i was graduated with statistics also. what i can comment in statistics degree is that it is quite hard to get statistics related job for statistics graduates even though in finance/investment industry.

why do i say so? there are a lot of statistics graduates each year in a lot of universities but the demand is not so high.

the situation cannot be compared with accounting degree. there are really a lot of accounting degree graduates each year but the demand are still very high for accounting/finance related job.

a company do not need too many statistician/analyst as compared with accounting. i am not saying that statistics degree are useless but we have to accept the fact that the demand is not high for it. there are also a lot of other degree who learned something in statistics. company can choose to hire them instead of us who studied statistics degree(some companies do not care whether the person really know theory behind the application because the HR may prefer people who seems to know more things in statistics application although the person maybe know only very brief in statistics theory. it is so damn dangerous for people to misuse statistics theory).

there are also other reasons for it. statistics degree is actually not an easy degree. there are a lot of theories and application that a person need to know then only can do great things with it. what i mean is that statistics degree will never be much lower grade than actuarial degree except that actuarial degree have the chance to learn more about finance.

pure/applied statistics will surely be not enough because degree level in statistics still lack of a lot of knowledge and experience(i do not mean that statistics degree fresh grad cannot get any interesting job with their qualification).

a master degree in statistics/applied statistics may also be not adequate to become a really good statistician because there are assumptions in every statistics theory/application. a statistician need to read, study a lot and gain a lot of experience in order to do better in the job.

in statistics, there is a great quoted phrase by the father of time series, "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful". this is to remind human that statistics is not as easy as people thought because statistics consists of assumptions.

(to comment on people who thinks that work at insurance company with statistics degree can get high pay:
there are too many of math/stat/actuarial graduates per year but the number of insurance companies do not increase much and the number of actuarial executive that insurance companies demand remains about the same also).. statistics degree may seems general but it is not general if one can really master it because a lot of important things in the world depends on statistics theory.

during world war II, the nuclear bomb exists due to Monte Carlo Simulation.
in finance, the famous black-scholes-merton option model(it is famous but it does not mean that it is a perfect model because we can know it from LTCM example in year 1998) comes from stochastic process.

This post has been edited by tata88: Apr 6 2010, 09:56 PM

the degree is difficult to earn, needs a lot of hard work...same like maths degree...

some outsider people may think it only involves + - x / , but it's not...and only maths/stats ppl can understand the real suffering....in my uni, my maths degree was dubbed as one of the most difficult program apart from medicine and engineering...

yet, i can see in malaysia, not many companies are hiring mathematician or statistician....they prefer engineer, accounting, business etc....but they forget that mathematics is the oldest science and almost all disciplines today are rooted from mathematics...

tata88 was right...it is simply not in demand, at least not in malaysia...those who graduate with maths degree and still love very much of maths, will usually continue to do research and be lecturer or professor at universities...

nonetheless, i know of someone who has a maths phd but is very successful and highly paid at an MNC as a software consultant...perhaps the company pay for her high intelligence and logical/reasoning skills

p/s: logic & reasoning is part of mathematics ;-)

Maths and statistics are simply a means to an end. As most of you testify, it's difficult to find a job in commerce and industry that fully capitalises on the full extent of a statistics or maths degree. In most companies, MS Excel, a calculator, Google and a finance guy are more than enough in terms of the required statistics and maths to support the business.

I think it really depends on yourself more than a "statistic degree". If there is little demand, probably means you just have to really fight for it to be the 1 out of the many that fit the limited demand expectation.

True statistician have little use to malaysia industry... we are still not a fully service or highly skilled market. So might want to continue to branch out to Sg or Hk? I know a friend, a statistician, worked for ING 2 years later in HK. He is probably earning (more than) my monthly salary every week.

So don't give up and keep yourself focus. You will get it in the end.

yayaya...msia is still yet to become a country in fully focusing on services/consultation provider ...msia is currently concentrating on the production industry instead of being a consultation services industry...however, imo...SG/HK is mainly concentrating in professional services provider industry may be due to having the limited natural resources..

become a lecturer/teacher

will need to depend the theory of demand/supply as well

if demand of enrolling studies in Degree Statistic is lesser...it would affect the demand of hiring lecturer

it is true that math/stat is not just about + - x /.. some people that have a better thought may just think that "Oh ya.. statistics degree should learn a lot in hypothesis testing.. mathematics degree probably study a lot in calculus.." this is so pathetic that how could people think in such a way... people do not know that mathematics and probabilities are also 1 of the core part of statistics degree.

statistics is not just to do hypothesis testing and calculating(perhaps that i should say estimating instead of calculating) but it consist of real thinking too.

