Question: What are the pros and cons of working in maths?

Sreejita Ghosh answered on 9 Jan 2020:

Sometimes the work can seem dry and it can be difficult to visualise the problem you are trying to solve. I have been there when for 15 seconds I had been shouting to my computer, “But WHY? What the hell is wrong with you? THIS is the correct equation! WHY this error?” So, yeah it can be lonely sometimes.
The pros are that you can work from anywhere and your experiments are among the cheapest to perform since you’d probably need access to a remote supercomputer to run simulations, and you can use pen and paper to formulate your equation and try solving it and later check in Maths software such as Mathematica and Maple. You can use mathematical modelling to uncover what goes on in the finance market, and even learn about the human physiology. You can work independently and also collaborate. You don’t need to apply for expensive robots or lab animals or reagents. You might be employed by Google London, but you you’re spending time in the amazing Amalfi coast enjoying fried calamari and mushroom risotto, while doing your office work – coding a differential equation for making a better algorithm for some Google product. You don’t need to be back in a confined space called “lab”, to do your work. 🙂 How does that image look for a job in Maths? 😉