Career Guide

No matter where you are in your career, from deciding on your major during your freshman year as an undergraduate to trying to navigate the complexities grants, teaching, advising and tenure as a new faculty, this guide is for you if you are interested in pursuing a career in statistics. As more and more data is being collected by governments, businesses, and researchers in all fields, the opportunities in statistics are expanding rapidly. All these opportunities does not mean a career in statistics is without challenge; on the contrary, statisticians are being asked to take on more and more roles as data collection, curation, and analysis, becomes more integrated with our daily lives.

Statistics is a wonderfully diverse profession and students making career choices have many options. Statistics is one of the fastest growing disciplines at every level: undergraduate programs are ballooning, research in statistics is becoming more high profile, and industry is more and more in need of skills to deal with data.

Among the transitional facts of life with which we believe new researchers should be acquainted are:

  • making educational choices that match your career goals,
  • mechanisms for applying for jobs,
  • expectations associated with different types of jobs,
  • techniques for initiating an active research program, and
  • methods of becoming more involved with the broader statistical community.

This guide addresses these issues, but it also offers advice on a variety of other topics which new researchers may wish to consider as they look to transition to the next stage in their career.