This post has been edited by tata88: Apr 7 2010, 09:50 PM

tata88, please don't take this the wrong. Most of the time the "people that think in such a way" are normally the one hiring you or making the decision. So if you really want that job, you really got to fight for it.

I understand the TS suffering, a Degree in Statistic is no easy matter and to study so far for it and not get a job can quite a big let down. But I can only advice you not to let it affect you, there is a job that is out there waiting for you. You just need to find it. In a matter of time, you WILL find it.

Most of the time the "people that think in such a way" are not just potential employer but i do mean for people such as friends or someone else.

I do working in statistics related job currently but the office environment/politic caused some problem and feeling to switch to other types of job or try to get a tutor job then further master/Phd.

currently i am doing my statistics degree and this may i will start doing my internship. i got accepted to one company and they already briefed me about things that i need to do during my internship period. they said, i have to do RAW SUGAR PRICE MODELLING under RISK MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT. btw, i am studying in UM.. here we have to choose our own subjects. i don't know whether other universities also do the same..
when i went for an interview, they asked about my subjects that i have taken.. what i want to highlight here is that, your subjects determine your career in the future.. as long you have some basics in their fields, the chance for you to get hire is pretty high.
as tata88 said, u cannot expect to get high salary since people graduate with statistics degree are more than the market needs. she needs know where to apply her statistics skills in the future. some of my seniors ended up working in banks, insurance companies and government (doing survey stuff)..

All d best for ur internship!

What is the different between Statistics and Actuary Science?

Which one can earn more?

The question that you asked was a bit like asking "Mechanical Engineering" or "Electrical Engineering" can earn more. (Note: I am not saying that Statistics/Actuarial Science degree holder salary is same as Engineer. Both of the degree are usually just a 3 year degree). Both can work similar job except that Actuarial Science do have a better name instead of Statistics. The main point is actually not what degree that you study but what and how much did you learn from it. A person cannot judge whether a Statistics degree or Actuarial Science degree holder is better by just looking at what the person studied as degree.

Actuarial Science seems to be very hard but it is only hard in the professional paper. In terms of how hard can it be in University level course exam, i would say that pure mathematics/statistics can be very hard also. There are a lot of variables such as tutor, lecturer, course content,... which can affect how hard can a degree be.

The content of both of the degree will not be the same for each university who offering the degree but the main difference is Actuarial Science will surely study a bit more in finance while Statistics degree usually do not have chance to learn much in finance.

Both of the degree still study about mathematics, statistics and probability. Actually that quite a lot of courses are/can be the same for both of the degree.

Quite a lot of employer/people do think that Actuarial Science degree is better because they are not able to understand what it means by professional paper and a degree. Statistics degree holder can take the professional paper too except that Statistics degree holder may need to spend more time to study it and take more exam such as the VEE exam that normally Actuarial Science degree in Local University can get exemption for it if passed the selected courses in University in a grade better than B-/B/B+(i cannot remember the exact grade) while statistics degree holder have to take extra exam for it.

Have you tried applying for a statistics role in any research agencies such as Nielsen, TNS-RI, Synovate?

You would stand a better chance working with these agencies as they are specialized in research and a statistician is harder to come by. Not all researchers know statistics like how you did your studies on. You can play a big role in certain additional analysis which is always value adding to any research report.

I can't say more about the income, but I do know that once you are established in the field for at least 2 years, you will be really wanted by any research agencies out there and you will have higher opportunity to work abroad.

you'll be working in risk management dept

Statistics is subject that I hate most, but now I have to use it a lot in my study and my current project in machine learning.

Lately i just venture a bank product where we really to sort out the uniqueness in the market and need to prove it mathematically.

I think statistics graduates should join the product development team in bank as this is the dept where you can show your talents in proving the stream of money to company.

I just did it. I think i need more staticians