I’m a student of Mathematics in Germany, at the very end of my Master’s (thesis submitted & defended, awaiting gradation) but have not managed to secure any job offer up till now, in spite of having tried for quite some time now. At this point I feel somewhat at a loss, so I was hoping that anybody on here knowledgeable about the job market in Germany would perhaps have an idea as to what (if anything) I might be doing wrong or what other avenues I could consider that I’ve missed so far.
My main problem is likely that I have almost nothing to show in the way of “hard” skills and practical qualification besides the Maths degree. I did work part-time for most of my studies, but mostly stuff like generic office work or watching kids at an after-school care.
When my graduation neared, I first thought hat it might be possible to find a job in an industrial context (e.g. in Automotive/Aviation, Pharma, Chemical), which would require only data science or mathematical modelling and no industry-specific knowledge beyond what could be taught on the job, but this seems to have been a fairly naive hope, as such jobs don’t exist from what I’ve seen.
Next, I had high hopes for IT as I had done a fair bit of MATLAB programming at university (and liked it a lot) and even taken Computer Science as an elective subject. However, it appeared that to get into programming as an “outsider”, one would need substantial practical experience, either from part-time jobs or as a private hobby.
Finally, I thought I could at least get into Banking, as especially risk management positions often didn’t demand finance knowledge and sometimes were even addressed specifically to Maths graduates. But here too I received only rejections; in the rare cases where a reason was given, I believe it was something to the effect of “lack of discernible motivation”.
At this point, I’m in a bind as it seems to me like the only options left are to try Insurance (in a sense the most obvious career for a mathematician, but from previous internship experience deeply uninteresting to me) or Consulting (I actually got some job offers here, but backed out once I realized that working in this field basically means working overtime constantly, which is a deal-breaker for me).
So, is it really that difficult for someone like me to get into the above mentioned fields? And are there other avenues I might not have thought of? My reservations about Insurance notwithstanding, I’m not particularly averse to trying any job that would have me at this point, as long as I don’t have to work overtime. I fear spending more time on additional formal education or training would be tough however, as I’ve already taken a lot of time to finish my degree and am graduating now at nearly 30 years old.
That being said, it's considerably easier to get your second job than your first job, especially if you get it while you have your first job. So I would take something you think you've already got a shot in, but then just keep applying to other, more interesting places (at perhaps a slower pace).
If I were in your shoes I'd go down the consulting route, but with an eye to change out as soon as possible to another location, perhaps after a year or so. You've already got offers from there, after all. But you have already stated a strong preference towards overtime, so insurance it is. The important thing is to get started, imo.
As for avenues you might not have thought of: I can only recommend reading https://80000hours.org/2013/11/summary-of-our-thoughts-on-ho... , and then everything it links to. These guys bat above par when it comes to career advice because they're sort of the top nonprofit for smart, tech savvy people looking to max out their professional impact on the world.
A family member spent years at college and university studying for an aerospace B2 engineering degree.
He failed the final module, failed his degree and was left with £40,000 student debt.
Most people would have given up at this point but not him.
He worked at McD's, local refuse collection sites and signed on at a job adviser and took any job that was offered.
In the meantime he went back to college to study other things, all the while pestering large airline companies for a job. he was finally offered an apprenticeship at British airways.
How did he do this? Perseverance and minerals?
I left school with no qualifications in 1974. I played truant for the last 2 years of school.
At 16 I got a job at a local garage cleaning the mechanics tools, sweeping up, making tea and being a general gofer (go for this and go for that).
One day the general manager asked me if I would like to train as a car mechanic. He said he would teach me everything he knew about cars. Lucky for me he was an F1 mechanic so I had a great teacher.
I then applied for an apprenticeship at Jaguar/Daimler. Low and behold I only got it.
I became a vehicle technician
I had always been interested in Psychology even when I was a teenager. Although I had no formal education I did love reading books. It does help being an introvert.
So, when I was 33 years old I went back to college to do an access to higher education in psychology to give me the most basic qualifications to prepare myself for university.
Six or so years later I had a masters degree in Integrative Psychotherapy.
From an oily rag to a psychotherapist.
How did I do that? Perseverance, minerals and believing in me.
Minerals = from the film "Snatch"
If an uneducated, lower socio-economic, working class guy like me, can traverse all the barriers in life to achieve what I wanted, then anyone can do it.
Somebody maybe help me remember the actual job title. I cannot recall what they are called in neither English nor German.
Some large companies/organisations have an annual intake of graduates in a grad program. Some grad programs offer successful applicants a rotation through different areas of the business over a few years -- you get a lot of exposure to different areas of the business and can then decide something to specialise in.
There is a lot of opportunity in parts of IT, but you may be competing for entry-level roles against others who are recent software engineering graduates, or who are self-taught with strong examples from their own personal hobby projects or commercial software projects.
One way to get a foot in the door is indeed consulting, with a very likely downside of long days producing billable hours as you suggest. Consultancies are often keen to hire a batch of junior employees who may have no industry experience but are well-credentialed, have a lot of raw potential in terms of being clever with strong training in fundamentals, and can be billed to clients at attractive profit margins. If you can grit your teeth for a couple of years and regard working for a consultancy as a paid apprenticeship in gaining practical skills that are in demand by the market, that puts you in a position to transition into a better job with a better work/life balance and better pay.
If there's a range of consultancy jobs on offer I would suggest preferring a consultancy that specialises in a specific line of work that looks interesting and has a key mathematical aspect, rather than a consultancy that "specialises" in everything.
If you are looking to potentially transition into IT/software + some kind of domain-specific mathematical modelling, see if you can find a niche consultancy (or ideally a niche software business) advertising junior roles for clever people with maths backgrounds.
E.g. a small consultancy or business that does bespoke mathematical modelling + software solution projects for certain industries can be a great way to find interesting work and an environment where you can rapidly learn from more experienced colleagues.
See also: https://commoncog.com/the-consulting-business-model/