Career planning

Statistical skills support an extraordinarily wide range of careers. To help you in your career planning, we have commissioned a report to find out whether and how employers value statistical skills:

Career Pathways for Statistics Graduates e-book

To download a pdf copy of this report:

Use the following document to help you plan your course programme and achieve your career aspirations.

A degree (or conjoint degree) in statistics or a second major or minor in statistics assures prospective employers that you have good quantitative problem solving skills. These skills are in high demand throughout the world. There are excellent career prospects for graduates who combine a major in statistics with other subjects in business, science or arts.

To develop a career as a statistician or medical statistician you should plan to study for a postgraduate qualification in statistics or medical statistics.

“It doesn’t matter what career you’re interested in – you need to look and act like someone an employer wants to hire. It might sound old-fashioned, but it’s important for aspiring job candidates to demonstrate personality, presentation, passion and perseverance. The people who build and run successful business tend to have these attributes, and they want to hire people with them, too.” Jim Donovan (Fronde CEO and Tertiary Education Commission board member)

More tips:

• Get a part-time job related to what you are studying.
• Know what you want. Seek guidance from professionals, mentors, and respected people in the sector.
• Put a plan in place and pursue it relentlessly. Challenge/hassle recruitment agencies to help you.
• Large employers tend to recruit directly. Check out their websites or large online job portals.
• Show that you have an ability to work well with others. At interviews talk about group work projects and how you felt about the dynamics of the group environment.
• The job market is tough when you're first starting out, so do yourself a favour and equip yourself with good grades.
• Don’t be afraid to show breadth of interest in your course planning, a couple of papers in unrelated areas may make you stand out as an interesting person.

Find some media articles about potential Statistics careers below:

• Healing by Numbers: Western Leader- 14 May 2009
• Tips for Statisticians Starting a Career in Business: Amstat News- 1 February 2011

Entry-level graduate positions can start between $35,000 and $50,000. You can easily find up-to-date salary information on the internet. Most large recruitment firms do salary surveys which they publish online, some are extremely detailed. They can also provide you with overviews of the state the industry and the demand for particular skills.

In this data-rich world, statistical skills are vital to an increasing range of businesses. Find out more about this on Careers.

The Careers Centre is located in Room 001 of The ClockTower, 22 Princes Street, and at the Tamaki Campus. More information is available from the University Careers Services.

Find information on careers for Science students on Career resources for science students.

For job vacancies, information on current graduate career opportunities and employer presentations on campus visit the Auckland CareerHub website.