Businesses need math majors

          Whenever I tell people that I am a math major at Grand Valley, I typically hear the response of "What kind of job do you want to have when you graduate?" and honestly, I don't know. I have thought about this over and over and I still have not come up with a certain job or career field I want to get into. This past summer, the company that I have been working for got bought out by a major corporation. In our first meeting with some of the company executives, we went around and had to say what we did for the company. When it was my turn I said what I needed to and then added that I am also a full time student at Grand Valley. When asked what I was studying I told them I was a math major, and thats when they all looked at me with a sort of grin on their faces and one said "You're a number guy, I like that." Thats when it hit me, having a degree in math is extremely valuable to a business. 

         The major reason being, we know how to solve problems. All areas of math are dependent on problem solving. When I encounter a math problem, I first think of all the possible ways to solve it, then I determine which way is going to be the easiest, fastest, and the have the least probability for mistakes. Then I solve. In business it is the same way, when I encounter a problem the first thing I think of is the different ways the problem can be solved. I then think about the different ways and determine which one is the best way moving forward. Also, in many math classes that I have taken, students are encouraged to work together to come up with answers. This teaches us to take the advice from our peers and use it to help solve the problem. Math majors learn that there are different ways to solve problems, and we may not think of the best way on our own.

         Another reason why I believe math majors are valuable to a business is that when you think of the success of a business, you look at the numbers. I have a business minor and have been taking some business classes the past few semesters. The class that stands out to me is accounting. Accounting is very simple math if you understand the equations. I am not saying accounting as a whole is simple, but the math is. My professor this semester lets us bring in a notecard to each exam and we can write what ever we want to on it. This is where being a math major has come in very handy. I can write one equation down, and by simple mathematical rules, I am able to derive several other equations out of the one. I look at the numbers in the problem, and just plug them into the equations as they fit. Then if I don't have one of the parts of the equation, I scan for another equation to get the part using what I already have. Because I have been working with numbers and equations for so long, it is second nature to do this.

         The last reason I believe math majors are valuable to businesses is because we can prove why we did something. You may not think of it this way, but math majors have been taught to know why we do everything that we do in math. We have been taught how to write formal proofs of problems that show step by step why something is true. I feel like we have been wired to always think of why something happens. Writing proofs basically breaks the math down into the simplest terms and ways to describe something. This is why I believe most math majors can explain complicated things in ways that most people can understand. When your boss asks why you did a certain thing, a math major will know right away why they did that thing and have clear evidence to back up their decision. 

         So now when somebody asks me what job I can get with a math degree, I tell them any job I want. I talked to an executive from my company and asked him what jobs they would have for a math major, he told me any job that needed a college degree I would be qualified for. The main reason being that they literally just want someone with a  degree. However, I do believe if I was going for an accounting job and was up against somebody with an Art History degree, I do think they will take a math major for the reasons above.