Those working towards a statistics degree today will act as the numbers masters of tomorrow. Statisticians are responsible for harvesting, analyzing, and interpreting numbers data. This data can then be used for any number of purposes depending on the statistician’s employer. So, where exactly do statisticians work? Let’s take a look at five job options available to those graduating with a degree in statistics.
General Statistician
First, we look to the statistician. Today’s general statistician can work for any number of businesses, organizations, or even government agencies. Over the span of their career in any of these applications, the statistician will be employed to answer many math-based questions.
A car manufacturer may have their statisticians investigate and analyze public style preferences in compact cars. A government agency may seek to understand exactly how many people use their health insurance regularly. All of these questions require statistical gathering and analysis provided exclusively by the modern statistics degree holder.
Statistical Modeler
A newspaper company needs some pertinent, situational info. How do major events affect sales versus times when there are no major news events? How likely is a “green-conscious” shopper to buy the print newspaper when they have access to online news in the home? If credibility in online news sources plummets, do physical newspapers see more sales?
The statistical modeler takes statistics gleaned from general statisticians one step further. Here, the statistical modeler generates models of possible situations. In each proposed situation, they can then analyze and predict how things may play out. This is very helpful in many forecasting applications in the modern business world.
Sports Statistician
What would sports be without statistics? The truth is that even in the simplest form, statistics are what keep the competitive sports alive. Knowing the numbers with regard to each player, stadium, opponent, team, coach, and every other relevant factor is what it’s all about. Whether in use for team strategy, the numbers on a baseball card, or effective announcing at a game, statistics are everywhere in the sporting world. The sports statistician is the one responsible for maintaining these stats via lots of number-gathering and analysis.
Teacher, Professor
If you enjoy teaching others as much as exploring the numbers themselves, then perhaps a career as a teacher or professor would be the most satisfying to you. Many statisticians choose to go back to school for work after graduation. Here, the statistics major can work in any number of mathematics areas. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics are all areas well-understood by the statistics grad and thus well-taught by those same grads as well. Colleges, high schools, and even middle schools need this kind of math knowledge to be taught to students every day.
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Business Consultant
Business consultation is yet another vocational option for the statistics grad. Above, we mentioned the roles played by statistical modelers and general statisticians in business. A very similar role is played by the business consultant. Here, rather than being directly employed by the companies needing services, the consultant works for themselves or an outside consulting company. Whenever a business needs math and statistics questions answered, they reach out to these affiliated consultants for help. In this capacity, one will tend to work with many more clients on a much more diverse range of mathematical subjects.
Statistics are an important math concept in all areas of modern society. As a result, graduates with this knowledge will be quite valuable for a long time to come. These five career options are just a few examples of the many available to those possessing a statistics degree today.