Career guidance in maths
16-December-2005
permalink comments (6) forum (6) email thisI am the editor of the Careers using Maths website
http://www.mathscareers.org.uk. This website is produced by the Council for
the Mathematical Sciences (http://www.cms.ac.uk/) with the aim of informing
school and university students from the age of 11 onwards about the careers
open to maths and stats graduates.
The website also contains a section
which aims to provide useful information and support for career advisors.
We are just in the process of expanding this section and would like input and ideas from people involved in career guidance. What kind of information on maths careers would be appreciated by career advisers? Do they on the whole feel well informed about the applications of maths and stats?
We'd also welcome any suggestions of useful resources for career advisers that could be reproduced or linked to on our site.
If you have any ideas, input, experiences relevant to career guidance in the maths sector, please write!
6 Replies (comments)
1 resources for careers advisers
When advising students from mathematical backgrounds I tend to emphasise a couple of points:
What do graduates (of mathematics) do useful website from within the www.prospects.ac.uk website.
I talk a lot about transferable skills and general employability good for this is the employability guide I've attached as a pdf file below. However, what I would find really useful is a series of case studies. Not just for new graduate entrants talking about how their maths courses are related to their first jobs, but stories for two, five and ten years on. It is these personal career narratives that are so helpful for potential applicants, and to be honest, for careers advisers in understanding what particular roles are like.
Case studies might also usefully emphasise how this specialist knowledge is just one aspect of their role - could they also emphasise other skills required in their posts.
Other case studies might highlight how important understanding of maths is in some roles, even when it isn't an obvious requirement of a particular job.
A common request by students seeking jobs on graduation is for 'a list of employers/jobs' who want their skills and knowledge. Obviously this idea is problematic, but if your website could include contacts in maths related roles who would welcome e.g. someone to undertake work experience or work shadowing that would be great. Likewise, employers who are willing to visit institutions to talk about particular occupations would be a hit with some careers services.
These are very personal observations but hopefully will give some food for thought!
best wishes
2 Resources for careers advisers
3 observations on careers in maths website
I’ve had a look at your website which looks really nice and well laid out. However, the thing that struck me which could do with improvement is the career destinations information. The text is a bit flat (in my opinion) and could benefit from an injection of life – for example: adding in profiles of graduates who have gone into maths-related and unrelated careers. The information on employment is rather limited too – they could refer to the Graduate Destinations and do a link to that information.
Regarding the postgraduate study, I think they should include MSc as a masters course. I also think that just mentioning Oxford and Cambridge and talking about Latin etc may be confusing to students. Better just to talk about the length of the research programme, how to make applications, studentships etc. The reasons for doing postgraduate study are set out well though.
I hope this helps.
With best wishes.
Sarah Blackford
4 Maths - top tips for work experience and some feedback
I had some trouble with the link you gave so am forwarding my reply to you. I'm not sure about the idea of having a Careers Adviser part of the website because I think most advisers would want information on resouces, useful websites, lists of employers - and this is exactly the same information as the graduates want, so why not combine the two!
The Careers Profiles are great, but I think the' Your Career' section is a bit light at the moment, no mention of OR or modelling (other than under postgrad) Perhaps a reference to the Explore Types of Jobs on the Prospect website would be useful here?
I think any form of analysis about what maths graduates go into (such as that given in What Do Graduates Do?) would be helpful, and some quotes from actual employers would be good too.
Recruitment agencies specialising in maths jobs (such as datatech ) would also be useful, and list of maths employers. I'm attaching a leaflet we produce for mathematicians looking for work experience which has some useful info on it,
Regards
Julie Hepburn
Deputy Director
Cardiff University Careers Service
5 What can a maths graduate earn?
What about salaries?
Having been asked before to speak to year 11 students contemplating Further or Higher Ed on a Maths course, one of the topics that I've been asked about is salaries for Maths Graduates or A level holders.
While I appreciate accurate, detailed info about salaries is often hard to provide with confidence, and notwithstanding the short statement about salaries on the mathscareers website, I wondered if some more info could be given comparing salaries in various maths-
based careers with 'non-Maths' careers, eg starting salary and salary progression.
Just a thought.
Thanks
Marcus
M. Zientek
Careers Adviser
University of Sheffield Careers Service
6 More details on names of employers please and case studies
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