Mathematics students at Birmingham come from a wide variety of backgrounds and go into an equally diverse range of careers - there are very few jobs that a maths graduate cannot do! Indeed the Education Secretary of the London Mathematical Society says that "Maths is the best degree for jobs: you can do virtually anything you want".
Many maths graduates go into the financial sector, for example accountancy, actuarial work, management consulting and banking. Some graduates go in to more general areas of business and management. As a maths graduate you could also work in areas of industry where mathematics is applied, or in information technology. Teaching is also a popular career option for mathematics graduates. But it doesn't end there, recent mathematics graduates have taken more diverse career paths such as fashion merchandiser, medical statistician, pilot and transport engineering.
At the School of Mathematics we take the personal development and careers planning of our students very seriously. Jointly with the University of Birmingham's Careers Network we have developed a structured programme to support maths students with their career planning from when they arrive to when they graduate and beyond. Current students can find out more on the Careers Network homepage.
The Careers Network organises a lot of events to support your career planning. In addition, we offer the following to assist you with your career choices and encourage you to take a proactive approach to your career planning.
- Maths Careers Fair: We organise a yearly fair giving you the opportunity to meet and find out more about employers that are particularly interested in mathematics graduates.
- Skills Workshops are organised in the school to assist at all stages of the application process for graduate positions or internships; some run by employers and some run by the Careers Network.
- Careers workshops and lectures.
- CV and application advice drop in appointments in the School of Mathematics.
- A fortnightly maths careers e-newsletter is sent out with calendar of events for the week and vacancies with application deadlines.