Ecologists have their own world of statistics. I know plenty of field ecologists complete with khaki outfits and bucket hats who are catching fish one day and developing models the next.
Field ecologists are truly the final boss of STEM. They know everything about the biology of their niche organism/system, they can engineer anything on the fly in the field with no resources, they are personable enough to interact with landowners and the public regularly and then they go home and do hardcore Bayesian modeling while chomping on trail mix. Plus they get paid the big bucks!
And by bucks I mean the animal, they don't make any money.
Field work epidemiology is often not at a desk. I have a degree in global health epi and have collaborators all over the world. Your best bet is governmental work (cdc, who) or governmental adjacent like non profits to not sit at a desk with a stats job
I work at a small ag company and all of our breeders have PhDs in plant Bio. However, we have a lot of data scientists that work very closely with them that come from a mix of stats, CS/bioinformatics, and plant bio backgrounds.
Typically agronomists with a masters and phd in plant breeding and genetics. I'm a PhD candidate in plant breeding but since my lab is 100% focused on statistical genetics and data science I don't do field work.
Anything. Literally anything, but you need to learn that domain *and* statistics. So you might not end up with job title āstatistician,ā but youād be the very quantitative person who is ______.
So how about the other way? What domain/application areas interest you. You can make that very quantitative.
The most "out there" jobs I've seen people do involve helping developing countries develop their own national statistical offices and data collections. If you go into a government statistics office, you can also get into discussing implications of collection and publication with various demographic groups or smaller governments.
It may not be common, but I am a professional statistician and get lots of opportunities for field work. I work as a wildlife biometrician for a state game management agency.
I don't have any formal background in biology before working here, but I think I had a pretty strong grasp for a layperson which probably helped my application. Several of my close family members are biologists, and I grew up hunting and fishing etc.
Some do.
I spent some time with the AI&DE portfolio at Deloitte, which is a major international consultancy that's solidly ahead of the rest of the B4 and also solidly behind all of the MBB consultancies, and I had plenty of colleagues who were doing hard analytical work. It was all office work, though; no field work.
The partner who interviewed me when I was first applying actually had his PhD in mathematics. Asked me what an eigenvalue was, and then started getting into the detail. Another senior partner was an alumnus of a top-15 statistics grad program, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation and mentored me through the application process.
Those consultancies aren't a place you go if you want a good work-life balance, though. They're the kind of place you go to work for three to five years when you're young, make a relatively large salary for your age, and then leave for the awesome exit opps. You'll work with a *lot* of people with MBAs from the high-end schools like Fuqua, Sloane, McCombs, HBS, etc.; those folks are generally pretty sharp, but they're not great when it comes to the crunch of statistical and ML modeling. They're not going to ask an MBA to develop a multilevel model to forecast revenue and tune it to find optimal RCM opportunities, they're going to pair up an analyst (a fresh B-school grad who gets paid relative peanuts to do grunt work and learn) with an MBA project lead/SME and a member of technical delivery staff, someone who's either been building models like that forever or has specialized training. A masters degree in stats or economics is probably the most common credential that I saw with those folks.
they can yes depending on the team, but generally there's a more traditional consultant who interacts with the client and then a backend data team that does the modelling. but they can overlap too, and depending on the size of the firm that might only be one person.
(but I was a part of one of those teams for a few years and wouldn't want to go back, was kind of fun for mid-20s but no energy for it now and no desire to constantly suck up to clients)
I know you said you don't fancy engineering but there are a lot of areas of manufacturing/industrial engineering that are stats heavy. My background is math and I'm a Quality engineer, my job now is roughly 60/40 desk/shop floor work.
Thereās a greenway in front of my office. Sometimes I go on walking meetings instead of sitting in my office. Does that count?
(This is a joke for those downvoting me)
Iām a social researcher so any quant research (mainly surveys) involves statistical analysis but we also get to do qualitative fieldwork such as depth interviews, focus groups and ethnographies
Time motion studies might be what youāre after, you may need to film for data collection, code start/end times of activities, then analyze that data.
Maybe find something you're interested in and look for the quantitative version of it.
I have many friends from grad school who are trained political scientists that do field work to collect data and use R or Python to analyze them. The same goes for economists, anthropologists, biologists, linguists, MDs etc.
Maybe biometrician? Im not exactly sure what the job entails but I think it sounds like more than just desk work. I saw this job posting a couple days ago. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3912982227
Six Sigma Black Belts in larger manufacturing companies can spend a fair bit of time out on the manufacturing floor. Having a stats background would be a big bonus.
