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Try the banking industry, financial industry. Take an entry level position that might not be $20/hour but that allows you to work your way up and might provide tuition assistance to take classes in a more useful math related field like accounting, computers, etc. You can do it, you don't need to think that the goal is to leave your parents home right away, the goal is to get into a field you enjoy and then move up in it.
In some towns, OP, banks require applicants for teller positions to have 6 months cashiering experience. If that's the case where you live, you can get that experience either by volunteering for a non-profit that has a cashiering aspect, or by finding an entry-level cashier job somewhere (movie theaters, whatever). In a bank, you can work your way up to loan officer, and beyond, over time. I've seen people do it. Just a thought.
A couple of suggestions form a parent with a 22 year old who just moved back home:
1. Find a job. Any ind of job. It does not have to be in your degree field. Just do not sit at home going nowhere. Many jobs can lead to a permanent professional position.
2. Do everything you can to not be onerous to your parents. Clean up after yourself 100%. Kick in with all the chores. If you help make something dirty, be danged sure you help make it clean again. If you can do anything to help out financially even $25 a month. It shows you are making an effort and not just taking advantage.
3. Focus on paying them back before getting an apartment. It will be nearly impossible to do both at once.
4. If you are not finding a job, lower your expectations a little. Get a job as an assembler with the millwrights, or an electrician apprentice. Maybe a PE for a construction company. Or work for an engineering company. I recently learned that math majors can be engineers. Worst case, substitute teach, but get out there and do something.
5. Before you go incurring more debt for a graduate degree, get a job, at least for the summer. There are lots of jobs at $11 - $15 an hour at least around here. Then get some overtime. Be the best/hardest worker ever and build references. Also get some money to pay back a little, and save up a security deposit for an apartment. Do not go get an apartment that you cannot afford and your parents have to help you out. That is annoying. Just live at home that does not cost them more.
Stop holding out for a certain amount of money or something necessarily related to your degree. Get in someplace. You degree will open the door for you to work your way up. The father of the guy who owns our $1.5 billion a year company started here as an office maintenance person (sweeping the floors). He worked his way up. Timekeeper, superintendent, PE, PM project executive. He bought stock whenever offered. He was hardworking and smart. He got a degree while working, but did not immediately jump to a management position. Eventually, the owners of the company offered to sell him the rest of their stock at a bargain because their heirs did not want the company. He worked hard built the company. Handed off his stock to his son who had been groomed to run the company and it boomed. Now their family is one of the wealthiest in the State. Point is, you do not have to start at the level you are aiming for. But you have to start.
If you had taken a job at $10 an hour you would have made $20,000 over the past year. Not great, but it is $20,0000 more than you make by fretting over not having a job that meets your standards. Most places you would have moved up at least a little over the course of a year. Both in pay and in position. That is how it works. A degree does not make you the boss, especially without stellar grades. Start low, use what you learned in college to advance. You are not likely to start where you seem to expect to start.
If you had started last year as an apprentice trainee in electrical, mechanical (HVAC or Plumbing), millwright, operator etc. You would now be an apprentice. You would make about 35 - 40K a year. You wold learn trade skill that will eventually make you valuable as part of the management team when combined with your math skills. You could become a project engineer (PE aka assistant project manager). Eventually a PM, then maybe an estimator or sales. That is the path to VP and eventually CEO. But, you are not going to start in a $50K a year position. You have too many strikes against you. No practical experience, apparently mediocre or worse grades, nothing to account for the past year. You do not look good on paper. Get in where you can and prove yourself.
Some great suggestions.
OP: [First the disclaimer. I teach college level computer science as a fun job (but full time), after working successfully in the I/T field. Education: MS Comp Sci, BS Comp Sci & Economics.]
A BS in math (like a BS in Econ) is somewhat limiting in terms of what kind of out of the gate job you can get. Take the quoted poster's advice and get a job, if just for a step of doing something. There are plenty of opportunities out there that you have a potential step up on:
1) Go back to school part time and take Computer Science courses. If you are good in logical thinking (which isn't the same thing as some abstract proof), you might find programming fairly easy. An alternative to traditional programming/comp sci would be networking (e.g. use your job money to take courses to get a Cisco CCNA (which is an associate level certificate). CCNA's make 50-90K (depending on market, experience).
2) Get a masters degree in education, and teach grade school/high school math. Math teachers are usually in high demand. This is partially because many people choosing the teaching path don't have the hard sciences background. So, there are plenty of people trying to find gigs as an English teacher, but not so many in the math field. (Many of those who might go that path tend instead to find high paying jobs in industry with a computer science/engineering degree.)
Hope this helps, and being 22 you have a plenty of time to get where you want to be. The only other advice I can give is to not get "frozen" in time where you do NOTHING. Make a plan and start to execute on the plan, even if it takes 5-10 years to get there.
A couple of suggestions form a parent with a 22 year old who just moved back home:
1. Find a job. Any ind of job. It does not have to be in your degree field. Just do not sit at home going nowhere. Many jobs can lead to a permanent professional position.
