April is Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, a timely opportunity to help raise the awareness and understanding of the field.
To aid this quest, a number of renowned Wiley Editors, Editorial Board Members and Authors have taken the time to tell us why they embarked on their journey in their chosen fields, what inspires and excites them, and why they’d encourage you to take the plunge!
This month The Wiley Network will publish some selected responses for you to read and share with your colleagues, students and friends. All responses will feature on StatisticsViews.com throughout April.
In continuing our series, Carlos Grajales, statistician, Significance editorial board member and Statistics Views freelancers shares his story.
Ten years after graduating in statistics, it is fun to remember how it all started: how I made it into the Stats world. Like many people today, I had almost no idea about what statistics was. Yet I enjoyed math and was looking for some fun way to use numbers during my career. With that premise in mind, I began my research through many different available careers.
Engineering seemed appealing but I wanted something more diverse and broad. Economics also looked cool, but not “mathy” enough. Doing some research, I heard of one of the only two statistics degree offered in Mexico and after some digging, I realized that statistics was just what I dreamed: a chance to apply deep numeric analysis to almost any field you could think of.
Statistics are everywhere, which is what I love most of what I do. It is inspiring to learn about new research, methods and models where statistics are used in exciting and somewhat surprising new ways. Just a few months into college, I realized I could use my knowledge in statistics to work on Industry related topics, or psychological research or political science. I could work in the agroindustry or within a pharmaceutical company. Furthermore, back when I was in college, using models to improve AI programs or image recognition software was something that seemed too far away, yet these are current areas of development where a statistician can today employ his/her skills. Almost any question a firm, a political party or a researcher has can be solved with statistics and you, as a statistician, are the certified person to answer them.
Something else I love about my job, which is something not many statisticians talk about, is that in this career, you get to give your personal touch to everything you do. Consider that statistics is a career with no absolutes. With this I mean that there are not necessarily “right” or “wrong” solutions. It is fairly common to have two different approaches to the same problem, two different models and two different outputs. Many more actually!
You never get bored as a statistician. If modeling starts to become burdensome for you, just change of field for a while. For instance, I love politics, which is why most of my work is related to polling, political studies and social science research. But in non-election seasons, I get to collaborate with private companies to develop financial models, marketing research studies and visualizations. This allows me to change the pace for a while and make sure I don’t stall doing the same thing over and over. Not many careers offer that much flexibility.
Something else I love about my job, which is something not many statisticians talk about, is that in this career, you get to give your personal touch to everything you do. Consider that statistics is a career with no absolutes. With this, I mean that there are not necessarily “right” or “wrong” solutions. It is fairly common to have two different approaches to the same problem, two different models and two different outputs. Many more actually! Once you become experienced, the software you use, the decisions you make and the methodologies you employ will allow you to produce some very original analyses: something truly yours. It is sometimes understated the joy of feeling you created something unique when your job is completed. We get that feeling often.
That is why I have some important advice to anyone considering a career path in statistics: Do it! I can’t stress enough how fun and diverse it is to work on this field. But be aware, it is not easy, you really need a good math background to be a good statistician and nowadays it is also becoming more and more important to have good programming skills. Be humble and be always ready to learn from someone else. It is great to collaborate with other statisticians who bring their own vision and ideas. Also you not only get to learn from people with your background – being a statistician is truly a collaborative endeavour and you will be learning about many different topics and fields, even from subjects you never thought you could be related with. I was lucky enough to learn about the process of producing coffee, the effects of family on addiction prevention and what factors drive voters towards a political option. And these are the just the topics I worked with while in college!
I could talk about the many job opportunities statisticians have (polling is an area where we are highly on demand, a great opportunity for anyone interested) or how it is often mentioned among the fastest-growing, more profitable careers. But worry not about those details, your life choice should be based on what you love, on what you dream and what you aspire. What you must really know is that, by joining our profession, you’ll be entering one of the most rewarding and exciting fields there is to work. I’ll be more than happy to welcome you.
Carlos Grajales is a Mexican Statistician and Business Analytics Consultant. He runs his own consulting and polling company, where he has followed Mexican elections since 2010. He is also currently an Analytics consultant for PepsiCo Latin America and member of the Significance Magazine Editorial Board.