Guy with PhD in maths doesn't know where to look for a job

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Hello everybody,

I am a guy in my early thirties and I live in a country of Northern Europe. After doing a PhD in maths I did a postdoc and got fed up with the academic word. I also got fed up with working as employee because usually I can not get along with colleagues too much and always feel distressed by the working environment.

Afterword I tried to open a retail business. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and after two years I have to close it. The economy slowing down definitely didn’t help. On the other side I was passionate about the product I was selling but the operation was getting me mad. I was hoping to make money soon enough to hire an employee for the operation, but unfortunately I never reached that stage.

So now I find myself in the position of looking for a job, but I have no idea what to look for and where.
I have no plan to go back to Universities. My experience was very negative, most of professors I had to deal with were just big ego career guys, greedy of finding funds to hire people (as kind of slaves) with little focus for the real research ( well they hire other people for that) and despite this they decide the topic of the research projects, in quite a few of cases not knowing what they are talking about.


I had some experience in programming, but never made commercial code and I think I would get bored on working or anything which does not have any scientific purpose.
Companies hiring mathematicians are mostly banks, finance companies for statistical analysis of the stock market. This is not my field and I have no interest for that.

I know there are some companies hiring specifically Aspergers/ Neurodiverses but only for IT job which as I said it is not my thing. I would love to find something in a neurodiversity friendly company, because otherwise I know already I am going to have an hard time.

I am ready to take a job unrelated to my background but not yet sure what, now for me the most important thing is that I can fit with the environment and the colleagues ( I guess it is a kind luxury).

I am open for suggestions in case anybody has one.

Have you considered secondary school mathematics teaching ?

It's quite neurodiversity friendly, but you have to be prepared to deal with children who may be rebellious, rude and obnoxious

A lot of companies also hire programmers to develop scientific software as well.

I'd suggest in the meantime, seeking out any volunteer opportunities that are available to develop both your programming and maths teaching skills

^I agree. I think teaching math is a possibility.

I'd like to possibly be a teacher of creative writing someday but I lack the credentials which states I'm qualified to do it.

I am not too fond of teaching, I am afraid of being bullied or teased by my students. In any case it is a people job, you need to interact with students and colleagues and I don't think it is neurodiversity friendly, at least if the students and colleagues are not neurodiverse themselves.

Scientific software for companies? What kind of companies, biotech?
Yes I should probably dig into that, but because I have no experience in companies most probably I will have to start with an internship.

A close friend of mine in Scotland has a master's in math and does very well as a computer programmer.

You can get a job doing video compression.

If you were in the US, I'd suggest the National Security Agency. In your country, do you have a government agency dedicated to developing and breaking codes?

Another top choice for Mathematicians and Statisticians would be to become an actuary at an insurance company.

Primary and secondary schools aren't good places for aspies to work. as there is relentless bullying from other adults working at the schools and often teacher preparation programs want to keep people with autism out of the classroom. If you are very very mild on the spectrum you could probably become a teacher with nobody noticing, but you'd need to not have a monotone voice and other behavioral factors that could identify you as different.