Mathematics - Are you analytical enough?

Here is just a selection of the wide variety of careers that mathematics opens up.

Statistical and mathematical consultants use their training to solve problems in a wide range of areas, such as predicting future infrastructure requirements, improving manufacturing processes and using the large amounts of information now held by businesses to help them make better decisions.

Computer games designers create the virtual worlds and make the people that inhabit them behave as we would expect. The virtual landscapes and things within them are three-dimensional mathematical objects, and these objects behave and interact according to the equations for the rules of physics that apply within the game.

Medical statisticians design clinical trials of new drugs or medical treatments to judge whether they are effective. Statistics and mathematics are used throughout medical research to model tumour growth, to decide treatment dosages, to understand the spread of disease and to model the effects of illness and treatment on the human body.

Most of today's music is produced using synthesisers and digital processors to correct pitch or add effects to the sound. These tools are created by audio software engineers who work out ways of manipulating the digital sound, by using a mathematical technique called Fourier analysis.

Meteorologists use mathematics to model the factors that affect the weather to make short term predictions. They also study how changes in these will impact on the climate. They use numerical analysis and computer modelling techniques to solve the equations in the models to produce results, from the next day's weather forecasts on TV, to long term predictions involving the greenhouse effect and global climate change.

To make a car go faster you need to improve its aerodynamics, a race-car designer uses mathematics to describe the motion of the air as the car drives through it, and how that motion affects the car's performance.

Actuaries use maths and statistics to make financial sense of the future. Much of their work is on pensions, ensuring funds stay solvent long into the future, when current workers have retired. They also work in insurance, setting premiums to match liabilities.

Mathematics is also used in many other areas of finance, from banking and trading on the stock market, to producing economic forecasts and making government policy.

Mathematicians can find jobs at all levels of the education system. To teach at a secondary school, you will usually need to take the Postgraduate Certificate in Education after doing your degree.

If none of the "typical" maths jobs appeal to you, then don't fret. There is an enormous, and very diverse, realm of "alternative" careers. This is not a uniform sector, but has come to include a diversity of jobs slightly different from the majority. These include careers in conservation and the environment, careers in voluntary organisations, and so-called "ethical" careers. Alternative careers tend to involve a different style of work, such as freelance or working from home, or a different type of work, such as corporate fundraising for a charity, or working for an "unconventional" employer, such as performing statistical analyses for Greenpeace.

As you'll have noticed, all of the jobs featured use maths, but few of them have the words "mathematics" or "statistics" in their titles. No matter what job you go into, you'll soon realise it would be surprising if you didn't find yourself using maths, rather than the other way around! There are enormous opportunities for someone that has the logical reasoning and numeracy of a mathematician and also the ability to communicate clearly.

To find out more about careers with maths check out the Maths careers website http://www.mathscareers.org.uk