If you’re good with numbers, your skills are very much in demand. Here are a few career paths for people, like you, who are great with numbers.
Everyone knows someone who is just good with numbers, without having to try very hard at it. Some people just seem to have a natural aptitude, others have to put in the work and some people, however hard they try, just don’t seem to be able to get.
If you’re one of those people who has an affinity for maths, the good news is that your skills are very much in demand in a range of sectors. Some of them can be done with a little extra training, others might need further formal qualifications.
Many of these careers can be performed as an in-house employee or as a self-employed consultant. Whichever path you choose, you can be confident that you’ll find a rewarding, stable career.
Bookkeeper
A bookkeeper looks after the day to day financial transactions of a small to medium-sized business and updating the books with. There are many courses you can take online to get up to speed on the ins and outs of financial record keeping. You can work part-time/full time for a particular company or sell your bookkeeping services virtually as a self-employed professional.
Learning the main accountancy software packages is also a good idea as you will encounter various bookkeeping systems.
Accountant
An accountant usually takes over from a bookkeeper when the end of year calculations and taxes are due. Accountants are more rigidly regulated than bookkeepers so you will need specialist training to become an accountant. Again, you can choose to work in-house, for an accountancy firm or a freelance consultant.
Day Trader
Becoming a day trader is becoming more and more popular with people wanting to make money from the comfort of their own home with nothing needed but a computer and a reliable internet connection.
A day trader buys and sells securities during stock market opening hours, but instead of hanging on to the stock, they do not carry any positions to the next day.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
If you’re interested in getting started with day trading, with a number of online resources to teach you the ins and outs and platforms to allow you to trade. It requires a lot of studying to learn all the intricacies of the market and your need to beware of any self-prescribed ‘gurus’ or get rich quick schemes that promise you money for little effort.
Statistician
Many people would consider a boring job but statisticians have the wonderful ability of diving into a huge pile of data and creating a story out of number. If you love compiling data and crunching numbers then being a statistician is a great career for you. In this role, you would collect and perform analysis of huge amounts of data. If you can look at a jumble of data and see trends and patterns then you can put your skills to use in a range of injury. Statisticians work in a number of sectors including IT, healthcare, banking, and market research.
Math Tutor
If you find it easy to connect with people then tutoring can provide a wealth of great career opportunities for you. Math is a subject that many students have problems understanding in school and seek out external tutors in order to help them catch up. You can see first hand the impact you are having on people’s lives by watching them improve their confidence and their grades.
Tutoring is great for maintaining a work-life balance as you can set your own prices and hours. Student’s can come to your home or you can visit theirs, or provide face to face video conferencing. There are a number of tutoring companies that you can join that takes the stress out of having to set up your own business and find clients.
Business Analyst
Businesses of all sizes use analysts to come into their companies and identify inefficiencies. Trimming the unnecessary fat from a company has become a vital step in making a company successful. Analysts delve deep into every aspect of a business and can project manage new software implementations or other business processes.
Business analysts often work as self-employed consultants or as part of a specialist firm, who can command a high fee for their work. They are expected to have at least a graduate degree and specialist certifications in their specific area of expertise e.g IT or management.
A more specialized business analyst is now becoming more common in the financial sector. Private equity firms, insurance companies, and hedge funds are all tightening up their business practices after the last recession.
Actuary
Pensions and insurance companies employ actuaries to manage and reduce risk factors. Actuaries use a huge range of statistics and information to work out the probability of a particular event happening or not happening.
Actuaries need a good head for numbers, statistics, and basic psychology. Many also have experience in other subjects such as computer science and analytics.
Auditor
An auditor’s job is to communicate financial information to key stakeholders in an organization. An internal auditor is involved in checking the accuracy of financial statements and looking for any irregularities or incidences of fraud or mismanagement.
Economist
Trained economists are instrumental in helping local and national governments develop their economic-financial policies. An economist analyzes huge amounts of data and produces road maps for policies behind the scene. However, you don’t have to work in government to be an economist, there are also opportunities to work in the media, big businesses, and social/political think tanks.
In order to become an economist, you will need a graduate degree in economics and/or a related subject.
Conclusion
There are certainly a number of career paths open to people who are great with numbers. A lot depends on how you want to work and how long you are prepared to spend on acquiring the right qualifications for the job. Many of these jobs can be done as a self-employed consultant if you want the freedom of working for yourself.
Hi Nicci,
This article is something that would interest my brother a lot. He is terrific with numbers. Thanks for sharing.