Sharpen your data skills and you’ll find it pays to get into business
Forget what you’ve seen in the movies because there’s more to a job in business than rocking a fancy suit. Sure, it can be stressful, but a business career can be seriously rewarding – and a chance for maths and data grads to make a real difference.
Numbers game
Business makes the world – and economy – go round. There are plenty of high-powered business jobs for skilled maths and data professionals, from working in management, to finance and accounting, entrepreneurship, information technology and even trading in financial markets. There’s also a stack of math majors in supporting roles, like chief financial officer, market dealer, share advisor, crypto broker, cyber security expert and data analyst.
And the best bit for those keen on making a buck in business? By combining maths and data with business, you’ll open the door to high-paying positions like investment banker, hedge fund manager, and private equity and actuarial roles.
If you’re a confident problem-solver and can see yourself tackling complex probability equations all day, every day, this is a reliable industry to craft a career in.
Show me the money
Although jobs are secure, business pathways can be as non-linear and all-over-the-place as the stock market! If cr yptocurrency is your jam you could do a business degree and fill it out with blockchain, investment and data-heavy units. Or, doing a straight-up Bachelor of Mathematics will skill you up in all the things (Stats! Graphs! Data! Probability!), so you can pick and choose an area to specialise in. It’s worth looking into business courses at TAFE too.
Already dreaming of jobs? Check out investment groups IMC Trading and Optiver if you want to work with cool clients.
Start your career here
Maths & Data + Business + Study
- Bachelor of Science (Mathematics), Macquarie University
- Bachelor of Mathematics, Western Sydney University
- Bachelor of Commerce, The University of Melbourne
- Bachelor of Finance, University of South Australia
- Diploma of Business, TAFE NSW
Maths & Data + Business + Jobs
- Security analyst: $59K–$110K
- Stockbroker: $52K–$160K
- Chief financial officer: $106K–$250K
*Salaries sourced from payscale.com
Read more:
- STEM + Business
- Hugh Crawford: Agile project coordinator
- Meet 3 STEM pros who launched their own startups
A version of this article also appears in our latest issue of Careers with STEM: Maths and Data 2025.
