Career Prospects
Mathematics graduates are much in demand wherever quantitative analysis is needed and/or rigorous, objective, critical analysis is valued. They are widely employed in commerce, industry and government sectors.
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The various areas that our mathematics graduates can build a career include operations management, financial analysis, risk management, information processing, IT, administration, education and research. The following are some examples:
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| Area | Job | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | Administrator | Government and private sectors |
| Education | Teacher, curriculum developer, editor of textbooks | MOE, schools, polytechnics, publishers |
| Financial analysis | Financial analyst, financial planner, actuary, financial engineer, fund manager | Banks, insurance companies, hedge funds |
| Information management | Data analyst, cryptanalyst | DSO, MINDEF |
| IT | Software engineer, multimedia architect | IBM, HP, I2R, game design firms |
| Operations management | Operations research analyst | SIA, PSA |
| Research | University lecturer, researcher | Academic institutions, research organizations |
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There are many mathematics courses that prepare a mathematics major student with the relevant skills to work in the specific area. The mathematics training in general also equips students with the analytical skills that are essential in many jobs, especially executive works. The table below serves as a guide.
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| Real World Application | Areas in Mathematics |
|---|---|
| Internet: search engines, compression | Graph theory, linear algebra, wavelets |
| Confidentiality | Number theory, cryptology/combinatorics |
| Global reconnaissance | Signal / image processing, data mining |
| Options valuation | Black-Scholes model and Monte Carlo simulation |
| Analysis of the human genome | Data mining, pattern recognition, algorithms |
| Rational drug design | Data mining, combinatorics, statistics |
| MRI and CAT Imaging | Integral geometry, Fourier analysis, wavelet |
| Aerodynamic design | Differential equations |
| Visual effect | Computer graphics, differential equations |
| Modeling of oceans and atmosphere | Wavelets, statistics, numerical analysis |
| Earthquake analysis and prediction | Statistics, dynamical systems/turbulence |