Help on...Mathematical careers?

Roonels

Ok just wondering if there was any1 here contemplating doing a mathematical career. i always considered myself to be strong at maths...how do i know if im good enough to do actuary or mathematical sciences? i wont lie...i want to be rich!

Mini_Moose

to qualify as an actuary is no easy task. honestly i wouldn't suggest doing it unless you are faily confident you will get an a1 or an a2. from the graduates in ucd only about half of those who try to qualify as actuaries actually do so. the figure may be even lower than that

geminilady

rya thinking of doing it in arts or a mathematical degree. was thinking of maths myself but i dont know if i could stand it for 4 years. so im confused

europerson

Maths is an excellent degree choice for anyone who's competent with numbers. Maths graduates are highly sought after my all sorts of companies now. The courses can be very interesting too, if you really have a mathematical mind.

ZorbaTehZ

Actuary: http://www.careerdirections.ie/CD/DBAllCareerDetails.jsp?id=303

I wuv maths too, however, personally, being an actuary wouldnt appeal to me at all since I despise probability, statistics and all that craic. What I am going to do (which uses a lot of maths and physics) is Electonic Engineering and Computer Science. Why dont you look it up. Also the pure math courses dont offer many careers unless you wish to lecture or do research (as far as I know anyways).

Pure Cork

I thought (pure) maths grads would have options to go into Actuarial Studies, Business, Economics, Finance, Accountancy, Banking, Science, IT, etc. Don't a lot of them go into computer science in particular?

Mini_Moose

although maths graduates can go on to work in finance and banking a more relevant course to do if interested in these careers is commerce.

David19

Maths would be probably be a better degree than commerce if you want to go into banking, especially if you want to be a trader. OP if you like maths and want to be rich, you could work in finance in london.

Misticles

im doing a maths degree.... i wanna work as a statistician or risk analyst.... thats untill i get my optometry degree

Hector Gilbert

As someone doing a degree in mathematics, the best advice I can give is to pursue it if you're actually interested in studying mathematics as opposed to just finding the subject easy. A few people doing a mathematics department course at the same time as me who got better grades than I did and may well still be faster at delivering Leaving Certificate answers than I would eventually dropped out in first year because they weren't interested enough in the subject. This may well apply to a great deal of college courses, but it still needs to be said.

That said, the field of mathematics is quite a broad one and there would be very good employment prospects from the degree should you choose to go for them.

Roonels

well here is an update! yesterday my maths teacher wanted to bet me a hundred euro that i wud get an A1 in highet maths!:o basically there is nothing i love more than solving a really complex equation or problem. and one of the biggest factors is....i want to be rich! i cud lie and say its about loving the job but that wud be lying...after 7 or 8 years in any job u will be sick of it anyway so. the course im thinkin of doin is mathematical sciences in ucc...after the first year you must choose a path and one of the paths is finacial maths and acturial sciences. does any1 have any info about this for me?

Pure Cork

I think people should do something they really enjoy and not judge a career based purely on potential earnings. If you want to be rich you should get a trade. There are guys two years out of school making around €100k for 6hrs work for 5 days a week. How bad!

nikolaitr

There is a course in Triniy called MSISS(Management science and Information systems studies)

It is basically a strong finance degree with alot of maths. They do the same maths lectures a the Engineers and they also do Economics. It is a tough course but is sets you up for a career in the Finance/Accounting/Actuary world. I would rate it higher than most business courses because it focuses in on the "hard" parts of Business Courses like Economics,Stats and Maths.

ZorbaTehZ

Well, if I had a choice between being happy in a job and earning lots of money, certainly I would choose being happy in a job any day.
It sounds to me like you are probably going to score very high anyways, so why not go for medicine or even law, then you can really earn a ridiculous amount of money?

Pythia

You could try doing the course I'm just finishing up. It's 'Economics and Finance' in UCD.

There's a good bit of maths in it and you can choose to major in maths in your final year. You also do economics, especially the numerate econ subjects, finance which is quite numerate, a bit of accounting and other stuff too. What's nice about it is you can go on to be an actuary (as I'm going to do) but it also sets you up nicely for banking/insurance jobs as well as trading, or accounting too.

The points aren't super high either (480 ish?). You need a C in maths to get in, but most people have A's.

Probably too late to advise you at this stage but I think it's a really good degree.

sdanseo

To be an actuary you have to be comitted - which is better, having piles of money and no time to spend it, or a bit less and actually being able to relax onj your weekends/evenings?