From: keithw@ccorp.uucp (Keith Weintraub - dpr2)
Subject: Re: Opinions Sought (Why major in math?)
Organization: Citicorp, New York City
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 13:57:43 GMT

Distribution: 
Organization: Citicorp, New York City

ara@zurich.ai.mit.edu (Allan Adler) writes:
: 
: One of the failures of our educational system is that no one in the
: so-called real world knows what mathematics is and therefore no one
: knows what to do with a mathematician. This tends to be prejudicial to
: the employment options of mathematicians.
: 

I'm not sure which real world you are talking about but there are many
mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, economists, and
statisticians employed here at Citibank, across Wall Street and at other
commercial institutions like Bell Labs. We actually do know what to do with
these (for lack of a better term) "technical" people. Obviously the aims of
the corporation---and therefore the way these people are employed---may or
may not coincide with some early decision made or idea conceived by an
individual with regards to what their career might eventually be. In fact,
(also obvious I am sure) some people decide (purposely) to change their
careers.

: That seems like a good reason not to major in math. However, I am often
: reminded of my orientation when I started college in 1964 and to my
: surprise I find that I was actually given some good advice, for example:
: "The job you are preparing yourself for may not exist by the time you
: graduate."
: 
: I think that if one takes this advice to heart, the logical conclusion
: is not to organize your education around giving yourself the design
: specifications you think that an employer wants to see. Instead, organize
: it around giving yourself the best critical faculties and the greatest
: versatility in conducting your own education after you graduate. Use your
: time in school to enrich yourself culturally, technically and intellectually 
: in every way that you can.....
Agreed. (Is this proper netiquette? A one word response to 1.5 paragraphs?).

: ...........................There is no point in depriving yourself of this
: with the illusion that you will be better off economically for having
: done so.....
On the other hand there is no reason to purposely avoid taking classes that
you might enjoy just because they might be turn out to be economically
useful.

:         ....An employer will happily screw you anyway, no matter what
: illusions you brought with you.
This sounds like some previous bad experience coming out. I don't know what
it was but I have been treated pretty well in my industry jobs. In fact in
many ways better than I was treated as a Grad student. As I stated above the
corporation has its own goals---generally to be responsive to its
shareholders (who are the general public). If you keep this in mind when
working or looking for a job you can live in the real world.

: 
: So if you like math, then study it. And no matter what your major is,
: don't let yourself be circumscribed by it, because whatever it is,
: there is much more to intellectual and real life.
: 
Agreed.

: 
: Metawork section deleted.
: 
I'm not sure I understand all of this. But my advice is do what you like to
do, work hard, and don't ignore the real world if you want to live in it.

It may be just my own personal perception/guilt/defensiveness but I always
get the feeling that many people in this news group look down on non-academic
work, especially work in the financial area. I used to feel the same way
until I found I could not get an academic job upon graduation (I have a
degree in Statistics, U. of P. 1987). It turns out that my greatest fears of
the real world were unfounded. I admit that in my job I don't spend as much
time on mathematics as I'd like (probably 30% of my time) but on the other
hand I get rewarded for doing computer work (30% of my time---another 40% for
meetings and management) that would very likely be considered a useless
distraction in an academic Statistics department---(at least at U. of P.).

We do statistical work, (stochastic) differential equations, numerical work,
and computer software design. It turns out to be very interesting and as a
sidenote rewarding.

No flames intended. Hope this helps someone.

KW


-- 
Keith Weintraub (KW) -- Citicorp |    I told you a trillion times:
keithw@Citicorp.COM              |	"Don't exaggerate."
uunet!ccorp!keithw               |
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic