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Learn functional programming. It feels like math to a math person. Imperative programming feels very foreign (e.g., standard python).
Off topic: one of my secret regrets in life is that I am not smart enough to be a mathematician. I watch the popular channels, I read about the new discoveries, I drunkenly explain some of the fancy concepts to my friends after the fourth beer. I wish I could understand higher mathematics.
I have refreshing my mathematics knowledge via videos made by Grant Sanderson.
Search "3blue1brown" on YouTube. I started with his Linear Algebra series (recommended here on HN)and then the Calculus series and finally the Neural Networks series. (highly recommended)
He is working on a Probability Series and I am supporting him on Patreon.
Machine learning is actually quite math-lite in comparison to "math" like PhD math. Most masters/PhD math stuff just isn't required or used in the discipline at all. You can get away with undergraduate analysis for pretty much all of it. But it builds off of undergraduate math. So in that sense, you're not really looking for a position for "mathematicans", rather a position for "data scientist" or "quantitative ...",…
Since you brought it up, I've had a hard time looking at positions for software engineers (not a single mention on this month's whos hiring for example). Any ideas?
Not me, that's for sure. I interviewed two maths phd's years ago, who wanted to get out of academia because they felt themselves above chasing grant money, but then didn't want to do anything that wasn't their phd topic or related (of which I didn't even understand what it was, and they couldn't explain, or give examples of what it could be used for). On the other hand, I did hire people who studied maths in programm…
All the time people apply for jobs with different expectations than what the job role is. That is what the interview process is for, so both sides can find out if there is a good fit.
I graduated with a BSc in Mathematics in 2008, and didn't exactly know what I wanted to do. I just typed the keyword "analyst" into job search engines. It worked pretty well! I ended up getting a job in a field that I didn't even know existed when I started (web analytics). It turns out that almost every industry has some sort of data that they can benefit from having someone analyze it, and a Math degree is a pretty…
If you don't mind relocating to Chicago drop me a line at kirill.sevastyanenko (at) avant
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a Bs in applied mathematics and I'm a software engineer. I think that mathematicians make incredible software engineers (not me necessarily ) if they do two things, take some basic cs classes, get co-ops/internships programming. I faced a _lot_ of bias when getting into the industry because people didn't want to train me to program or thought I'd be too weak of a software engineer, etc... and I believe having…
I'd actually be interested in your experience. Personally I have a degree in Physics. Only two classes in programming (majorly self taught) and work in simulations. How does the software engineering field see people like me? I've applied to programming jobs in the past and just never knew if I was under qualified, didn't stand out, or just slipped through the cracks in the large amounts of applications places get. An…
So when I applied to jobs with my applied math degree and 2 years of grad computing experience - but no industry experience - as a software engineer - I got lots of sorry no experience, we can't train you, etc... etc...
I eventually got a job as a support engineer and have kicked around a lot of roles including data scientist and software engineer.
I'd say if you don't have actual programming experience they'd probably see you pretty similarly to me. That being said if you're applying to a giant corporation and don't have some sort of standout crazy resume OR have an internal referral I think you're basically lost in the noise. Applying to smaller startups may get you a second look.
However, now there are things like triplebyte where if you pass their interview you can get an onsite to a lot of companies regardless of your background - which is pretty neat.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my experience. All my math degree ever did was mildly impress potential recruiters, but I had to learn how to code things unrelated to mathematics to get a job. The only job I was able to get as a mathematician "outside" of academia was a brief stint teaching high school mathematics. Which was fun and I would do again if the pay were higher.
It was fun? Could you talk about that some more? Any time someone talks wistfully about a job they'd like to have, it's good to listen.
The honours class was an absolute blast to teach. The kids were engaged, they were able to handle the toughest problems I could throw at them, they liked being there. Having the privilege to teach that class was worth the whole year.
The regular geometry classes were more challenging but still lots of fun to teach. It was more difficult there to get across to the kids. Many of them didn't want to be there. I still tried and came up with lots of different ways to explain things. Not all of my methods were successful.
The IB SL class was a mixed bag. These were dedicated students who worked hard but didn't really want to take a lot of mathematics, because they didn't want to take the Higher Level class. Some of them understood, some of them didn't. I was very sad to have one student who for whatever reason I just couldn't reach. She seemed dedicated, very polite, she wanted to succeed, but she failed nearly every exam. It was a little heartbreaking. I have no idea what I was doing wrong.
I was very young and green. I have had more informal teaching experience, mostly in the way of giving tech talks or explaining computer things to other computer people, but I always wish I could be explaining geometry again to kids, trying to nudge them to explore and learn in their own ways.
I'm a mechanical engineer with strong minors in applied computational mathematics and scientific computing, and math has been, for me, a super-power. It opens all kinds of thermal, structural analyst jobs. I can optimize all kinds of stuff. I can automate simulations and plot the results in ways that the non-technical can get a good idea of the right direction to go. That all comes from math. Can you hand-code a solv…
For my undergrad, I mostly focussed on number theory and differential geometry. These topics are mostly useless unless you want to work at the NSA, which only works for the US. Most of my undergraduate curriculum is absolutely useless except for the art of mathematics itself.
For my Masters I wanted to learn more about numerical analysis, hoping to land a job this way. I suppose that did help me understand topics like machine learning, which really seems to me like numerical analysis rebranded, but I didn't end working on anything like it. In fact, what happened is that I started contributing to Octave and used the experience from working on that to justify getting other programming, non-mathematical jobs.
The reason I'm telling this story is just to emphasise that most mathematics is useless, always has been, always will be, just like most art is useless. You mentioned very specific areas and applications of mathematics, but mathematician in general will always have difficult finding jobs pertaining to their mathematical interests and need to diversify towards the need of the job market.