Statistics courses and career pathways

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.

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.

View more graduate profiles