I feel cheated. Where are those cool "mathsy" careers that every math website always talks about?

I kind of feel the same way, but I think it pays to reinterpret the "promises" these career claims make. Part of the problem is that mathematics graduates compare themselves to engineering graduates rather than liberal arts graduates.

The issue for a prospective student shouldn't just be "will I be able to continue doing research in this field for a living?", but rather "will I be able to get a job if I do this degree?". The assumption is that mathematics is part of STEM, that a mathematics graduate should be able to make bank just like an engineering or computer science graduate can. That's not necessarily so. Consider the situation for graduates of fine arts, or literature, or philosophy, or sociology - are their career prospects better than those of a mathematics graduate? Probably not. They could probably find employment in academia, but those positions are rather limited. They might find employment in industry, but then it's unlikely they'll be doing what they studied at university. On the other hand, these degrees are likely to help them find a tolerable job instead of a menial one. So schools of fine arts, philosophy, sociology, etc will also advertise what sort of employment graduates can find - e.g. museums, human resources, government, etc. But there's no expectation by prospective students that they're going to continue their research if they find work in industry. Mathematics students, on the other hand, believe they deserve more.

/r/math Thread