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Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, I'm going to investigate the options listed.
Also, re: my initial motivations, I wanted to be an academic mathematician. I was pretty good at math in high school (decent competition performance, perfect grades) but proof-based math was a different animal and I didn't really know what that was about until freshman year. I enjoyed my Mathematics education, but I realized once I tried taking some graduate school classes in advanced topics that I just didn't have the intellectual capital to be a career mathematician. I coped by playing piano for the last 3 semesters of College -_-.
I second the actuarial work and/or looking for an internship. Many recent grads start out with internships that turn into full time jobs.
I third this, a very lucrative field. Look into starting your exams, there are 9 I believe, get one under your belt - companies will hire actuaries who haven't completed their exams.
What have the career development people on your campus suggested? Surely you can't be the only math major. What are on-campus recruiters looking for? Quant jocks are in demand in a variety of places: economics (private and Government), hedge funds and Insurance companies just to name a couple.
Start hustling, or you are going to be living from cocktail piano lounge to cocktail piano lounge. Substituted with a part time job at Wal_Mart.
I just graduated with a A.B in pure mathematics from an elite University. My grades are mediocre (3.33 ish) primarily to a bout with depression sophomore year (without which they'd be a 3.65 ish), but given the quality of my institution and the rigor of my major, that shouldn't be a permanent stumbling block. I played piano/wrote a lot of music while I was there, and I did some clubs (Mostly music related.) I'm not lazy. I'm not awkward. I had tons of close friends in college, from fellow math and music nerds to the government/economics crowd.
I can't seem to find a full-time job anywhere. The problem? Well, I'm a stupidly impractical human being. I have spent four years with my heads in the clouds playing piano (which I won't ever be good enough to play professionally due to starting late) and learning abstract math no one has any use for. I have next to no job experience. I spent one summer studying German and another writing music in strange tuning systems on campus. The real world has drop-kicked me in the nuts in the past couple of months and now I'm regretting all of that directionless learning.
I'm tutoring math and ESL to make ends meat. I hoped I'd be able to stay in Boston (where I went to school) but it is looking more and more like I'm going to have to move back home to TN.
So I need help. What do I do now? Should I be trying to go back to school? Are there any decent (meaning Livable salaries and pseudo-interesting work) jobs out there for someone with my background who doesn't know how to code? Is there any point in trying to learn to code, or am I just going to be flooded out of that market by the kids with CS degrees from schools like my alma mater? (I know a little python/java but not enough to do anything beyond a basic GUI and very inefficient backend things.)
Thanks guys.
I think you could try biting the bullet and get work now and build up finances until you could decide to go back to school. I would suggest if you can learn on your own, doing online schooling.
I mean, have you gotten an interview? Or are you looking down your nose at some jobs so you don't bother? Because to be honest, you sound a little full of yourself.
Didn't you think ahead to what you would be doing with that "elite" degree?
What were you thinking while you whiled away the time writing music and playing piano?
How do you have the means to go back to school AGAIN?
Or are Mom & Dad supplying your ride so you're not real worried about landing on your feet?
I have a hard time feeling sorry for graduates that don't think about what they want to do in life before they go into school and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially for an "elite" education. An Ivy League school diploma might look nice on a your wall but if you can't get a job with your chosen major, it's a big fat waste of time.
Ummm... no, and was this really necessary? I didn't ask for your sympathy or pity, only for advice from people who are more knowledgeable than I about certain things. My parents work blue collar jobs in rural TN, I'm first generation college and I didn't entirely know what to do with my education. For a lot of people it's just another rung in the prep-school ladder to a successful career, but for me it wasn't. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before back home working at grocery stores and cramming for the SAT's, I wasn't ready and I didn't take full advantage of it. I was able to go to college thanks to generous financial aid from the institution, and sorry if I didn't "think through" my career choice enough to satisfy you.
Not everyone who ends up in the Ivy League has had a silver spoon in their mouth since birth, not everyone has intimate knowledge of the business world/available career paths and what it takes to succeed. When I went I only knew one thing really: I liked Math and was pretty good at doing it. I'm not trying to distance myself from blame, I could have (and should have) done better here - I wish every day I hadn't gotten depressed sophomore year and bombed a semester's worth of classes - but you're attempting to pigeonhole me as some entitled suburban rich kid and that's completely inaccurate.
I don't have the means to go back to school again, I'll have to save up money to pay for an MS or MA (Likely by moving back home and trying to just get whatever work I can find.)
As for "looking down my nose" I already HAVE (two) jobs they just aren't full-time, I'm struggling to pay rent every month. I'm seeking advice from here and other sources to try and inform myself and get to work correcting the mistakes I've made in my life thus far. If you've never made any mistakes, go ahead and judge me, but otherwise maybe you should try not assuming you know something about a person based on only superficial details.
Heck, I've been in the OP's shoes but I was very good at proof based mathematics. The text I hated was one on number theory that would lay out bits and pieces of proofs connected by 'thusly'. Lots of math majors don't learn that they need to plan on a PhD until late in the game. Depression is not uncommon. Oh and, math majors are often horrible spellers. Thank God for spell checkers!
