to learn many new subjects, including signal processing, pattern recognition, and biotechnology basics. It also gave me a lot of practice in presenting very technical work to non-technical audiences. This is a key skill for scientists and mathematicians in industry!"

The Career
Jeff's current position at Merck draws on his past experience, and presents some new challenges. "In close collaboration with my colleagues, I perform scientific research. I also design technologies and experimental and data analysis protocols that help other scientists do their work. I design and (usually with support from others) implement algorithms and user interfaces to help make it easy for colleagues to use the methods that we invent." Jeff leads others in doing similar work and in implementing the software, helps evaluate technologies brought to Merck by other companies, and helps in strategic technology planning. Jeff was introduced to his job at Merck by participating in a meeting held by one of many professional organizations. "I gave a technical talk at a SIAM conference and my current supervisor [at Merck] was there. He was just starting to build our department and asked me to have lunch, then an interview, ... then to join." The main reason Jeff joined the team at Merck was that "I had always most enjoyed applications of math to biotechnology and healthcare. I felt that this position would be my best opportunity to learn new things and to have a real impact on human health."

Daily tasks for Jeff are similar to many other office jobs, "I read and send email, talk on the phone, and meet with people. The difference from most jobs, though, is the subject matter for all these interactions. Typically, I speak with scientists about their goals for a class of data analyses, scientific questions of interest to them, or results of analyzing a particular data set. I'll meet with my colleagues to review a version of software in terms of either its algorithm or user interface. I meet with people that I supervise to make sure I know what they and their teams are doing, to advise them on their actions, and to make sure that they have everything I can provide for them to help them get their work done and that they are continuing to grow technically and professionally. When I get really lucky I get time to read scientific literature or analyze data or write some software."

Jeff's advice:
"Study software engineering, writing and public speaking, statistics and probability, and at least two fields of application of mathematics. The rigor of the thought process we learn in math is extremely valuable even in non-technical fields. But if you want to use math in industry (and in many places in academia) you will need to put some of your ideas into an acceptable format through software, or at least to understand what that process involves. I don't know any employers 'of mathematicians as mathematicians' (outside pure math academic departments) who don't require some knowledge of the software engineering process. Writing and public speaking are two critical communication skills that will have at least as much impact on your career as the technical content of your work. Statistics and probability will be useful in almost any technical career, and necessary for most. And understanding applications, even if they are different than anything you do in a job, will be critical to learning how to understand different perspectives on problem solving and the necessity of understanding the vocabulary relevant to people working on that application."

Jeff thinks that applications of math in biology and biotechnology will be an exciting and productive place to work for a very long time. He also believes that there will always be positions available for those who enjoy applying math to very practical problems. However, the requirements for those positions will continue to be very competitive, due to hiring rates being limited by economic conditions, and because of an increasing number of people aware of and qualified for such positions. Those applicants with excellent scholastic records who can demonstrate successful experiences in obtaining and communicating results will have the best advantage.

Jeff offers some inspiring thoughts: "The most important thing is to find something you really love to do and would enjoy doing all day for a few years. It is such a joy to have a job that is fun and feels like it contributes to society. If you can do this, then you are very likely to feel fulfilled in your life and to do well in your career."

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