The jackpot for last Friday’s Mega Millions drawing exceeded half a billion dollars, making it the largest lottery jackpot in world history. As people poured out to purchase tickets, one statistician explained the odds of winning in easily understandable terms. Apparently people are 19 times as likely to be struck by lightning twice, 33 times as likely to be killed in the next year by bees, and 40 times as likely to be dealt five blackjacks in a row as they are to win Mega Millions. Those don’t seem like good odds, do they? Maybe that’s why I sadly wasn’t one of the three people with the winning numbers. While the job of a Statistician doesn’t always involving informing the public of their terrible purchasing decisions, it does revolve around collecting and interpreting numerical data to help inform decisions.

Math Career Guide Overview

1. What a Statistician Does
2. A Typical Day for a Statistician
3. Salary and Career Progression for a Statistician
4. Best Locations for Statisticians
5. Pros and Cons of Being a Statistician
6. What You Need to Know for a Career in Math
7. Math Resources
8. Careers Related to Math
9. Companies with Jobs and Internships in Math

What a Statistician Does

A Statistician applies mathematical theories to collect, organize, interpret, and summarize numerical data to provide usable information. They not only picture the data, but they have to explain and apply it. Statisticians are needed in both the private and public sectors, so there are many fields to specialize in like biostatistics, agricultural statistics, business statistics, or economic statistics. For example, survey statisticians collect information from a carefully specified sample and extend the results to an entire population, government statisticians conduct experiments to aid in the development of public policy and social programs, and statistical scientists analyze and validate the results of clinical trials, and business statisticians predict the need for goods and services in the future.

A Typical Day for a Statistician

While a typical day for a Statistician will vary, it generally includes spending over half the day in front of a computer and might include some of these tasks:

• Consulting regarding protocol design and data analysis for research projects
• Attending educational offerings for professional growth
• Maintaining, scheduling, and teaching a course curriculum
• Writing reports and publishing results
• Collaborating on development of grant proposals
• Learning to use new software
• Finding patterns
• Modifying reports to correct problems
• Exchanging ideas with colleagues on the phone or in meetings
• Setting up models
• Manipulating and analyzing data

Salary and Career Progression for a Statistician

While entry-level Statisticians can expect to earn around $30,000 per year, the average salary for a Statistician is between $41,601 and $124,561 per year. From there you can go on to become a Biostatistician ($47,414-$130,705 on average per year), or SAS Programmer ($44,921-$110,118 on average per year).

Best Locations for Statistician

Here are some hot spots for Statisticians:

• Houston, Texas
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Hartford, Connecticut
• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Seattle, Washington
• Chicago, Illinois
• Dallas, Texas
• Minneapolis, Minnesota

Pros and Cons of Being a Statistician

Pros

• Employment for this occupation is expected to increase by about 16% between 2009 and 2018
• Work within a number of different industries
• Can be exciting to see your work being picked up by the media or being used to help shape government policy

Cons

• Senior positions will tend to move away from statistical work, focusing more on management issues
• Explaining the implications of your studies to non-statisticians can be challenging

What You Need to Know for a Career in Math

To be a Statistician you must have a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics or Statistics. A master’s degree or Ph.D. is very helpful and often recommended for higher-level positions. Furthermore you should consider another major (or a minor) that reflects your potential professional direction, such as economics, computer and material science, or biology, which will give you an advantage when seeking employment. You’ll also need to have strong analytical skills and interpersonal skills, as part of the job is communicating your findings to others.

Math Resources

If math still sounds like your cup of tea, here are a few things you should do to get started.

Required Reading

• Problem Solving: A statistician’s guide by Chris Chatfield
• How to Think Like a Mathematician by Kevin Houston
• Missing Data and Small-Area Estimation by Nicholas T. Longford

Key Folks to Follow on Twitter

• @ngkabra
• @stefaniegreay
• @alicia_anderson
• @JoeyDaley

Blogs and Websites

• Statistics Blog
• Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
• Top 50 Statistics Blogs

Networking Opportunities

• Mathematics Researchers
• Statistics & Analytics Consultants Group
• Stat-Math Statistics

Job Search Resources

• ASA JobWeb
• MathJob.com / StatJob.com

Careers Related to Math

• Science
• Accounting
• Business Development
• Economics

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Companies with Entry Level Jobs and Internships in Math

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