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I'm looking for good hints for my professional life.

I am a mathematician (32 years old) who worked up to now in academia in Europe.
My short CV: PhD + three and a half years of postdoctoral fellowships.
Domain of expertise: dynamical systems / ergodic theory (no applied math).

It's been some time that I have been losing progressively motivation for research, I do not manage to obtain a permanent position and I start wondering what I could do elsewhere with my expertise (besides teaching, which is of course a possibility).

However I fear that I'm too "specialized" in my domain and I don't feel adapted for the industry. I have some programming skills, but not enough in my opinion to work in a big data company.

Do you know some examples of mathematicians who found their way in industry with a 100% academic CV like mine? And where? In which areas? Do companies hire mathematicians with no experience outside academics? Do they invest in people with pure-theoretical background and competences?

bruco
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  • The last paragraph (at least part of it) of your question risks a flag for it being a "shopping question" (off topic for this site). I would advise you to remove the "asking for lists of mathematicians in industry or for companies hiring them" and replace it with a more generic question. – skymningen May 16 '18 at 12:35
  • I hear consultancy groups can hire anyone smart with a PhD. Banks too. Basically the advice I heard most often is to look for jobs where you don't need a specific degree, just show that you are intelligent and hard-working. (I'm not posting an answer because I don't think the question is on-topic , but I hope it helps.) –  May 16 '18 at 12:42
  • @skymningen done – bruco May 16 '18 at 13:10
  • Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12239/career-for-a-mathematician-outside-academia?rq=1 – Allure May 16 '18 at 23:04

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Rumors say that the financial industry hires Ph.D.s in math and physics, having found that those guys are smart in ways that matter there.

In the US, the largest non-academic employer of Ph.D. mathematicians is the National Security Agency. But they hire US citizens only. I do not know if there are similar opportunities in Europe.

GEdgar
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  • alright, but that's only rumors or are we allowed to be more precise? – bruco May 16 '18 at 13:13
  • the countries of Europe definitely have signals intelligence departments within their security agencies, and are known to employ mathematicians as analysts. And similarly to the NSA they don't tend to employ non-citizens (as in it's not enough to have EU citizenship, you need to meet specific national citizenship requirements). – origimbo May 16 '18 at 13:13
  • The more quantitative hedge funds (Renaissance, Two Sigma, Tower, ...) definitively hire PhDs in Math, Physics, Stats, and CS. Source: I work for one of these hedge funds. – Matteo May 16 '18 at 13:55