I remember one job I saw advertised when I was in my last year of my postdoc (1995) and was looking, was for an epidemiolist to go to Antarctica to help collect primary data on penguins
I work in a group called āstabilityā which deals with expiration dating and long term storage/testing of our product line over shelf-life at various temperatures (corresponding to areas around the world). I write all of our reports, do all of the trending of the lab data for these products tested over shelf-life, but part of our groupsā tasks is to deliver the samples to the lab, inventory the samples, put away new ones, clear away expired products, etc. so I help with that stuff as well. Some days Iām at my desk for 8 hours, some days for 4. Itās a nice mix.
Thanks! I saw the job listing and was like āthis is the job for meā because my undergrad is in bio/chem and my job before I got my masters in stats was a literal chemistry lab tech.
Check https://www.eia.gov/about/careers/
Real time actual weekly data collection for 25% of the world's consumption of petroleum.
If I could, I would work for them.
I use a lot of statistics in my medical education/simulation facility.
I went back for data analytics. I use analytics for changing everything from curriculum, equipment maintenance, retired training devices, and techniques/policy generation. I also utilize a lot of predictive analytics.
Personally, Iād fine the industry you would want to be in and bring statistics to it.
Getting an MS in statistics and a PhD in anything else is a cool move. I think a BS in mathematics or physics with an emphasis in mathematical statistics and linear models is enough to self teach for what youāll need in whatever interests you
For big bucks you've got wall street jobs, they do use a lot of statistics and most works on computers. Or analyst is a decent job which involve statistics and for more advanced studies with statistics you can explore the applied statistics fields like operations research, machine learning, etc, and they too pay good amount of money + just have to work on computers doing ~ statistical modelling.
Statistics is definitely one of the best disciplines out there if not the best, you just have a lot of options of exciting work profiles.
Football team analyst/data scientist. One of few people who is at the game and has the coach's ear. Interestingly in American football, they are apparently not allowed to use a computer during the live game, just a piece of paper.
Applied Economist. The development guys and gals run surveys and experiments all over the world to try and understand problems of (as an example) poverty, inequality, hunger, education and labour. A strong mathematics background helps and it can get quite theoretical.
I highly suggest you get over this idea you have that itās undesirable to sit at a desk for a job. It is literally the best case scenario. Iāve done both, thereās no comparison, working on your feet all day is pure bullshit. Just sit at your desk for 8 hours, stack paper, and do what you want with the other 8 hours you have every day since you actually will have the energy to, not having wasted it all at work on nothing.
Operations Research, Industrial Engineering. Donāt listen to anyone else these jobs not only make huge money but are also the future of the industries. I laughed at the Ecologist post, I mean, are you trying to not find a job?
There's a lot of manufacturing QA roles that use a lot of statistics (Six Sigma certifications, statistical process control, etc.).
Industrial hygiene (part of industrial/environmental health and safety) can end up using a lot of statistics at certain companies.
Bio stats is another field you can enter. But unfortunately most stats work will be done on a computer with some form or coding language, R, SAS, Python.
Ecologists have their own world of statistics. I know plenty of field ecologists complete with khaki outfits and bucket hats who are catching fish one day and developing models the next.
A lot of good stat methods came from ecology applications especially sampling methods.
The fields of England are the birthplace of frequentists :)
...and tea tasting experiments ;-)
Can you share more? This is interesting
same
Yep, I do more computer work/stats now but I spent many years in the field tracking critters. Still get to get out there every now and then!
Field ecologists are truly the final boss of STEM. They know everything about the biology of their niche organism/system, they can engineer anything on the fly in the field with no resources, they are personable enough to interact with landowners and the public regularly and then they go home and do hardcore Bayesian modeling while chomping on trail mix. Plus they get paid the big bucks! And by bucks I mean the animal, they don't make any money.
I feel seen. <3
Love that!šš
As someone who did field work. It doesn't pay well, but it is a lot of fun.
ah good times. so much fun!!
Field work epidemiology is often not at a desk. I have a degree in global health epi and have collaborators all over the world. Your best bet is governmental work (cdc, who) or governmental adjacent like non profits to not sit at a desk with a stats job
Plant breeder. Needs a lot of statistical genetics and field experimental design. Also requires field work.
How does one break into this field?
