Last week I visited the University of Greenwich and gave a lunchtime session on careers. I talked about careers for mathematicians, skills of maths graduates and an overview of the IMA. This was followed by a CV writing session to make it up to an hour and I think this combination of me giving a talk followed by a skills session was a strong one. Noel-Ann Bradshaw, who organised this session, was kind enough to write a nice piece on this over at the IMA RUMS blog. I have retrospectively written a title and abstract for this talk as I plan to give it several more times this month:

What do mathematics graduates do? And what skills do employers think they lack?

This talk will highlight some of the broad range of careers options for mathematics graduates and point to several sources of career inspiration. Following this is information on the skills a maths degree gives you and those it perhaps does not. Looking at what skills employers think mathematics graduates lack will help you in finding a job – when you sit down in a job interview, what skills is the person opposite you expecting that you lack? Being able to surprise them may just get you the job! The talk rounds off with a look at the benefits of professional membership and some information about the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.