Careers in Statistics

 

 

Statistics Honours is the first degree that provides students with rigorous classroom based theoretical as well as computational training to deal with statistical analysis of data. The subject (in contrast lo maths) has its foundation on ‘objectively quantising uncertainly’ through probability theory. A student pursu­ing BSc (Honours) in statistics under­goes a number of papers like proba­bility theory, statistical methodology, stochastic processes, statistical inference, or operational research. bio-statistics. etc.. besides a set of conventional papers in maths.

 

Career options

The BSc (Honours) in statistics as the first degree qualifies a person for the usual career options avail­able for general/science graduates viz., armed forces, civil sen ices (with statistics as subject), banks. Reserve Bank of India etc.

Though career options for stu­dents with a BSc (Honours) degree in statistics are available in the pri­vate sector, (he academia recommends a postgraduate degree in statistics. This is because, the typi­cal job profile in ‘analytics’ in the industry* demands a very strong foundation in academics. It is indeed thought-provoking that for those looking beyond the horizon, while a bachelor’s or a master’s degree should be reasonable, a PhD in a relevant field is the mantra for never looking back in life.

The insurance industry lias pro­vided impetus to quality as well as quantity of employment for stu­dents of statistics. The profession is known (o be among the highest paid in the industry. Students’ enrollment to the Institute of Actuaries of India’s actuarial science pro­gramme has increased manifold in recent years. However, a meticulous planning in the approach has to prevail upon the euphoria of writing the exam itself. To this end.

BSc (Honours) in statistics as a subject choice is “most preferred”, as it is closest to the curriculum of the pro­fessional examinations. Apart from these, career oppor­tunities exist in a wide variety of fields such as management science, information technology, bio-infor­matics, biostatistics. data mining and data warehousing, finance etc.

Skill sets required

• Strong foundation in ‘mathemati­cal statistics’
• Ability to interact with persons from diverse fields to understand a problem.
• Logical thinking ami ability to comprehend key facts leading to for­mulation of the solution process
• Versatility in solving problems and appraisal of results
• Strong background in statistical computing
• Ability to stay updated on recent literature and statistical software

 

Secondary area	Sector	Qualification	Work title/ Description
None	Government	Central/State govt. dept.. Banks. RBI (Gr. A). Armed Forces, etc.	General in nature or Technical requiring first degree level of knowledge
	Industry	KPO. Insurance, etc	Analysts. Insurance underwriters, etc. requiring undergraduate level knowledge of the subject. May require planning, execution, and analysis of surveys. Knowledge of general/statistical software is a prerequisite.
MSc (Statistics) From Delhi Univ ISI.IIT IASR1 etc.	Government Teaching & Research	Indian Statistical Service. RBI (Gr. B).etc. Universities/Colleges in the govt, or private sector	Technical or administrative in nature. Teaching at the Undergraduate and/or postgraduate level. Teaching in management. FT. actuarial programs in the private sector
MSc in OR/ Applied OR MBE. etc.	Research	In govt. such as CSIR, ICAR, DRDO, IMO.etc.	Theoretical or application orient­ed research.
		Member of ‘analytics team’ in leading companies. Market research organisations	Data analysis relating to Market research, Psephology, Financial sector. Business Intelligence. Customer relationship manage­ment. Data mining, data ware­housing, etc.
Qualified Actuary	Insurance	Life / General insurance companies or Consultancy	Actuarial evaluation, risk analysis etc.
MCA,	Govt./Private	Govt ./Private companies Universities/colleges in govt, and private	Software development Teaching and research
MBA	Private		Managerial, may involve analytics