Metus comments on Open thread, July 28 - August 3, 2014 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 28 July 2014 08:27PM

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Comment author: Metus 28 July 2014 10:05:11PM 1 point [-]

I have yet to find out. Currently I am in talks with an IT company for a paid internship where I could acquire some IT-related experience such as setting up and understanding IT infrastructure and working in a larger coding project. There is some appeal to that. On the other hand I love mathematical models which this kind of field would be lacking. A major problem of mine is that I am absolutely not willing to work long hours as I value my time very highly and want to use it to learn about the world around us for the time I am without a family or spend it with my family for the time I am with a family.

Comment author: iarwain1 28 July 2014 10:42:35PM 1 point [-]

Have you considered working in an IT support capacity for a company that does things using mathematical models? Done right this might allow you to use your love of math while also not working long hours.

Comment author: Metus 28 July 2014 10:47:53PM 2 points [-]

I have not, thank you for the suggestion. Examples would be IT support for an insurance company or similar I think. Would experience as an actuary be beneficial? I am actually working on an (most probably unpaid) internship as an actuary too.

Comment author: iarwain1 29 July 2014 12:05:53AM 2 points [-]

I can't say myself since I'm sort of in the same boat as you are. I love research and abstract thinking, but I value time spent on family and relaxation more, so I decided against going into academia. IT / programming support for a research position is just an idea that I'd seen suggested I think in a few places. For myself I'm hoping to go for data science since that's very closely related to many types of research and if a research job doesn't work out then at least it pays quite well.