Department of Statistics
Statistics courses and career pathways
Start creating your dream career by choosing the right papers to study.
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:
Career Pathways for Statistics Graduates (977 KB PDF)
Use the following document to help you plan your course programme and achieve your career aspirations.
We also have several different brochures that can provide more information about the use and careers in Statistics:
Make your mark on the world with statistics (4.9 MB PDF)
Where in the world can Statistics take you? (2.6 MB PDF)
Bachelor of Science (Applied Mathematics and Chemistry); Postgraduate Diploma in Science (Applied Mathematics); Postgraduate Diploma in Science (Statistics, with distinction); Master of Science (Statistics, first-class honours)
I enjoy the challenge of my work – every day I come across different problems that make me think. I use models to predict power or water demand, have analysed honey-bee survival data and analysed a sample of library book stock across Australia to ensure that authors widely represented were receiving adequate royalties.
Applying my analytical and technical skills to real problems is a great feeling – it makes me feel useful. I do what I’m good at and get paid for it.
To do well in statistics, you need to be academically focused, with a good work ethic and numerical competence. You also need to be approachable, have an outgoing personality and be able to communicate technical ideas to a range of people, from nerds like me to your friend who dropped maths straight after fifth form. Statistics is a multi-purpose tool that will open many doors for you.
The statistics papers I took were:
STATS 208, STATS 210, STATS 721, STATS 730, STATS 731, STATS 732, STATS 740, STATS 741, STATS 747, STATS 750, STATS 762, STATS779, STATS 780, STATS 782, STATS 783, STATS 784 and STATS 785.
Bachelor of Science with first class honours in Statistics
I provide data analysis for the plant and food scientists at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research. This involves designing statistical experiments for research, analysing and interpreting the data, summarising the results and making suggestions to the scientists based on my findings. The institute is involved in groundbreaking scientific research and has a real need for people with scientific data-analysis skills.
Bachelor of Science (Hons), Master of Science
Statistics was a natural choice for me. I’m fascinated by the magic of numbers and working with them is like a game. I enjoy using my statistical knowledge and skills to answer practical questions. It’s really satisfying to convert mathematical problems into solutions that can be used and understood by anyone.
All organisations, from private companies to government departments, use statistics in some form so there are many career opportunities for statistics graduates.
I chose The University of Auckland as it is one of the top 100 universities in the world and would recommend studying statistics at the university. The academic staff are very supportive and the teaching resources are excellent. The courses are practical and students apply all the theory they learn to real-life situations.
After graduating, I joined New Zealand’s largest life insurance company, Sovereign, as an Actuarial Analyst. Actuaries are at the heart of an insurance company and are crucial to its profitability and success. They have diverse roles, which include creating new products, setting customer premiums, tracking claims trends and evaluating performance. I work in financial reporting, examining profitability and performance to help the company make the best financial decisions. I love the variety in my job as I work on a wide range of projects and no day is the same.
-
Hosting
Connect with us
