B.S. Applied Mathematics, SOA Exam P. Advice on what path to take in programming?

Career Advice
#1

Hello. I have and Applied Math degree with focus on probability and stats. I passed The first Actuarial exam, Exam P.

I have started learning to code through freecodecamp. I don’t have any other experience coding. I have been enjoying learning, and I like the problem solving side of getting things to work.

My question is: what would be the best route for me to take to get a job. Should I stick with the web development side or try to use my previous knowledge in another programming area. I have been doing quite a bit of research, especially learning that there is so much out there. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

#2

If you really want to put your stats experience to work, you’ll probably end up moving away from web development (which is most of what freeCodeCamp teaches). That said, the JavaScript section is a really good foundation in programming and this community is an incredible help as you’re learning, so there are worse places for you to start.

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#3

How much do you like doing statistics? Data Science is hot right now and requires both programming and applied mathematics.

freeCodeCamp has three good Python certifications that you should consider doing if you are considering math + programming:
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#4

I don’t love statistics, so…It’s more just that I am capable. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around exactly what that job would look like. With web development you are seeing a product, which I like. I will research Data science, thank you for the suggestion. I currently plan to do fcc’s curriculum, so javascript and then python. Thanks.

#5

There’s definitely something very satisfying about building something and really being able to see what you’ve done.

With a math background and a good basis in a programming language and programatic problem solving, there should be a variety of opportunities available to you.

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#6

So one of the nice things about this new trend towards data science is that there is lots of work on data visualization, which makes it a bit easier to see the end target - you are making interactive (hopefully) charts, analysis, and simulations about real world problems.

Disclaimer - I am also in the Applied Math camp, but I do simulations involving PDEs on supercomputers. There is lots of cool stuff involving applied math + programming. There is actually some very cool work involving supercomputers and stats in my area, such as stochastic PDEs or analysis of uncertainty in simulations.
I used to be a statistical analyst, but that was before a lot of this new data visualization stuff took off.

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#7

Thanks. That’s a lot of great information. I think data visualization would be much closer to what I am looking for. I actually do enjoy that part of stats. It sounds like what you are doing is very math heavy. Do you feel what you do is a more applied approach because of programming or does it still seem theoretical?