Careers in statistics

As the largest statistics department in Australasia, the department is able to offer a wide range of courses to complement the career aspirations of our students. Our courses are designed to equip students for the current employment market with progression built in to the degree structure; what students learn in class is applicable to the working world they will enter.
 

If you would like to develop a career as a specialist statistician getting a postgraduate qualification in statistics would be a great start. Statisticians apply their skills in a wide range of industries such as banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions.

You could also work for an IT company, market research organisation, pharmaceutical company or Crown Research Institute. Successful statisticians often begin their careers in technical roles and later get promoted into a management role.

Find out more about planning postgraduate study

Read about Tips for Statisticians Starting a Career in Business

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.

Graduates with 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.

Find out more about career planning for statistics students at Career planning.

To read some articles about statistics in the media, please see our Statistics in the media page.

A minor or second major in statistics or a conjoint degree with statistics can provide you with a career advantage in field like finance, psychology, economics, marketing, law, biology, accounting or journalism.

The report below, based on interviews with industry employers and statistical academics, lists the the different types of subjects that are particular valuable for different types of careers. To download a copy of the report, click here:

Actuary

A degree in statistics from The University of Auckland provides the foundation for industry study towards a professional qualification as an Actuary.

Meet some of our former students who have made their career in this area:

Computer Science and IT

• data mining scientist (eg Google, Yahoo, Baidu)
• technologist doing systems administration, computing, database management

Finance, economics and banking

• financial analyst, designing investment strategies and managing risks in banks and other large businesses
• customer intelligence management, monitoring and understanding what drives customers
• actuary, a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty in the insurance and superannuation industry
• econometrician, investigating the economy at all levels from individual businesses through to national economies
• interest rate trader, calculating and setting interest rates
• risk manager, creating risk models for capital portfolios

Meet some of our former students who have made their career in this area:

Marketing

• market researcher, conducting surveys and experiments, identifying market opportunities, testing consumer perceptions and choices, the effectiveness of advertising and predicting market trends
• insights analyst, interpreting customer databases and identifying opportunities for marketing campaigns

Meet some of our former students who have made their career in this area:

Chit Hock Choo
Current job: Senior Modelling Analyst at ASB Bank

Business and management

• quality manager, improving the quality of products and services in business and industry
• operations research and optimisation, finding how to make the most effective use of limited resources, e.g. stock-control strategies for supermarkets and manufacturers, scheduling rosters, formulating cost-efficient maintenance strategies for fleets of vehicles or determining the number of beds needed in hospital wards

Ecology and the environment

• ecologists, monitoring the environment, water quality control, species management
• wildlife population researcher

Health and pharmaceutical industry

• medical statistician, designing and analysing clinical trials and epidemiological studies
• our graduates in medical statistics have been placed in organisations including: hospitals, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, general practice organisations and Statistics NZ

Plant and food

• biometrician, designing statistical experiments for research

Meet one of our former students who has made his career in this area:

Sammie Jia
Current job: Biometrician at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research

Law and forensic science

• forensic statistician, analysing DNA and evaluating forensic evidence

Meet some of our students who want to make their career in this area:

Government

• government departments (eg Statistics New Zealand, Census)
• Crown Research Institutes

Academic

• universities
• technical institutes
• schools

Meet one of our former students who has made her career in this area:

Shan-I Lee
Current job: Mathematics and Statistics Teacher in Ghana

Occasionally, we have vacancies within the Department of Statistics or we receive notices of vacancies in other organisations.

View the latest vacancies