Current Job/Career:

I work as an Actuary at Securian Financial in St. Paul, Minnesota. I work on a product development team that is tasked with developing, pricing, and maintaining life insurance and annuity products. My job provides me with ample opportunity to work with people from different teams and use the problem solving skills I developed while at CSB/SJU. I am lucky to have great coworkers that inspire me to do my best to help our business grow!

Degree’s Earned:

Mathematics major, Computer Science minor

Grad Year:

2017

What inspired you to become a mathematics major?

Like many math majors, I was fortunate to have been pretty good at math growing up. While I wasn't set on being a math major when I went to college, I loved working with numbers and the general problem solving that went along with math. I had great math professors early on at CSB/SJU that helped me continue to grow my love for math and commit to the major!

How do you use the mathematics major in your current career?

As an Actuary, most would think that math is the name of the game at my job. Although I use actual math every day, the most useful skills that my math major provided me with are the problem solving and critical thinking skills I developed at CSB/SJU. In a business setting—especially in one that is so concentrated on the various risks that a company faces—using these skills has been essential to making impactful contributions in my career.

What advice do you have for students considering a major in mathematics?

Many things come to mind, but here are an important few that I would suggest: 

1) Reach out to former math majors (like myself!) to ask about what they do now. This is a great way to think about what sorts of things you could do with a math major and helps build some connections within different career fields. 

2) Think about what you like about math. Do you enjoy the problem solving aspect of it? Do you like the statistics, calculus, or proofs involved? How do you like to apply math concepts?

3) Take some math classes! Even if you're not sure about the major, the problem solving skills you'll develop will serve you well in your future career!