Customer Reviews

Great Jobs for Math Majors, Second ed. (Great Jobs For... Series)

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As a recent graduate with a math degree this is the book I have been searching for. This is the only book you should need. It covers the interview, cover letters, resumes, networking and everything else. All other books on this subject limit discussion to education majors and jobs. This book does the same but gives equal treatment to those who seek jobs with math as a primary skill. It has hints for everything you could imagine. Gives lists of job titles and many job discriptions. Also gives some contact information for organizations that will be of help or interest to anyone looking for employment using their math degree. Once again, this is a must buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been teaching college mathematics for over a quarter century, so I have passed many students out into the wild. With this background, I was somewhat disappointed with the contents of this book. From the title, one would assume that the subject is solely the careers that one can pursue armed with mathematical knowledge.
However, the first 95 pages are dedicated to the mechanics of searching for a job, activities such as how to write a resume, how to prepare for an interview and how to conduct a follow up. This is generic and has very little specificity to the math major.
The next section describes how to select a graduate school. I suppose this can be considered a job, but once again, the title refers to the career paths available to a math major. On page 110, the authors get around to describing some of the occupations that a math major can function in. My belief is that the authors should have skipped the first two sections and started here. The most likely reader would be someone considering a math major, not about ready to leave school having completed one. This could have been a much better and more focused book.

Being a math major, I've found it tough to find a career where I actually fit in (besides teaching). This book actually gave me some great ideas.

I felt that this book misses the mark. Most of the information is online, and the book does give many details about each occupation. At points it gets way too technical to be useful. It seems to have two audiences- high schoolers interested in math, and math majors applying for a job. The first group wouldn't be interested in the more technical aspects (resume-writing, for instance), and the second group will find this book to be too basic for their needs (they already know which occupation they want, hence them writing their resume for it).