Careers in Math

WE DO MATH!, an article in a recent math magazine spoke of the many careers in mathematics. Students often ask,"What can I do with math besides be a teacher or a NASA engineer." The following careers all use math daily.

Rachelle Johnson holds a mathematics degree from Texas Southern University. She currently works for the Department of Defense as an Industrial Property Management Specialist who deals with issues in government property. She performs audits, awards surveys, conducts contract negotiations, approves government transactions, investigates reports of loss, damage, and destruction of property, and creates risk analysis of property. Wow!!

Debra Taufen went to St. Olaf College and earned a degree in mathematics. She works at IBM as a marketing executive, driving strategies for reaching potential customers in markets around the world. She says through all her years with IBM she has continued to leverage the disciplined and logical way math education taught her to think. Her ability to reason out a solution to a problem is the most versatile tool she has available. The logical problem solving she learned through studying mathematics continues to help her tackle the new problems that come up everyday.

These are just two people highlighted in the article. Other careers included in the article were a marine research associate who deals with populations of fish and game with statistical analysis; a software design engineer who test better methods and approaches to find failures in programs and bugs, an educational markets manager who provides technological support to teachers of math and science; and a consultant who specializes in quantitative analysis and statistics for sales and marketing firms across the nation.

Everyone can learn more about careers in mathematics by obtaining books from the library such as 101 Careers in Mathematics, She Does Math!, and Great Jobs for Math Majors.