Notwithstanding a previous post, I love doing academic research. Until now, my main argument for why my job is so great is that I get paid to do what I love. A recent study has, however, added some unexpected icing on the cake. The study evaluated 200 professions to determine the best and worst according to five criteria inherent to every job: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. As it turns out, being a mathematician is the best job one can have! Go figure – how does that add up? Well,…
According to the study, mathematicians fared best in part because they typically work in favorable conditions — indoors and in places free of toxic fumes or noise — unlike those toward the bottom of the list like sewage-plant operator, painter and bricklayer. They also aren’t expected to do any heavy lifting, crawling or crouching — attributes associated with occupations such as firefighter, auto mechanic and plumber.
Strictly speaking, of course, I am not a mathematician in the traditional sense, but rather more of mathematical biologist working at the interface of biology, math, and statistics. As it turns out, however, according to the study, being a biologist is ranked 4 and statistician is ranked 3. The average rank of these three professions is 2.7, but considering that my current gig is in a math and stats department I feel my job probably ranks a tad higher.
I wondering how the surfer-physicist profession fared?
This is from the “Mario’s Entangled Bank” blog ( http://pineda-krch.com ) of Mario Pineda-Krch, a theoretical biologist at the University of Alberta.
Just thought that I’d start the comments.
Very interesting. I wouldn’t have guessed.
They didn’t factor in the fact that there is little thrill or excitement in the life of a mathematician though.
It depends, if you really love math, there is thrill in finding out something new. It all depends on your perspective.