<p>I know this is not the most intelligent question, but I was told that math majors could go into engineering. Is that true or is it like saying a math major could go into any other field provided that they have the right technical education?</p>
<p>My guess is that for any job you want you’re obviously going to need the right technical skills. So all things equal you would probably have the leg up on an EE for a signal processing job if you had the right experience. I think it would be a similar case for systems engineering and similar jobs. </p>
<p>You can browse engineering job postings and look at their educational requirements. You’ll probably find that certain engineering areas almost always list math as a sufficient major.</p>
<p>Lacero, I apologize for my ignorance, but what do people with ‘signal processing’ jobs do?</p>
<p>Probably, yes. But you will only need the practical/applied math, mainly…like calc and diffeq, that sort. Not the analysis/abstract stuff. Other than that you will probably need to learn the ethical stuff and engineering process (like spec-design-test)</p>
<p>I would agree that a math major could go into engineering, but defining a route would depend on the type of engineering. I would think there would need to be a lot of additional learning if you were going into chemical and biomedical since the hard science portion will probably all be new. However, I would think the mathematical know-how would be the foundation for such an education.</p>
<p>If it were an applied math major applying for an entry level position in a state of the art or new technology application I might give them a chance, granted that they can prove they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. </p>
<p>Also, controls engineering would probably be a good route. Since it is mostly math and logic.</p>
<p>I have to agree that it depends entirely on the type of engineering. Some portions of industrial engineering, specifically Optimization and Stochastics, are essentially applied math majors, and many of the top researchers in the fields have math backgrounds. </p>
<p>Other areas, like Chemical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, rely too much on the sciences, e.g. as thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and chemistry, to make them approachable by a math major. Though you can apply to a master’s program or take a semester or two of post-graduate work and “catch up”.</p>
<p>I’ve seen a lot of math majors transition into systems engineering in the defense industry.</p>
<p>so the math major goes to the job interview, interviewer grills him to see if he knows his calc, diff eqs, linear, etc. and if he sounds like he paid attention in class he might be considering for an engineering position?</p>
<p>Most interviews are behavioral interviews, not technical. The technical interviews that I’ve heard of were structural analysis questions (these were for structural engineering firms) and not pure math.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You should not interview for an engineering job. You cannot do engineering work with a math degree. You can probably handle engineering courses and do engineering work with some additional training, but otherwise, you are not qualified.</p>
<p>It’s like driving an 18 wheeler: it’s not complicated, but if no one has ever taught you how to handle 18 gears with doubleclutching, you’re not going anywhere. Now, with 30 minutes of practice, you can probably handle it, but hoping in the seat with no education is going to result in a popped clutch.</p>
<p>G.P, that makes sense. If I want an engineering job right out of college, the best course of action (not surprisingly) is to get an engineering degree.</p>
<p>An engineering MS would be wise, but you can probably get by with just a semester or two of courses, depending on the engineering field.</p>
<p>From my experience thus far in EE, areas in EE such as signal processing, control systems, and communications are quite math intensive. I agree with G.P. Burdell and Japher in that if you have a grasp of stochastic processes and good computer programming skills, you in a VERY good position to quickly pick up the topics in the aforementioned areas in any setting, be it industry or in the classroom.</p>
<p>I’m not sure a math major could just ease into an engineering job. For example, look at Rice’s EE curriculum: <a href=“http://www.ece.rice.edu/academics/undergrad/bsdegreq/ug_archive/bseesample09[/url]”>http://www.ece.rice.edu/academics/undergrad/bsdegreq/ug_archive/bseesample09</a></p>
<p>There is only a grand total of 16 math credits, while the more technical EE classes compose 62 credits of the curriculum.</p>
<p>I know a few applied math majors, and I don’t think they would be competitive with other applicants for most engineering jobs. Math is great, but if math were enough to get engineering work done, they wouldn’t have engineering majors in college.</p>
<p>Even for CS, which is probably the closest “engineering/technical” major to math, isn’t really something a math major can bluff his way through. It’s not that any of the stuff is hard, but like G.P. said, there’s a lot of stuff to know and people with broader exposure will be better at the work.</p>
<p>CS might be close to math, but the amount of math people struggling intro cs staggers me (and I TA for said intro CS course). Eh, probably justified by how much I suck at math.</p>
<p>Intro to CS courses were easy. Algorithms, a CS course which I have never taken but read the first 10 pages of an introductory book, however, seems very challenging.</p>
<p>By the way, Ray, when you say that you suck at math, what type of math do you have in mind? I ask because I have heard CS majors make the same claim, only to learn later that the type of math they were referring to (analysis/abstract) is the same type of math even math majors struggle with.</p>
<p>Pmvd, when you say “abstract,” do you mean abstract algebra or just abstract subjects in general? Because people here abbreviate abstract algebra with the term abstract, and I didn’t know if it was universal. Algebra would make more sense, but I guess the possibility of a layman hearing you’re having trouble with an “algebra problem” discourages it.</p>
<p>Good analogy, G.P. Seconding.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I referred to pure math courses, such as abstract algebra and real analysis.</p>