2. Do everything you can to not be onerous to your parents. Clean up after yourself 100%. Kick in with all the chores. If you help make something dirty, be danged sure you help make it clean again. If you can do anything to help out financially even $25 a month. It shows you are making an effort and not just taking advantage.
3. Focus on paying them back before getting an apartment. It will be nearly impossible to do both at once.
4. If you are not finding a job, lower your expectations a little. Get a job as an assembler with the millwrights, or an electrician apprentice. Maybe a PE for a construction company. Or work for an engineering company. I recently learned that math majors can be engineers. Worst case, substitute teach, but get out there and do something.
5. Before you go incurring more debt for a graduate degree, get a job, at least for the summer. There are lots of jobs at $11 - $15 an hour at least around here. Then get some overtime. Be the best/hardest worker ever and build references. Also get some money to pay back a little, and save up a security deposit for an apartment. Do not go get an apartment that you cannot afford and your parents have to help you out. That is annoying. Just live at home that does not cost them more.
Stop holding out for a certain amount of money or something necessarily related to your degree. Get in someplace. You degree will open the door for you to work your way up. The father of the guy who owns our $1.5 billion a year company started here as an office maintenance person (sweeping the floors). He worked his way up. Timekeeper, superintendent, PE, PM project executive. He bought stock whenever offered. He was hardworking and smart. He got a degree while working, but did not immediately jump to a management position. Eventually, the owners of the company offered to sell him the rest of their stock at a bargain because their heirs did not want the company. He worked hard built the company. Handed off his stock to his son who had been groomed to run the company and it boomed. Now their family is one of the wealthiest in the State. Point is, you do not have to start at the level you are aiming for. But you have to start.
If you had taken a job at $10 an hour you would have made $20,000 over the past year. Not great, but it is $20,0000 more than you make by fretting over not having a job that meets your standards. Most places you would have moved up at least a little over the course of a year. Both in pay and in position. That is how it works. A degree does not make you the boss, especially without stellar grades. Start low, use what you learned in college to advance. You are not likely to start where you seem to expect to start.
If you had started last year as an apprentice trainee in electrical, mechanical (HVAC or Plumbing), millwright, operator etc. You would now be an apprentice. You would make about 35 - 40K a year. You wold learn trade skill that will eventually make you valuable as part of the management team when combined with your math skills. You could become a project engineer (PE aka assistant project manager). Eventually a PM, then maybe an estimator or sales. That is the path to VP and eventually CEO. But, you are not going to start in a $50K a year position. You have too many strikes against you. No practical experience, apparently mediocre or worse grades, nothing to account for the past year. You do not look good on paper. Get in where you can and prove yourself.
Excellent points. I especially like #2. Our daughter moved home for two years to assist with caregiving my husband, her father. Even though she had a full time job, plus helped with caregiving, she handled so much more. I never needed to do the dishes or the laundry or the grocery shopping or the cleaning. Plus she took over a lot of the cooking. It was like a magic genie lived in my house! I really, really missed her (and all the work that she did) when she left for the Peace Corps.
I suspect that when some adult children move back home they fall into the role of a child and expect Mom and Dad to do all of the chores, laundry, cooking, errands and to clean up after them like they did when they were five years old. It is much better when adult children act more like room mates and do (at least) their fair share of all of the chores.
Before I explain my situation, I understand that this is all my fault, so I really don't need to hear that in the comments.
When I was in high school, I was excelled in math, and even got a reputation for being a math whiz. When picking a major in college, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. I picked pure mathematics as my major because I thought there was no reason that I wouldn't do well in it in college when I had well in it in high school. Well, I was proven wrong by the end of my sophomore year.
In high school, math was mainly about computations and memorizing formulas, whereas college math is mainly theory-based and almost all proofs. At the end of my sophomore year, I knew I ought to change majors, but that would have meant taking a fifth year, which I really didn't want to do. So I decided that I would just double my efforts. However, the classes become even more theory-based, and I continued to barely scrape by. I ended up just barely good-enough grades to get my degree.
I've been out of college for almost a year, and I have yet to get a stable full-time job with my degree. Right now, I've just been shuffling through minimum-wage part-time jobs as a math tutor. I've applied for jobs and indeed and zip-recruiter, but I never hear back from them, and I know it's because of my weak qualifications. I don't expect to get a super-high-paying job(at-least not right now). The moment I graduated, I was willing to settle for a $20/hr full-time job, with the possibility of working my up slowly, but surely. But even getting to the bottom of the ladder is proving hard.
I've ruled out the possibility of getting a Master's Degree, because the gpa I would be required to maintain in the graduate program is one I did not achieve as an undergrad, and I would just be wasting more of my family's money. I might go back to school years later as a part-time student, but right now, I just need to work.
Like I said, I don't need to be told that this is my own fault, because I already know that. I just want to know what I would have to do right now to get $20/hr full-time job with my math degree. I just want to be able to afford a 1-bedroom apartment right now, and start paying my parents back for my college education.
Don't kick yourself because you're 23 living at home! I'm from Hawai'i and it's so expensive, some of my friend who are 30 have kids and live in their parent's homes.
