this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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I have a math degree. I am far from independently wealthy. There are plenty of math-related jobs out there if you’re willing to stoop from the lofty perches of pure math. Statistics, data science, risk management, actuarial science, finance, accounting, operations research, optimization, computational mathematics, machine learning/AI.
The list goes on and on and on. Many of these jobs might be quite boring for someone who just wants to work on difficult proofs all day but they’re generally a lot better pay than any academic job below the tenure track (and way better pay than Starbucks).
Life is a lot tougher if you’re into physics or chemistry or biology. There you really do need a PhD to do anything and the research positions are extremely competitive to get.
Bless you for chiming in as first hand experience of my third hand story. However, I think your post reinforces my professor's point more than it refutes it.
As someone in the field, you tell me how it really is. I interpret your post as reinforcing my professor's point, rather than detracting from it.
Well it’s hard for me to say what your professor really meant. If he meant “there are no jobs paying math undergrads to write proofs” then yes of course, no one but professors or rich parents would pay for that. But all he said was “there are no jobs for undergrads/masters/PhDs” which to me implies that math grads are no better off than high school grads at getting a job, with which I would strongly disagree.
He said the only jobs for math grads were teaching math. High School Teachers in his country didn't pay well. There weren't enough professor positions for all the math grads and he struggled for a long time piss poor.
He saw his friends who took business, comp sci or engineering get high paying careers. He discouraged anyone from taking pure math, unless you were rich because it was a "luxury" to study it.
Ahhh, I dunno what country he’s from but in my country (Canada) there are loads of jobs for math grads. The one thing you have to give up on is pure math. No business is interested in paying someone to write proofs.
I did a major in computational math with a joint pure math. I took a lot of pure math courses and loved them but there’s no practical use for them outside of academia. It’s like learning to write poetry.
However, the skills of a mathematics grad and the broad applicability of mathematics to many areas of business, engineering, and science are undeniable. Even someone who has only studied pure mathematics has a huge advantage over someone who has an unrelated arts degree, for example, all else being equal (personal hygiene, social and communications skills).
All else is rarely equal though. But that’s another matter entirely!