Department of Mathematics

Kansas State University

Career Information for Math Majors

The American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics maintain a Mathematical Sciences Career Information web site which focuses on nonacademic careers in the mathematical sciences. The site includes a Mathematics Careers Bulletin Board which contains Profiles of mathematical scientists and a Forum where you can ask questions and get answers from those profiled.

The American Mathematical Society maintains a Mathematical Moments page which "promotes appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology and human culture."

The Mathematical Association of America maintains a Mathematics Careers page and provides Career Profiles of nonacademic mathematical scientists. "The authors of these essays describe a wide variety of careers for which a backgound in the mathematical sciences is useful. They provide practical answers to the question: "Why should I study math?"

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics also provides a Careers page which contains an online guide to Careers in Applied Mathematics? and Profiles of Mathematicians and Computational Scientists.

The Math Forum hosts a Math Awareness Month page showing how the application of mathematics is indispensable in such diverse fields as medicine, computer imaging, the internet, market analysis, environmental studies, space exploration, manufacturing, business, defense, and government.

The American Statistical Association maintains a Career Center.

The American Mathematical Society has a Career Services page focusing on academic careers. This web site contains Advice for New Ph.D.'s, as well as Employment Services for Ph.D. mathematicians. The Mathematical Sciences Employment Center is run by the American Mathematical Society and other Societies each January at the Joint Mathematics Meetings. It is a way for employers and PhD-level mathematicians to have short interviews.

The Chronicle of Higher Education maintains a Career Network which includes job announcement listings exclusively for Chronicle subscribers.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics maintains a Jobs Online "Web site service that provides a timely link between mathematics education professionals seeking new positions and educational institutions with vacancies."

The National Security Agency is one of the largest employers of mathematicians outside academia. NSA has a Careers web site which describes their College Student Cooperative Education Program and Summer Programs. NSA has career paths in Cryptanalysis, Intelligence Analysis, Mathematics, Signal Analysis, and other fields. The Director's Summer Program is the National Security Agency's premier outreach effort to the very best undergraduate mathematics majors in the country. The students participating in the cryptologic mathematics program will work on a broad range of problems involving applications of abstract algebra, geometry, number theory, combinatorics, graph theory, probability, statistics and analysis.

The U.S. Department of State has a Recruitment page which includes information on Student Programs.

The Society of Actuaries and the Casuality Actuary Society maintain a page which describes how to Be An Actuary and contains information about the Actuarial Exams. Northwestern Mutual Life has an Actuarial Opportunities page. Allstate has an Actuarial page.

Many businesses and corporations have web pages on careers and jobs. For example, here are the careers pages for Accenture, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Dell, Ernst & Young, Garmin International, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sandia, Schlumberger, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, and William M. Mercer.

You can read about Careers in the Mathematical Sciences and see a list of Employers and Job Titles of Some K-State Mathematics Alumni. You will be surprised at the many different job titles for which a math degree is appropriate. Be sure to visit our Internships, Research Programs, and Study Abroad page.

You can explore the K-State Career and Employment Services Homepage. Among the many resources there, you may learn about the All University Career Fair, the Mock Interview Clinics, and Internships and Co-ops. They offer assistance for Resumes and Interviews, and they maintain a list of Helpful Resources and Web-Sites.

The Academic and Career Information Center provides assistance to individuals exploring academic majors, career options and graduate school information.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics contains information about:

• Actuaries;
• Computer and Information Systems Managers;
• Computer Programmers;
• Computer Scientists and Database Administrators;
• Computer Software Engineers;
• Computer Systems Analysts
• Mathematicians (including Cryptologists and Numerical Analysts);
• Operations Research Analysts;
• Statisticians;
• Teachers - Elementary, Middle, and Secondary;
• Teachers - Postsecondary.

• Academic Careers Online provides information about career opportunities in education and academia.

• D. W. Simpson & Company is a firm devoted strictly to job searches in the actuarial profession.

• The PhDs.org web site contains science, math, and engineering career resources.

• The National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Web contains employment information and a springboard to career and job-related sites.

• Career Builder has a Quick Job Search and Advanced Job Search features.

• After College is a service created by students for students.

• Monster Trak is the internet's first and most popular career service network for college career centers, students and alumni.

• Visit the Job Hunting web site and get tips on Writing Intriguing Cover Letters and Preparing a Resume. The purpose of a resume is to get attention. They present several key steps to creating a resume that will get attention. Also, look at their job search page and learn about Triumphing on Tests and at Interviews.

• Undergraduate Student Worker Positions in the K-State Department of Mathematics

• Civil Service Notice of Vacancies for the State of Kansas