Informational Interview

Questions

1. Why did you pick math major? 
2. How long were you preparing for your profession? 
3. What do you like about this profession? 
4. Do you think undergrad is helpful or just stepping stones to your future goal? 

Interviewing Classmate: Mutasim Mim

1. I decided to study Mathematics very early, beginning high school. I chose to study Mathematics because I liked solve problems, and liked the rigorous nature of pure mathematics. I would like to be a either a Mathematician working at a research university, or a Research Scientist at some tech company.
2. Throughout my middle and high school, I have had a very strong foundation in Mathematics- specially through Math Competitions. I would describe all those experiences as training for my future profession as well.
3. Both as a Mathematician and a Research Scientist, I will be working on new, original problems. Generally, Mathematical research involves combining knowledge from various fields of Mathematics along with ingenious thinking. I like this aspect of creating new knowledge and extending the frontiers of our understanding of both the physical and abstract worlds. Most importantly, I deeply respect Mathematicians and Scientists, and I would consider it a great honor to be working as one.
4. No comments. 

Interviewing Classmate: Willy Machuca

1. I decided to become a math major because I really enjoying doing mathematics. I also became a math major since it provides a good challenge every now and again.  I enjoy doing a multitude of math problems, even the tough ones, because of the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I know I got the right answer.  The profession that I would like to get into is Data Science or something to do with numerical analysis.
2. For a profession in Data Science, I’ve been preparing for about 2 years.  For a profession involving Numerical Analysis, I would say about 6 years.
3. In all honesty, I would enjoy being a data scientist because it tends to be a very lucrative occupation.  As for a profession involving numerical analysis, I just enjoy doing math and getting paid to do math is pretty much a done deal for me.
4. In my experience its a bit of both.  Undergraduate studies are helpful, especially electives from my major because it takes what I learned in my theoretical courses and applies certain mathematical characteristics onto real-world problems.  On the other hand, Undergraduate studies can be a stepping stone for the future because there are plenty of unnecessary courses that one needs to take in order to graduate.  What does a math major need to study music for?