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Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

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Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

#1

Post by mareoclasico »

I'm going to finish a degree in mathematics next year (in Europe).

The catch: I'll be 37 when I finish. I had a change of careers later in life.

I'm a bit lost on what to pursue professionally. I've looked into getting a Master's in quant/finance or AI research but I've read you need to be a young genius in order to get an interview in most of the prop shops, and for AI I don't know how feasible that path is right now for a regular guy like me.

I get the impression that I need some graduate program after my degree in order to pick up programming and other "useful" skills, and to be honest, I'm kinda looking forward to it.

If you are in some sort of industry that uses math or math-adjacent skills I'd love to know what would you do in my situation, any advice will be golden.

Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

#6

Post by mareoclasico »

snyena wrote: post #4

I am in the gambling industry. Online casinos often look for game mathematicians and sometimes even sportsbooks need mathematicians for price modelling. www.pentasia.com www.bettingjobs.com etc.

Super interesting. Thanks a lot. Is it difficult to break into the industry? What kind of skills are they mostly looking for?

Re: Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

#7

Post by mareoclasico »

EmanuelB wrote: post #2

I know companies that hire people that ”only” do mechanical. They don’t do any programming. Maybe some very basic scripting some of them. Just apply for jobs and see what is out there. You will never know everything there is to know anyway.

I'm not opposed to learning programming btw! it's just that I'm very lost on what's out there and wanted to know possible industries/jobs that I might not be aware of.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

#8

Post by mareoclasico »

kingkongjaffa wrote: post #5

> get the impression that I need some graduate program after my degree in order to pick up programming You don’t have to do that. Check out free resources like cs50x and freecodecamp

Yeah of course! but I meant learning a bit of programming on top of AI research or Quant analysis or something like that. And I guess having the degree doesn't hurt.

Re: Ask HN: What to do with a pure mathematics degree?

#10

Post by jjice »

mareoclasico wrote: post #7
EmanuelB wrote: post #2

I know companies that hire people that ”only” do mechanical. They don’t do any programming. Maybe some very basic scripting some of them. Just apply for jobs and see what is out there. You will never know everything there is to know anyway.

I'm not opposed to learning programming btw! it's just that I'm very lost on what's out there and wanted to know possible industries/jobs that I might not be aware of.

FWIW, the pure math and physics folks I know usually pick up programming very quickly and I've found that generally they're very strong at it.
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