Math jobs that help people?

[Halcyon18]

I'm a sophomore math major hoping to get a PhD in math, but I don't know where to go from there. One thing I know for sure is that I want a job that involves making the world a better place. I hear so many math people talk about how they went into finance, which is NOT what I want to do because I want to help humanity, not big corporations. Are there any math-related jobs involving, say, medicine? And how rare/hard to get are they? Thank you in advance!

[ginagirl]

You might want to consider statistics instead of math, which has more applications in areas that you might be interested in. You may specifically be interested in biostatistics which is focused more on these applications and (a bit) less on the theoretical aspects that you would get in pure math or statistics. Also, biostatistics programs are usually located in schools of public health, which sounds more in line with your research goals, since it allows more direct collaboration with areas such as reproductive health, epidemiology, mental health, etc. I admit, I'm not too familiar with strictly math-related jobs and fields, so there may be other options that I'm unaware of. Since you're only a sophomore now, you have time to take some statistics courses if you have them available to you to see if you like it, and explore other areas as well.

[TakeruK]

I also second the statistics side of math programs for helping people. With a solid foundation in statistics and applied math, you can do a lot of things. It's a great toolbox for solving problems in various fields. Sure, finance is one of these fields, but it's not the only one. You can also go into finance and not help big corporations, for example, I believe there are need for advisors in government with this sort of training too. I know another statistician that is in resource management and using his expertise to help protect the environment. You can also help other scientists--us astronomers are pretty bad at statistics and in the last decade, our community have started teaming up with the statistics community to ensure we are analyzing data properly. Another friend found a position with people behind election campaigns (you could consider it a good thing if you're aligned with that political party!). And there are websites like Nate Silver's http://fivethirtyeight.com/ that help people by disseminating useful analysis and information (originally about elections but I really enjoyed their World Cup coverage last year).

I think with good training, statistics majors are very helpful in analyst positions that can help a lot of people. Of course, one caveat is that everyone needs to get paid, and usually, it's the big corporations that have money to pay for the work more than non-profits etc. Maybe a statistician here can add / correct some of these things?

[ginagirl]

 

Of course, one caveat is that everyone needs to get paid, and usually, it's the big corporations that have money to pay for the work more than non-profits etc. Maybe a statistician here can add / correct some of these things?

It's true that the pay is better for statistician/analysts in government or pharma, compared to hospitals, academia, or non-profits. But statistics is a very in-demand field right now and so the job market overall is very good.

[Halcyon18]

Statistics is the one branch of math I don't like. The only exposure I've had to it is self-studying the AP Stats exam and that alone was enough for me to know I didn't like stats. I like differential equations, though. I'm sure that is applicable to a lot of fields, right?

[ginagirl]

I'm sure you could find applications for most of mathematics. However I would still say that getting a PhD in mathematics is not as focused on these applications as a more interdisciplinary degree. An Applied Math PhD program would probably be a slightly better option.

I would suggest looking online at what research is being done in graduate level math departments to see possible career directions, or to look at the placement of their alumni if it is listed. This would just be to give you an idea of what career options might be feasible with that degree and to see if they might sound like something you would be interested in. Maybe there are also faculty in your current undergraduate program that you could ask about what directions you might take to get the "applied" nature you're looking for, and they even might be able to help you figure out if a PhD is necessary at all. 

There are also other areas (besides statistics) that could help combine your interests, like biomathematics or bioinformatics, but I don't know enough about these to speak in detail about them.

[hippyscientist]

I hated stats when I studied it at school, and through my first years at University. However, when I got to my final year and realised exactly how much the stats can be applied, made sense of and brought my research to life I loved them! As ginagirl said an Applied Math PhD sounds like a good fit as you're not completely sure. In my field for example we have a lot of researchers who come from math backgrounds, who do analysis on our volunteers data, genome analysis, helping us out with our own stats, and many other applications. I know for a fact that I couldn't have completed my research on injury risk factors for athletes across a variety of sports without help from the resident departmental math genius. Most of my professors are either applied maths, statistics or mech eng backgrounds who have made the transition into sport and health research. There's a lot of applied math there.

[ginagirl]

I hated stats when I studied it at school, and through my first years at University. However, when I got to my final year and realised exactly how much the stats can be applied, made sense of and brought my research to life I loved them! 

I second this- as a science undergrad I wouldn't have thought I would end up going to graduate school for statistics, but while doing medical research post-grad, I realized how cool and useful it is. Part of the draw of applied fields is that often it isn't the classes that inspire you, but the research, and actually doing the work. So, not to discount your feelings about statistics, OP, but since you're fairly early on in your academic career, it might be a good idea to not entirely exclude a field at this point!  

[juilletmercredi]

My husband, originally a math major, also "hated stats" the first time he took statistics and probability. He decided to give it another go and changed his major to stats after that. The major reason, according to him, is he loved the varied applications of statistics. He wasn't a huge fan of the sort of abstract nature of his math major before that; he really wanted to do more applied, practical work, and stats was the way for him.

