As a professor, I am quite familiar with the academic landscape. But when students come to me for advice on what kind of jobs (other than teaching high school) they can get with their BS degree in math, I have very little specific advice to give them. Actuarial work requires exams, and many of my students at my Directional U. are not of that caliber (around 3.0 GPA). My students are first gen to go to college, and work hard. They do not have close family/friend connections in the white collar working world to get that first opportunity. Despite faculty advice, they don't plan too far ahead. I encourage students to be familiar with Excel and develop good writing skills, but unless they see it in a course, they are not likely to follow through on their own. Other faculty don't seem to know much in this regard except to say "actuaries" or "grad school" or -cough, cough- "quant at hedge fund" . Sigh ...
A while back @blossom suggested management trainee positions. I am thinking of telling my students about that.So that's one avenue. Not many students know about such positions, and our career center is staffed poorly.
I am also thinking of suggesting they take some online courses that are workplace oriented like Coursera or Udacity.
I am really trying to discourage them from a MS degree program without any related job experience. Many students think that will open doors, but I do not think so - would like to hear from others about this. I know there are some parents here who are in HR or related fields.
Thank you for any advice you have.
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