Ask Slashdot: What To Do With a Math Degree? 416
First time accepted submitter badmojo17 writes "After achieving her lifelong dream of becoming a public school math teacher, my wife has found the profession to be much more frustrating than she ever expected. She could deal with having a group of disrespectful criminals as students if she had competent administrators supporting her, but the sad truth is that her administration causes more problems on a daily basis than her students do. Our question is this: what other professions are open to a bright young woman with a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in education? Without further education, what types of positions or companies might be interested in her as an employee?"
Change schools. (Score:5, Interesting)
I come from a family of teachers, so I know all about internal politics. Unless she no longer wants to teach under any circumstances, change schools first before giving up. Try private if you've only done public, etc. If it is truly her passion, she'll find the school for her.
Or, do what my college roommate did and specialize in Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Make $120,000 a year and hate yourself.
Quantitative Analyst (Score:3, Interesting)
Silly question (Score:3, Interesting)
Young, shown she can learn and apply reason and logic. Christ, pretty much any career. What does she want to do? She needs to think about what she wants to do, apply for jobs and let them tell her whether she's suitable or what she needs to do to become suitable.
Re:Change schools. (Score:4, Interesting)
I come from a family of teachers, so I know all about internal politics. Unless she no longer wants to teach under any circumstances, change schools first before giving up.
I was a language teacher for a year. While still in school, I realized that I *hated* the public school I was working in - I figured it was just random chance, since I'd had many good experiences volunteering in schools, in the past.
So I took a 4 month contract starting in september at a different school, that had a much different reputation... which is like saying that I switched from Mr Pib to Dr Pepper. Sure, one SOUNDS better, but there isn't much difference. Teachers who had been in the system for awhile must have felt that the grass was greener at a different school, but the grass is just terrible at all schools. How do I know? the contract I took for the second part of the year was at ANOTHER school. That was terrible as well.
There is something broken with our public education system. And I'm in CANADA, which is infitintely better than your crappy american public schools (according to Geoffrey Canada, some know-it-all american educator in some know-it-all american "documentary"). So yes, I feel her pain. Now? I'm doing some consulting work for Training and Development at a large govn't contractor... no relation at all to either of my degrees.
Move Abroad... Teaching is still a respected job. (Score:5, Interesting)
There are plenty of countries where teachers are actually respected, paid decent wages and supported by their schools - my little brother ended up in Australia, and even though he's not currently in a particularly nice school (inner city...) he still says it's a massive leap above most schools in the US/UK...
Re:Research scientist / research assistant ... (Score:2, Interesting)
BS level math will have trouble getting into a good biostats gig. I suppose you could become a wizard at R but you really need to go back and get a MS in stats and we can talk. (BTW I do work with many biostats folks at a large medical institution, am a PhD in a related field and collaborate extensively with a few who are really excellent statisticians. ) Parent might be right, maybe you can become a second string data donkey at a drug company with a straight math degree -- from what I've seen it's not clear that gig would be better than teaching unmotivated kids with poor administrative support (an option that doesn't cost any more!)
Re:software dev? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tutoring (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed. Tutoring will pay better than regular teaching, will generally involve better students and will always have the best administrator you can be.
Re:Change schools. (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a hunch that she has an empathy for children which is what drove her to pursue the education thing. While it might be more practical to choose a different career, it is unlikely that she would ever be happy with anything less than engaging young minds.
Has she considered private schools, or even private tutoring (think Silvan [sylvanlearning.com] or Math Addvantage [mathaddvantage.com])? The environment for both is radically different from that of a public school. In both cases the students involved are more likely to be "reachable" and education the actual goal.
yes they are criminals (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who calls kids criminals should be kept far away from kids.
Excuse me? They assault each other and the teacher. My brother was teaching high school in DC and one day a student grabbed his wallet right in class and tried to run. Fortunately my brother was ex-military and knew what to do, but seriously, WTF??? Yes indeed, they are criminals.
Where do you imagine criminals come from? Do you think people suddenly turn criminal at age 18, and couldn't possibly be evil fuckers prior to adulthood? Heck, some asshole stabbed me in the 3rd or 4th grade and I still have the scar 3 decades later. In case you can't figure it out, that would be an assault with a weapon.
It's mightly sick that during childhood the decent people are forced to be in the presense of rotten people. Criminals don't come from thin air. They are essentially sitting in every classroom, except that they haven't yet been arrested because the authorities ignore criminal behavior in children. Remember, I still have that scar.
Re:Research scientist / research assistant ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I work in a research lab. Honnestly, we have no use for someone with only a bachelor in mathematics. The people that are convinced they need reasonable statistical analysis are typically capable of performing the job themselves. The ones that do not have that skill do not care. (They should, but they don't. So they won't hire you to do that)
Re:software dev? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll be honest, I got into writing code strictly because I wanted a steady paycheck. I was mediocre at it, but then about five years ago I reached a bad point in my personal finances. If I didn't get better enough at my work to get an extra $30,000 per year from some employer, I was going to lose my house. I put in the effort to improve, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed my work far more. It's tempting to assume the enjoyment came from the pay increase, but it actually came because now I could blitz through the repetitive, entry level nonsense and spend most of my time researching and solving interesting problems. The better you get, the more fun this field is.