What are your opinions on professional certificates? Do they actually increase potential earnings or do they only make money for the certifying body? And are there very broad certificates that can be useful in any vaguely quantitative profession that uses mathematical models.
I ask because I am in the later part of studying physics and pretty sure that I neither want to nor be able to make it in academia, so I am working on alternative plans. Figured that some certificates could enhance my employability or show some alternatives I haven’t been aware of yet. What do you think?
I have yet to find out. Currently I am in talks with an IT company for a paid internship where I could acquire some IT-related experience such as setting up and understanding IT infrastructure and working in a larger coding project. There is some appeal to that. On the other hand I love mathematical models which this kind of field would be lacking. A major problem of mine is that I am absolutely not willing to work long hours as I value my time very highly and want to use it to learn about the world around us for the time I am without a family or spend it with my family for the time I am with a family.
Have you considered working in an IT support capacity for a company that does things using mathematical models? Done right this might allow you to use your love of math while also not working long hours.
I have not, thank you for the suggestion. Examples would be IT support for an insurance company or similar I think. Would experience as an actuary be beneficial? I am actually working on an (most probably unpaid) internship as an actuary too.
I can’t say myself since I’m sort of in the same boat as you are. I love research and abstract thinking, but I value time spent on family and relaxation more, so I decided against going into academia. IT / programming support for a research position is just an idea that I’d seen suggested I think in a few places. For myself I’m hoping to go for data science since that’s very closely related to many types of research and if a research job doesn’t work out then at least it pays quite well.
What are your opinions on professional certificates? Do they actually increase potential earnings or do they only make money for the certifying body? And are there very broad certificates that can be useful in any vaguely quantitative profession that uses mathematical models.
I ask because I am in the later part of studying physics and pretty sure that I neither want to nor be able to make it in academia, so I am working on alternative plans. Figured that some certificates could enhance my employability or show some alternatives I haven’t been aware of yet. What do you think?
Where do you want to be employed?
I have yet to find out. Currently I am in talks with an IT company for a paid internship where I could acquire some IT-related experience such as setting up and understanding IT infrastructure and working in a larger coding project. There is some appeal to that. On the other hand I love mathematical models which this kind of field would be lacking. A major problem of mine is that I am absolutely not willing to work long hours as I value my time very highly and want to use it to learn about the world around us for the time I am without a family or spend it with my family for the time I am with a family.
Have you considered working in an IT support capacity for a company that does things using mathematical models? Done right this might allow you to use your love of math while also not working long hours.
I have not, thank you for the suggestion. Examples would be IT support for an insurance company or similar I think. Would experience as an actuary be beneficial? I am actually working on an (most probably unpaid) internship as an actuary too.
I can’t say myself since I’m sort of in the same boat as you are. I love research and abstract thinking, but I value time spent on family and relaxation more, so I decided against going into academia. IT / programming support for a research position is just an idea that I’d seen suggested I think in a few places. For myself I’m hoping to go for data science since that’s very closely related to many types of research and if a research job doesn’t work out then at least it pays quite well.