However, there are many other areas of math that can be applied besides statistics. I think statistics is probably important for most applied mathematicians to know in some sense, but there are applied mathematicians that don't use much if any statistics on a regular basis.

Also, let's walk it back a bit. If you don't know what you want to do, why are you hoping to get a PhD in math? Math is a pretty abstract/theoretical field - there are more applied portions of it, of course, but the kind of math people study in graduate school generally isn't. Even in applied fields, a PhD is often not the degree you want if you really want to "do" something. My PhD is in public health - which sounds very applied, until I realized into the program that it mostly encourages doing research, and not the on-the-ground kind of public health work people think of when they think of public health. A PhD is a research degree; if you don't want a career as a researcher (or aren't sure that you do), then you shouldn't get a PhD in math. Most of what you want to do can probably be achieved with a BA or MA in math, applied math, statistics, or some related field.

Here are some applied areas you can enter:

Epidemiology (math + public health)
Biostatistics (statistics + health/medicine)
Bioinformatics (statistics/math + health/medicine/biomedical science + computer science)
Meteorology/atmospheric science (math + atmospheric science)
Quantitative psychology (math/statistics + psychology)
Mathematician position in the federal government (do a search for "mathematician" on USAJOBS)
Medical physics (more physics than math, but still)

Check out this website on careers in math.

Also, "making the world a better place" is a broadly interpreted statement and a lot of traditional jobs (including in big corporations in finance and accounting) involve work that makes the world a better place or at least some necessary function for humanity. For example, some finance jobs may involve helping to improve the economies of developing nations, or developing a microfinance program for low-income laborers, or providing support and financing to nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits, NGOs, governments, hospitals and clinics need people in their finance and accounting departments just like large corporations do. And pharmaceutical companies (where many biostatisticians work) create drugs that help millions; there are some non-profit pharmaceutical companies, and even many of the for-profit ones do pro bono work.

On the flip side, make sure that you avoid romanticizing nonprofit or helping professions kind of work, because a lot of it is very different from what you might expect. For example, in medicine, a lot of healthcare provision and research organizations these days are very large corporations, and their primary goal might be to make money. A lot of academic and nonprofit medical research is directed by the winds of NIH funding, which is competitive and makes the atmosphere different from what you might otherwise expect. Some non-profits are poorly run and their employees not well compensated for their work (and I don't mean "I can't buy a yacht" well-compensated; I mean "I'm struggling to pay my rent this month").

[stats07]

I just graduated with my Bachelor's in math and had this exact question since about my sophomore year as well- how in the world can I use math to help people?? I've since come across a few really cool ideas. One of the best things my professors ever told me was "if you have a degree in math, you have a degree in problem solving, and everyone wants problem solver." So if there's a job you find fascinating, don't be afraid to explore ways that your analytical/problem solving skill set could contribute to that type of work.

Currently I am working for a very large NGO that does all sorts of global development, working to alleviate poverty and injustice. I've learned of the rising need for STEM people in non-profit work. Like someone suggested, finance work doesn't have to just be to make rich companies richer, NGOs that are doing a lot of good in the world also need good budget analysts to make better decisions. If you're just not interested in finance, though, that's fine too (I wasn't either). Non-profits are also finding themselves in need of statisticians to perform in depth analysis to provide evidence to donors that their programs are actually effective. This type of program/policy evaluation would have similar opportunities in the government context as well. Statistics has a lot of power to help people/organizations/governments make better, more informed decisions, which can result in helping a lot of people.

Another area I've come across is Humanitarian logistics, which essentially is operations research in the humanitarian context. It answers questions such as, in the event of a natural disaster, what is the optimal way to get supplies to where they need to go? It addresses many of the same questions as operations research would in a business context, but often with an added layer of difficulty. Not only is vehicle routing (a very mathematical problem) important, but what routes should the vehicles take if infrastructure is damaged from the disaster?

Another field to explore and see if you have any interest is economics. With a math degree, you would be very equipped to enter into an economics graduate program, whereas many econ majors are not. At the graduate level, econ is very math-heavy. You're usually required a background in multi-variate calc, linear algebra, and proof-writing courses such as real analysis. 

[Feanor]

Mathematicians can (and do) work in practically any field, from finance and medical research to developing models for the social sciences and consulting.

As a pure mathematician,  I'm better informed about the kind of applications people find in academia, working at the department of applied maths or with the physicists,  biologists,  medical researchers,  computer scientists, economists and the like, but my department does a great job at advertising positions and projects and I seemingly can't get enough emails about biostatistics, biological fluid dynamics,  cancer research, cryptography,  defense, population dynamics and other stuff. It can get pretty varied. As an example they have a program here to place masters students in summer projects after graduating, in partnerships with other departments and industry. The projects range from one at the archeology department asking for a mathematician's help in developing probabilistic models to better estimate the number of people buried in ancient tombs to one on the economics of Science using Game Theory.

See, maths is one of the most flexible degrees there is (especially if you take a decent range of courses) and certainly you can find something to do that will fit your criteria of "changing the world for the better". 

P.S.: work for a big corporation can, in fact, help people.  Just choose wisely.