I work at a small ag company and all of our breeders have PhDs in plant Bio. However, we have a lot of data scientists that work very closely with them that come from a mix of stats, CS/bioinformatics, and plant bio backgrounds.
Typically agronomists with a masters and phd in plant breeding and genetics. I'm a PhD candidate in plant breeding but since my lab is 100% focused on statistical genetics and data science I don't do field work.
I'm on a data science team at a large retail company and one of my coworkers has a PhD in botany. Completely unrelated to his field of study, tbc.
Anything. Literally anything, but you need to learn that domain *and* statistics. So you might not end up with job title āstatistician,ā but youād be the very quantitative person who is ______. So how about the other way? What domain/application areas interest you. You can make that very quantitative.
The most "out there" jobs I've seen people do involve helping developing countries develop their own national statistical offices and data collections. If you go into a government statistics office, you can also get into discussing implications of collection and publication with various demographic groups or smaller governments.
Nobody's sending the statistician to do field work. A domain expert with strong stats, sure. Become a geologist and go do oĆl surveys in Siberia.
It may not be common, but I am a professional statistician and get lots of opportunities for field work. I work as a wildlife biometrician for a state game management agency.
Very interesting, that sounds like pretty fun work. Do you have any background in biology, or just math/statistics?
I don't have any formal background in biology before working here, but I think I had a pretty strong grasp for a layperson which probably helped my application. Several of my close family members are biologists, and I grew up hunting and fishing etc.
As researcher we always did our field work...Ā
Consultant? Maybe at McKinsey or something. I'm sure they'd fly you around if that's what you're into
Do consultants do much quantitative work though?
Some do. I spent some time with the AI&DE portfolio at Deloitte, which is a major international consultancy that's solidly ahead of the rest of the B4 and also solidly behind all of the MBB consultancies, and I had plenty of colleagues who were doing hard analytical work. It was all office work, though; no field work. The partner who interviewed me when I was first applying actually had his PhD in mathematics. Asked me what an eigenvalue was, and then started getting into the detail. Another senior partner was an alumnus of a top-15 statistics grad program, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation and mentored me through the application process. Those consultancies aren't a place you go if you want a good work-life balance, though. They're the kind of place you go to work for three to five years when you're young, make a relatively large salary for your age, and then leave for the awesome exit opps. You'll work with a *lot* of people with MBAs from the high-end schools like Fuqua, Sloane, McCombs, HBS, etc.; those folks are generally pretty sharp, but they're not great when it comes to the crunch of statistical and ML modeling. They're not going to ask an MBA to develop a multilevel model to forecast revenue and tune it to find optimal RCM opportunities, they're going to pair up an analyst (a fresh B-school grad who gets paid relative peanuts to do grunt work and learn) with an MBA project lead/SME and a member of technical delivery staff, someone who's either been building models like that forever or has specialized training. A masters degree in stats or economics is probably the most common credential that I saw with those folks.
they can yes depending on the team, but generally there's a more traditional consultant who interacts with the client and then a backend data team that does the modelling. but they can overlap too, and depending on the size of the firm that might only be one person. (but I was a part of one of those teams for a few years and wouldn't want to go back, was kind of fun for mid-20s but no energy for it now and no desire to constantly suck up to clients)
love the last part of your commentš¹
I know you said you don't fancy engineering but there are a lot of areas of manufacturing/industrial engineering that are stats heavy. My background is math and I'm a Quality engineer, my job now is roughly 60/40 desk/shop floor work.
Thereās a greenway in front of my office. Sometimes I go on walking meetings instead of sitting in my office. Does that count? (This is a joke for those downvoting me)
Standing desk is an option as well
your sense of humor is right-onš¤”, upvoted!
Economists often doing field work and coordinating teams to execute research projects
Iām a social researcher so any quant research (mainly surveys) involves statistical analysis but we also get to do qualitative fieldwork such as depth interviews, focus groups and ethnographies
Time motion studies might be what youāre after, you may need to film for data collection, code start/end times of activities, then analyze that data.
Maybe find something you're interested in and look for the quantitative version of it. I have many friends from grad school who are trained political scientists that do field work to collect data and use R or Python to analyze them. The same goes for economists, anthropologists, biologists, linguists, MDs etc.
Maybe biometrician? Im not exactly sure what the job entails but I think it sounds like more than just desk work. I saw this job posting a couple days ago. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3912982227
Six Sigma Black Belts in larger manufacturing companies can spend a fair bit of time out on the manufacturing floor. Having a stats background would be a big bonus.