I say keep applying, and work on your interview skills. Sometimes I interview people with resumes that are kind of generic/not much work experience/green but their personalities really shine through on their interview. Perhaps to make your resume stand out, when you submit write a little message for the recruiter selling yourself. Tell them you're trying to build experience, motivated and want to find something long-term. Once you get a job, save up before you move out. It might help to get roommates if you're not able to afford rent on your own. Maybe help your parents w/ rent to help yourself become more independent.
Before I explain my situation, I understand that this is all my fault, so I really don't need to hear that in the comments.
When I was in high school, I was excelled in math, and even got a reputation for being a math whiz. When picking a major in college, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. I picked pure mathematics as my major because I thought there was no reason that I wouldn't do well in it in college when I had well in it in high school. Well, I was proven wrong by the end of my sophomore year.
In high school, math was mainly about computations and memorizing formulas, whereas college math is mainly theory-based and almost all proofs. At the end of my sophomore year, I knew I ought to change majors, but that would have meant taking a fifth year, which I really didn't want to do. So I decided that I would just double my efforts. However, the classes become even more theory-based, and I continued to barely scrape by. I ended up just barely good-enough grades to get my degree.
I've been out of college for almost a year, and I have yet to get a stable full-time job with my degree. Right now, I've just been shuffling through minimum-wage part-time jobs as a math tutor. I've applied for jobs and indeed and zip-recruiter, but I never hear back from them, and I know it's because of my weak qualifications. I don't expect to get a super-high-paying job(at-least not right now). The moment I graduated, I was willing to settle for a $20/hr full-time job, with the possibility of working my up slowly, but surely. But even getting to the bottom of the ladder is proving hard.
I've ruled out the possibility of getting a Master's Degree, because the gpa I would be required to maintain in the graduate program is one I did not achieve as an undergrad, and I would just be wasting more of my family's money. I might go back to school years later as a part-time student, but right now, I just need to work.
Like I said, I don't need to be told that this is my own fault, because I already know that. I just want to know what I would have to do right now to get $20/hr full-time job with my math degree. I just want to be able to afford a 1-bedroom apartment right now, and start paying my parents back for my college education.
i would suggest starting a small business....or being self employed like yard work...getting roomates getting on the dave ramsey plan.
Getting SAS Certification by itself should be able to get you in the door into a low level analytics job at a smaller to medium size firm making $40K-$60K. Once you get a few years experience with analytics, the larger companies (Banks, Credit Bureaus, Data Modeling firms, etc.) would be interested in bringing you in between $70K-$100K. Once you cross that threshold you can move up to being a senior data analyst making between $120-$150K and then eventually managing (no more coding for you)) other data analysts.
Your 12 year path to making $200K:
Certification- 1 year
Entry Level Job-Small-Med size - 3 years more ($40-$60K)
Entry Level Job-Large size - 3 years more ($70K-$100K)
Senior Data Analyst - 5 years more ($120K-$150K)
Manager ($150-$250K)
It's amazing we can't find enough home grown people with data analytics skills, it forces us to look internationally and bring people here on H-1B's.
Some never make it past Senior Data Analyst to Manager, but nothing wrong making well past $100K for the rest of your career.
I suspect because at 17 most folks don't know enough to know what careers are out there. And most high school guidance counselors simply have no clue and can't provide good advice. More likely provide poor advice to most students. This isn't an uncommon thing and one reason why so many students change majors and add a semester to a year to college.
Yes, it can be very confusing and hard to get good advice. I was interested in astronomy from a young age, but at least had the good sense to not pursue that as a career path. My other ideas were math or engineering. I didn't have the foggiest idea what a math major would do, so the question was whether to go into engineering or just skip college and join my father in farming!
I think there have been some good suggestions for the OP. Accounting seems like a practical route, although it will take some more coursework before you could expect to land a first job.
There's always substitute teaching, anything dealing with math. You can tell them which grade, subject, and school(s) you want to work at. Teaching means you're done at 2:30 - 3:30 so you have the rest of the day off. Some love that.
Please don't become a teacher if you don't have a passion for teaching. Just, please.
Get on USA Jobs and look at federal jobs. There are many jobs set aside for new graduates that are career track positions using the skills you have. They are paid full time jobs that provide on the job training in specific careers.
Don't get more schooling, don't get more certificates don't incur more debt, dont pay more money for more training because you will still have to find a job after that. At this point you don't need more debt and more discouragement. you need the good feelings that come with working full time and bringing home a full time salary with excellent benefits, stability, so you can feel good about yourself.
Have the company pay you a full time salary, provide the training for you, on the job training that positions you in a career track with promotion and job opportunities built in. Best wishes.!!
I wish someone had told me that when I was in my mid-20s
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In some towns, OP, banks require applicants for teller positions to have 6 months cashiering experience. If that's the case where you live, you can get that experience either by volunteering for a non-profit that has a cashiering aspect, or by finding an entry-level cashier job somewhere (movie theaters, whatever). In a bank, you can work your way up to loan officer, and beyond, over time. I've seen people do it. Just a thought.
