The Aperiodical 

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At Brunel giving the same talk, differently

By Peter Rowlett. Posted February 20, 2009

Today I woke in Uxbridge and spent part of the day with Victor Arulchandran at Brunel University. I gave my careers talk first to the third year, where I was joined by the mathematics careers advisor, Raj Sidhu. I focused the talk on the career development aspects – the benefits of joining a professional body to commit to your professional development and help improve your career prospects. Following this, I gave the same talk to the second year, where I was joined by the mathematics placement officer, Reay Elliott. I focused the talk on the skills acquisition aspects and developing yourself during your degree by aiming to develop (and be able to evidence) the skills businesses want and those they think maths graduates don’t have (overcoming those ole’ stereotypes). The picture below is of the Mathematical Sciences building at Brunel. Victor and I had lunch then I jumped on a train to Cardiff.



Most southerly maths careers

By Peter Rowlett. Posted February 14, 2009


This week I went to the University of Plymouth for a Maths & Stats careers event. This took the form of 3 parallel sessions of 2 speakers each which repeated once, in which representatives of various employers (many Plymouth alumni) gave talks on their careers. Before the first session was a lunch and in between the sessions there was a tea break, during both of which I operated an IMA stall among a couple of others.


I took my usual approach, baiting mathematicians with interesting puzzles and then slipping careers advice into their hands and telling them about the IMA when they’re drawn in. This had the usual selection of puzzles, plus a couple of others I bought or was bought over Christmas (thank you Scott!). I made sure everyone left the stall with a postcard advertising the Maths Careers website, an IMA Maths Careers Advice leaflet and a flyer advertising the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. I had a really enjoyable day and I think it was useful for the students and the IMA as well. I gave out 80 of these leaflets to students plus a couple to the careers staff and a couple to the maths staff so hoping that will do some good!

I didn’t see very much of Plymouth, as I was only able to stay for about half an hour either side of the 4 hour careers event. Alas, I didn’t find time to see the sea. I could at one point see that a couple of streets away the buildings stopped, a clear indication I have reached the edge of the world. I walked past a couple of interesting pubs, including one called The Fresher & Professor, which for some reason has Herbie The Love Bug sticking out of the top!



Careers in Greenwich

By Peter Rowlett. Posted February 7, 2009

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.

Maths = A Good Job

By Peter Rowlett. Posted February 1, 2009

I was pointed to a piece in the New York Times which says that being a mathematician is the best job in the U.S. A study evaluated 200 occupations against five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Being a mathematician – a career path that the New York Times says provides a “steady stream of lucrative, low-stress jobs” – came top of the list, followed by Actuary and Statistician. So all of the top three are jobs for mathematics graduates.

Membership pays

By Peter Rowlett. Posted January 30, 2009

I was pointed recently to a piece from the Times that claims membership of a professional body can provide great economic benefits. Specifically, a report by the Consultative Committee for Professional Management Organisations gives the estimated lifetime economic benefit of holding a professional qualification at £81,000 and being a member of a professional institute at £71,000 and pointed out the benefit of all this extra earning to the public purse at £53,000 additional tax revenues per institute member. Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, is quoted as saying: “Being professional pays. It is an excellent investment for individuals and for government.”

Careers talk at Greenwich

By Peter Rowlett. Posted January 27, 2009

Yesterday I visited the University of Greenwich and gave a talk on mathematics careers. This was an enjoyable experience and seemed to go well. The format was that I was followed by a lecturer from Greenwich, Dr Mayur Patel, who gave a CV writing session. I think this format, combining a, hopefully, inspiring careers talk with a practical career management skills session was a brilliant idea. Noel-Ann Bradshaw has written a kind post over on the IMA Representatives of University Mathematical Societies blog, on the back of which I have received at least one more invite to give this talk at another university.



Careers advice for mathematicians

By Peter Rowlett. Posted January 23, 2009

In response to the poor state of generally available careers advice for mathematicians, Vanessa Thorogood, Education Officer at the IMA has produced an IMA Maths Careers Advice leaflet. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in careers advice for mathematics undergraduates or mathematics graduates or who offers such advice through a graduate careers advisory service, careers library or otherwise.