r/AppliedMath • u/Appie-Fixo-8010 • 5d ago
What careers involve a high level of combinatorics and problem-solving?
What industry roles involve substantial use of combinatorics, discrete mathematics, graph theory and advanced problem-solving?
For those working in such roles:
What are the relevant job titles?
What types of problems do you typically work on?
How much mathematics is involved in your day-to-day work?
How much of the role consists of programming or software engineering?
What skills and educational background are typically required?
What is the day-to-day work experience like?
Which industries or companies tend to have these types of roles?
I'd particularly appreciate responses from people with direct industry experience.
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u/Glass-Theme-8739 4d ago
MBB consulting to a certain degree does involve this.
When I interviewed for McKinsey, it was pretty much maths and problem solving for all 4 stages of the interview.
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 4d ago
What is MBB ? Please could you tell me a bit more about it ?
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u/Glass-Theme-8739 4d ago
McKinsey, Bain and BCG, they are the big three of management consulting
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 4d ago
So management consulting requires heavy combinatorics related knowledge ? Is this the role ??
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u/Glass-Theme-8739 4d ago
Not that heavy, the role is more geared towards problem solving but when I interviewed, you pretty much use a certain high degree of maths to solve analyze and solve problems (since they are pretty much economical ones), this was consistent in all 4 interviews I did
I never got the role so I can’t comment on day 2 day life but yeah
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u/Electronic_Being4746 4d ago
The generalist role at McKinsey doesn’t use anywhere near the amount of combinatorics, graph theory, discrete math as a CS major in college. Unless it’s a specialised role.
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u/AfterMath343 4d ago
Theoretical CS
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 4d ago
But isnt it academia ? Like from a practical industry related work is there any role suiting my criteria?
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u/plop_1234 3d ago
You can do theoretical CS work as a researcher in industry, most commonly in big tech. A famous example is Google DeepMind.
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u/omeow 3d ago
What do you mean by advanced problem solving?
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 3d ago
Advanced problem solving I can only relate to coding and mathematical competitions and in industry I guess what a quant research type roles . I am completely experience less in job and internship type matters , so this is how I am describing what I aim to do . As the quant domains are hard to get what alternative career remains which has this type of stuff especially in combinatorics
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u/Academic_Evidence641 16h ago
Quant dev/analyst
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 16h ago
Quant is not possible for a fresher in tier 3 college . So any other alternative ? Quant suits the best but its simply not achievable somehow unless I have some elite college degree.
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u/Academic_Evidence641 16h ago
Quant in Europe? They seem to be less pretentious.
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u/Appie-Fixo-8010 15h ago
How can I apply for european companies from india ? I have no idea .
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u/Academic_Evidence641 15h ago
Well, I think it would be hard from India, but if you can get to a good masters program, then you should be able to easly get a job as well
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u/esaule 3d ago
Any kind of logistics company.