Career support for mathematicians
Math skills are essential in all branches involved in processing and interpreting large amounts of information. If you don't know what kind of jobs mathematicians have, it's probably because mathematicians in the working life have other titles. For instance, did you know that there are mathematicians who work with medical research?
Professions in mathematics
The majority of those who take a master's degree in mathematics in Uppsala choose to work outside academia, while a smaller percentage continues to doctoral studies and aims for a career in research. Some students who have taken a master's degree in financial mathematics have enrolled in graduate programmes in finance.
Among our alumni who have chosen to work outside the university, the most common profession is actuary. Furthermore, many work as different types of analysts, such as financial analysts, risk analysts, quantitative risk analysts, business analysts and technical business analysts. A relatively new profession that's currently on the rise is data scientist. There are also many who work with signal processing, system development, statistics and biostatistics.
See the list of professional titles of our alumni (pdf) (the list is of course not complete but includes over 200 alumni).
Where do our alumni work?
The majority of our alumni works in one of the following areas:
- Finance
- Insurance
- Data/IT
- Medicine and health
- Trade and marketing
- Security and defence
- Education
- Academia/Research
- Technology industry
- Gaming companies
If you have completed a maths course with us, you are an alumnus and are welcome to join the LinkedIn Group "Uppsala University's Math Alumni" where you can see where the other group members are working.
Career day for mathematicians
The Department of Mathematics organizes a career day for math students once a year. Here the students get the opportunity to meet alumni, hear about their work and ask questions. Students at the bachelor's and the master's programmes in mathematics will be invited to the event by email. Other interested parties are also welcome, subject to availability.
The next career day is planned to take place at the end of April 2024.
Previous programs
Career tips
If you want to find a job that suits you, you need to be active and explore the labour market.
Use LinkedIn
If you search for the common titles, you'll find a number of relevant companies. Visit the companies’ websites and see if their business might be interesting for you. Join the LinkedIn group for those who study or have studied mathematics at Uppsala University.
Ask questions
If you know about someone who works in a field that interests you, it's a good idea to find out more about the profession. Contact the person, tell them that you study mathematics and that you're interested in their profession. Then, ask for an appointment. Be clear that the purpose of the meeting is that you want to know more about the profession. The person in question will most probably think it's fun to talk about their work. Prepare for the meeting, and ask as many questions as possible about the profession and about the path to the profession. That way you'll both get a feeling if the profession suits you and establish a valuable contact at a company.
Write your master’s thesis at a company
A great way to get a foot in the labour market is to do your degree project at a company. You can find external projects in several ways:
- Look at the University’s career site Career Gate or Graduate Land - Thesis in Sweden.
- Contact interesting companies. Many companies announce projects on their websites or on LinkedIn.
- Contact alumni who work in fields that you are interested in.
- Ask the teachers or your study guidance counsellor if they know of companies seeking master's students for projects.
Learn to tell about your skills
If you feel unsecure about searching for work, it may help to remember that you'll participate in creating the labour market. The labour market is not a package where you have to try to fit in, but a dynamic world that you can influence with your creativity and your competence. Although it might be difficult to see it when you are still a student, you actually have a lot of skills that you've developed during your studies and a variety of other competencies, which all combined make you unique.
If you want tips on how to tell about your skills, the University offers lectures and workshops on how to prepare for your professional life.
Are you curious about mathematical research?
In order to become a researcher, you need to enroll in a graduate programme.
If you'd like to know what it's like to do research in mathematics, it's a good idea to ask your teachers. All the teachers at the master's programme are active researchers.