Career path?

[sasguru]

Name 3 areas where math skills are really in demand these days.

I rest my case.

[Mich the Tester]

Name 3 areas where math skills are really in demand these days.

That was two.

[d000hg]

That was two.

Noticing it was the 3rd.

[mickey]

Noticing it was the 3rd.

Count me in, but these days either everyone's got them or all they are used for is for modeling banks regulatory capital - depends on what you define as maths.

Perhaps you can chip in once the laughter is over.

[mickey]

I rest my case.

Laugh if you must but why don't you share a few ideas?

Do you consider SAS to be math? Which applications and why?

Is banking math? Which business areas? Proof please.

Is GUI math?

[MyUserName]

Laugh if you must but why don't you share a few ideas?

Do you consider SAS to be math? Which applications and why?

Is banking math? Which business areas? Proof please.

Is GUI math?

It is not just the actual literal application of maths which he is referring to when he says mathematical ability but the mathematical thought process which lends itself to technical issues.

Although, I believe, he uses statistical simulations so he probably does use maths too.

[doodab]

Name 3 areas where math skills are really in demand these days.

Any sort of engineering, pharmaceuticals, public policy making, actuaries in insurance and pensions industries, mining big data, image and video compression in the media industry, information security, strategic decision making etc.

It's not just about having the toolbox, it's about understanding the underlying nature of things and having a (usually quantitative) approach to analysis and problem solving. For example I deal with a lot of performance testing people, & most (not all) of them are fairly ignorant of queueing theory and the way software will scale (or fail to) across multiple execution resources. This often leads to some interesting discussions about why things don't behave as they expect.

It's also about understanding that some things are provably impossible. I worked with one customer a while ago who were asking for a seemingly plausible but in actual fact mathematically impossible level of throughput over a particular low bandwidth high latency network connection. Had the consultancy I was working for committed to achieving the impossible this would have had financial consequences. As it was the customer got something close to the best possible system.

[jmo21]

I think a lot of people struggle to see themselves working outside the sort of organisations they usually find themselves in as a contractor, and only high level permies get paid anything like the same as a good contractor, so that's seen as the only viable alternative.

Personally I know I lack the mentality that a senior role in most organisations would require, I'm glad I'm not one of those people and I don't see giving up something I often enjoy for something I wouldn't for a few extra pounds as "progress" at all. So I'm happy contracting.

Maybe one day I will find another way of making money that I prefer. I'm sure we all have various ideas of things we'd like to do to make money, for some it's largely fantasy and others actually invest the time and energy to get those off the ground. I've got friends who've lost houses and marriages and others who now employ 40-50 people, whether they succeed or fail those people deserve respect for trying. Having seen what's involved I think I would need to be very convinced of and committed to what I was doing, and I just haven't had that idea yet.

+1

[MarillionFan]

I think a lot of people struggle to see themselves working outside the sort of organisations they usually find themselves in as a contractor, and only high level permies get paid anything like the same as a good contractor, so that's seen as the only viable alternative.

Personally I know I lack the mentality that a senior role in most organisations would require, I'm glad I'm not one of those people and I don't see giving up something I often enjoy for something I wouldn't for a few extra pounds as "progress" at all. So I'm happy contracting.

Maybe one day I will find another way of making money that I prefer. I'm sure we all have various ideas of things we'd like to do to make money, for some it's largely fantasy and others actually invest the time and energy to get those off the ground. I've got friends who've lost houses and marriages and others who now employ 40-50 people, whether they succeed or fail those people deserve respect for trying. Having seen what's involved I think I would need to be very convinced of and committed to what I was doing, and I just haven't had that idea yet.

I believed exactly the same. I didn't have the mentality or patience to be able to succeed or even survive in a senior role. The first time I went perm from contracting was back in 2002 & took a senior role, I lasted six months before politics finished me off and I went back contracting.

The 2nd time I had a go at it 4 years later, was again from contract to perm, this time I'd got the hang of the politics, but struggled at the highest level & having multiple staff in multiple countries & only went back contracting when the push to move to the US was to great & I wasn't willing to go as my son had just been born, so I jacked it. But that time I hated going back into a position where I watched idiots make decisions around me that were wrong, so when the third time came along I'd eventually learned the skills & had the maturity to make it work.

Some have the maturity earlier, for me I'd had to work on it. I haven't threatened to kill anyone on this gig... yet.

[eek]

Some have the maturity earlier, for me I'd had to work on it. I haven't threatened to kill anyone on this gig... yet.

I find that when I'm permie I get stressed by crap decisions. As a contractor I sit and laugh. Current clientco is a disaster due to poor management (they still haven't got the basics right on this project) but I just send emails to highlight the issue and laugh when they get ignored.

If I was permie I would be taking it personally as I'm not I don't care provided I get paid...