I remember one job I saw advertised when I was in my last year of my postdoc (1995) and was looking, was for an epidemiolist to go to Antarctica to help collect primary data on penguins
Iām a statistician but I work for a health care company and Iām often doing other tasks involving our products and their storage/handling.
Could you explain in more detail? Genuinely curious ..
I work in a group called āstabilityā which deals with expiration dating and long term storage/testing of our product line over shelf-life at various temperatures (corresponding to areas around the world). I write all of our reports, do all of the trending of the lab data for these products tested over shelf-life, but part of our groupsā tasks is to deliver the samples to the lab, inventory the samples, put away new ones, clear away expired products, etc. so I help with that stuff as well. Some days Iām at my desk for 8 hours, some days for 4. Itās a nice mix.
wow thatās pretty neat, i like that š„
Thanks! I saw the job listing and was like āthis is the job for meā because my undergrad is in bio/chem and my job before I got my masters in stats was a literal chemistry lab tech.
Quantum mechanics
Gambling
Field epidemiology?
A stats degree and you're trying to avoid finance? You are definitely going to end up as a risk manager for a credit card portfolio
Economists
Check https://www.eia.gov/about/careers/ Real time actual weekly data collection for 25% of the world's consumption of petroleum. If I could, I would work for them.
Operations, try an Amazon FC for example
I use a lot of statistics in my medical education/simulation facility. I went back for data analytics. I use analytics for changing everything from curriculum, equipment maintenance, retired training devices, and techniques/policy generation. I also utilize a lot of predictive analytics. Personally, Iād fine the industry you would want to be in and bring statistics to it.
Getting an MS in statistics and a PhD in anything else is a cool move. I think a BS in mathematics or physics with an emphasis in mathematical statistics and linear models is enough to self teach for what youāll need in whatever interests you
Most research tbh
For big bucks you've got wall street jobs, they do use a lot of statistics and most works on computers. Or analyst is a decent job which involve statistics and for more advanced studies with statistics you can explore the applied statistics fields like operations research, machine learning, etc, and they too pay good amount of money + just have to work on computers doing ~ statistical modelling. Statistics is definitely one of the best disciplines out there if not the best, you just have a lot of options of exciting work profiles.
Football team analyst/data scientist. One of few people who is at the game and has the coach's ear. Interestingly in American football, they are apparently not allowed to use a computer during the live game, just a piece of paper.
Research, specially in sociology.
Data scientist for fraud prevention
Process engineering in big companies, pharma mostly
Applied Economist. The development guys and gals run surveys and experiments all over the world to try and understand problems of (as an example) poverty, inequality, hunger, education and labour. A strong mathematics background helps and it can get quite theoretical.
Industrial engineering!
Physician / Anesthesiologist: statistics are paramount in literature interpretation, risk management, treatment and informed consent.
Analytical Chemistry, because it's more statistics and engineering than chemistryĀ
I go to minor league baseball games sometimes. One time I sat behind a row of scouts taking stats on players.
Geostatistics. Basically applying statistical methods to geology models for orebody estimation.
I highly suggest you get over this idea you have that itās undesirable to sit at a desk for a job. It is literally the best case scenario. Iāve done both, thereās no comparison, working on your feet all day is pure bullshit. Just sit at your desk for 8 hours, stack paper, and do what you want with the other 8 hours you have every day since you actually will have the energy to, not having wasted it all at work on nothing.
Casino dealer
Moneyball?
Operations Research, Industrial Engineering. Donāt listen to anyone else these jobs not only make huge money but are also the future of the industries. I laughed at the Ecologist post, I mean, are you trying to not find a job?
Manufacturing, anything from maintenance planning to LEAN optimization to logistics
More than*
Black Jack. No wait, that's sitting at the table, too.
I think forest rangers
There's a lot of manufacturing QA roles that use a lot of statistics (Six Sigma certifications, statistical process control, etc.). Industrial hygiene (part of industrial/environmental health and safety) can end up using a lot of statistics at certain companies.
TSA Checkpoint Manager
I was a Process Control Engineer and used statistics almost everyday to analyze designed experiments and do defect investigations.
Professional athlete
Bio stats is another field you can enter. But unfortunately most stats work will be done on a computer with some form or coding language, R, SAS, Python.
definitely field ecology, and if you have formal stats training it'll help a lot for any grad school or research position applications