What's the most difficult mathematics-based careers?

Mathematician would be the most difficult. A million bucks for each one of these you solve:

http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems

I don't know if it's the most difficult but if you like math, consider being an actuary.

What about government-funded climate scientist? You have to find complicated ways to manipulate (i.e., fake) climate data to get people to believe the earth is warming.

job seeker wrote:

For capabilities sake, I was able to breeze through all my college-level math courses in calculus and statistics, and my test scores put me in the 90-99th percentile. I'm no math genius, by any means, I'm wondering more if those capabilities might signify that I can handle the most difficult/rigorous of mathematical disciplines.

Any suggestions?

Are you out of your damn mind?

Math Teacher

Similar aptitude here, and a CIS degree has served me well.

Teachers have it hardest wrote:

Math Teacher

He said he's good at math, not good at babysitting with high school math

The most difficult mathematics based job is probably counting cars. It is difficult because it is just very boring, but you have to have command of the numbers.

" I was able to breeze through all my college-level math courses in calculus and statistics, and my test scores put me in the 90-99th percentile."

How old are you?

What do you do now?

Why did you not use your gift earlier?

Math can be use it or lose it. I know a guy who had 99th percentile scores but got distracted in college. He was 2 math classes away from finishing a math degree. 20 years later he tried to go back.

He went back to the same department and they worked out a plan since all the course names/content had changed to some extent. All he had to do was to "repeat" (it had 30% totally new material and another 40% that he had covered but today is done in a much more computer based way) and pass the a "400" level course from today. He decided to start slowly in the summer and refresh his 200 level skills. He worked night and day for 5 weeks and couldn't pass the 200 level course.

I'm not buying this, he must have been distracted or just working/tired in his later years during his re-attempt.

dfsadsaf wrote:

What about government-funded climate scientist? You have to find complicated ways to manipulate (i.e., fake) climate data to get people to believe the earth is warming.

...or just take daily readings from around the globe over a period of time and then average them out.

I was fortunate enough to take graduate math classes at a top-ranked university, so while I am good at math, I met some people that are just out of this world.

That being said, I found there are some groupings of careers that require serious math abilities... none are not necessarily more difficult than another. IQ is usually at least 3 standard deviations above the mean population, so percentiles of at least 99.8% (or 1 in 750).

1. Pure mathematics. Almost always academics/professors. Not wealthy but not poor. Often do not like "applied" math and find it beneath them. A few share interests in similar fields such as theoretical physics. Can be solitary/socially awkward but not always.

2. Modelers. Usually work on models of complex systems like protein synthesis, markets/weather prediction, search/pattern algorithms, quantum physics, cryptography, etc. Can get paid a lot of because lots of jobs in private companies. Usually also very good at computing.

3. Applied math. High-level engineers, physicists, scientists, etc. Heavily rely on math in order to solve real-world problems. Can also be paid very well. I like this stuff most.

These are just a couple of areas, there are many others. If you are looking for a challenge, then look into these. Hope this helps.

Control Theory / Design

I am definitely passed the entry point to maximize my mathematical abilities, but I'm hoping that I can reawaken them. I'm 28, and I've steered myself into some mostly cushy, dead-end government regulation job that does not challenge me, build marketable skills, or utilize my natural aptitudes. The paycheck and benefits are adequate, early retirement is a possibility, but I don't like where continuing down this path will lead me, and my motivation is weak. Even if I develop a rich life outside the workplace, I'm not sure if my future self will be content with that.

I didn't use my gift earlier because I found math boring back in the day and my original career plan was to be an environmental lawyer. Since I learned what that entails, I gave up that pursuit and have done what I have to do in order to become independent from my parents. The past few years, my cushy job has made me lazy and timid, but recently my motivation and desire to challenge myself has reawakened, even if it means relinquishing some of my current comforts.

So I know that changing where I am now will never lead me to the top of anything, but I'm not too concerned with winning any pissing contests. Instead, I simply wish to make the best use of my natural abilities, challenge myself, and I am willing to do the type of work that most people are not willing or capable of doing.

In addition, other goals include more control over my time and not having to work until I'm 70, which I think is what most of us really want, anyways.

The usual American concerns, like raising a family and owning a nice home, don't really interest me. At least not right now.

So really, I don't have any fricking clue what I'm asking or plan on doing, I'm just testing the waters.

booboomagoo wrote:

That being said, I found there are some groupings of careers that require serious math abilities... none are not necessarily more difficult than another. IQ is usually at least 3 standard deviations above the mean population, so percentiles of at least 99.8% (or 1 in 750).

You don't need to be out-of-this-world intelligent to do the high-level math required for most industry or research positions, and your 3 standard deviations assertion is pretty arbitrary. It's true that most of the really innovative/breakthrough research is done by highly-gifted individuals (think Gauss, Abel, Ramanujan, Wiles), but that's a pretty small subset of the universe of mathematicians out there.

In fact, you don't even need to be that "good with numbers" (though it certainly doesn't hurt) since most branches of mathematics deal with esoteric concepts where the biggest challenge is just to try to wrap your head around what's going on. I'm not saying someone of average intelligence is going to find it easy to pass functional analysis or topological manifolds, but a reasonably intelligent person with a good work ethic can get through all of the core stuff and then when you focus on your particular field you have literally years to learn it in depth and then you seem like a super-genius to most people even though it's primarily a product of your years of dedication.

Happy Two Month Vacation wrote:

Teachers have it hardest wrote:

Math Teacher

He said he's good at math, not good at babysitting with high school math

He said he likes a challenge and finds that difficulty weeds out the competition.

You for example are not a teacher because you do not embrace challenge.

All that and you don't know the difference between past and passed?

Applied math and modelers seem interesting. Can't say that pure mathematics would be a good fit. Thanks.

You are totally right. I misread the OP and thought he asked what the "most" difficult math jobs are point blank. I didn't mean to be disparaging and I apologize if that's how I came across.

And yes, I definitely agree that you don't need super-intelligence to be good at jobs that require math. I certainly don't put myself in that category. Like you said, chances are that if you felt math was easy and you have a good work ethic that you can get very far in a fulfilling career. Best of luck to the OP.