There are options now that weren't available back in my day so let me propose a couple for your consideration: actuary (Millman is the go-to firm) if you did will in statistics; software programming. An actuary is not just a statistician, you need to be able to determine what factors impact an analysis and to what extent. Programming is almost an apprentice-able profession. Ask the folks in the trade what language facility they need most and learn it.
Oh, when asked about your 'depression' attribute it to a romance that ended badly. Everyone has had one or two of those in college.
What have the career development people on your campus suggested? Surely you can't be the only math major. What are on-campus recruiters looking for? Quant jocks are in demand in a variety of places: economics (private and Government), hedge funds and Insurance companies just to name a couple.
Start hustling, or you are going to be living from cocktail piano lounge to cocktail piano lounge. Substituted with a part time job at Wal_Mart.
Hey, don't knock Wally world..I met my manager who was from Argentina, I liked working for that guy. Anyways, he had a degree in physics and when I asked why he was there as a co manager...he told me, "I made 60k, where else am I going to earn that kind of money without a masters degree" Can't say that I blame him.
What have the career development people on your campus suggested? Surely you can't be the only math major. What are on-campus recruiters looking for? Quant jocks are in demand in a variety of places: economics (private and Government), hedge funds and Insurance companies just to name a couple.
Start hustling, or you are going to be living from cocktail piano lounge to cocktail piano lounge. Substituted with a part time job at Wal_Mart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quantumpencil
Ummm... no, and was this really necessary? I didn't ask for your sympathy or pity, only for advice from people who are more knowledgeable than I about certain things. My parents work blue collar jobs in rural TN, I'm first generation college and I didn't entirely know what to do with my education. For a lot of people it's just another rung in the prep-school ladder to a successful career, but for me it wasn't. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before back home working at grocery stores and cramming for the SAT's, I wasn't ready and I didn't take full advantage of it. I was able to go to college thanks to generous financial aid from the institution, and sorry if I didn't "think through" my career choice enough to satisfy you.
Not everyone who ends up in the Ivy League has had a silver spoon in their mouth since birth, not everyone has intimate knowledge of the business world/available career paths and what it takes to succeed. When I went I only knew one thing really: I liked Math and was pretty good at doing it. I'm not trying to distance myself from blame, I could have (and should have) done better here - I wish every day I hadn't gotten depressed sophomore year and bombed a semester's worth of classes - but you're attempting to pigeonhole me as some entitled suburban rich kid and that's completely inaccurate.
I don't have the means to go back to school again, I'll have to save up money to pay for an MS or MA (Likely by moving back home and trying to just get whatever work I can find.)
As for "looking down my nose" I already HAVE (two) jobs they just aren't full-time, I'm struggling to pay rent every month. I'm seeking advice from here and other sources to try and inform myself and get to work correcting the mistakes I've made in my life thus far. If you've never made any mistakes, go ahead and judge me, but otherwise maybe you should try not assuming you know something about a person based on only superficial details.
Hey Quantum, I am in the EXACT same boat as you. I am a first time college student as well, that came from a very poor family but I majored in History, go figure huh?
Anyways, your options are just like mine, you can either go to get your master's degree in whatever you like, however, this time, make sure it is in something practical. I am still torn between my MPA degree and my masters in educational technology, but regardless of which I choose, I know that both will serve me well. So you could do that and if money is an issue, you could take out loans, but ONLY TAKE OUT WHAT YOU NEED.
Your next option would be to go back and get a second bachelor's which is also an option that I have had on the table. It sucks, because you think, "well, I did school and yet here I am again", but you have to get that kind of thinking out of your head. Again, make sure it is in something practical(maybe business?) and go from there. The cons are that you can't use student loans anymore since you graduated and you will not really get a pell grant, but the classes may be cheaper than do a master's degree.
You could also teach, there is nothing wrong with that. It's a good, honorable profession and you will get to do math everyday. However, I would suggest that if you do this route, that you look for a way to make your lessons somewhat semi-interesting, otherwise you may have trouble reaching some of the students.
And finally yes, you could be an actuary/programmer/go into insurance, but ANYONE with a degree can do those jobs. I know someone that has a degree in education that works for an insurance firm..she makes 70k a year. So you have options, OP. Think about what you want to do...I myself and still undecided but I am getting there, slowly but surely.
Oh, and one more idea before I go, you could also try working at your university...you won't make a lot of money...maybe starting out around 25-28k, but you will have a professional job at a major university and it is a start. When I was there, I noticed that two of the advisers had bachelor's degrees. One had a degree in social science with a teaching composite and the other had one in psychology so it can happen!
Get real world job experience before you go back to school for a master's. It seems everyone and their mother has an MBA (just an example), but no experience in the field they want to work. I can't tell you how many people I know with MBA's working in call centers, because they thought after grad school there would be companies throwing executive positions at them. Many good master's programs require actual real life job experience before you can even apply.
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