Careers with maths and computing?

What jobs do people get if they study maths or computer science at uni? Has anyone on here ended up in a really interesting or unusual job from these degrees? 😊

Reply 1

Mohammed_2000

Original post

by Provs

What jobs do people get if they study maths or computer science at uni? Has anyone on here ended up in a really interesting or unusual job from these degrees? 😊

Hello 👋🏼. Hope you are well. I know that undertaking computer science courses within university could lead to various roles within IT. For example becoming a Software developer, designing and building, whilst also testing and maintaining software applications and systems. Roles within Cybersecurity such as a Cybersecurity Analyst keeping an eye on potential network threats, investigating security alerts such as malware or phishing whilst responding to incidents and hardening systems against attackers.

You also have Data Scientists, where you collect, clean and analyse large data to uncover patterns. Finally also Web development building and maintaining web applications by writing code. Using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python also Visual Basic. In order to create user-friendly, attractive and appealing but working and functional experiences online from structuring the website to database and performance optimisation. For it to work and be compatible on different devices and web browsers.

Lastly Database Administrator, maintaining, securing and operating an organisation database ensuring data is available, reliable and performing well by handling the design, installation, security, backups and recovery whilst working with other developers and managing cloud-based systems.

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/computer-science
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/careers/careers-with-a-computer-science-degree

Here’s some helpful links 🔗. Good luck 😉👍🏼.

Reply 2

mesub

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post

by Provs

What jobs do people get if they study maths or computer science at uni? Has anyone on here ended up in a really interesting or unusual job from these degrees? 😊

The world's your oyster since you have the best of both. You could end up doing machine learning or event quantative development (lots of £££)

Reply 3

JACKLHU

Official Rep

Hi @Provs,

Hope you are well.

I thought I would reply, and advise on what some of our Graduates have gone on to do with both degrees. I have attached some information below for you.

Computer Science

Our recent graduates have found posts working as Technical and Systems Engineers, software analysts and software engineers in organisations such as Airbus, Barclays, Oracle and Microsoft. Some also go onto to study Masters and doctoral based qualifications.

Mathematics

In the 2026 Complete University Guide, Liverpool Hope Mathematics Graduates were placed second in the North West for graduate prospects. Some of our graduates have also gone on to further study, both at Liverpool Hope and further afield.

I hope this information is useful. I have linked our Undergraduate course page if you want to check anything further. -
https://www.hope.ac.uk/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses/#M

All the best

Jack

Reply 4

StaffsRep Aura

Official Rep

Original post

by Provs

What jobs do people get if they study maths or computer science at uni? Has anyone on here ended up in a really interesting or unusual job from these degrees? 😊

There is an array of brilliant roles I have seen from graduates combining these including:

Data Management
Data Scientist
AI Engineer
Cryptographer
Quant Analyst
Quantum Computing

and many more! AI seems to be hot topic currently in research, with more students from a mathematics side entering it. Cryptography has remained a dominant field too. Would love to hear everyone else's experience.

Aura (Uni of Staffs)

Reply 5

Analyst89

Jobs in computing:

Software developer
Software engineer
Web developer
Artificial Intelligence
Machine learning engineer
Data Scientist
Cloud developer
Cyber Security
Programmer (Java, C#, Python, other programming languages)
Video game developer
Android, Iphone app developer

Reply 6

McGinger

Some of the mainstream media are being particularly pessimistic about future job prospects for CS grads :
Computer science graduates struggle to secure their first jobs - BBC News
Computer science used to be a golden ticket to a lucrative career. Now graduates can’t get a job

Reply 7

StaffsRep Aura

Official Rep

Original post

by McGinger

Unfortunately there is the reality that students are choosing Computer Science for the sake of a job and because it is the mainstream thing to do. Many are learning generic skills that are not applicable in the industry, forgetting what degrees were made for! Many graduate without portfolios, projects undertaken, internships, placements or a general idea of the various roles applicable to them. This causes mass panic, applications to a small subset of companies and roles while ignoring the majority.

I have seen personally students ignore applying for roles labelled as "technology", "IT", "service analyst", "quantitative research" and many more when they were the exact things they were looking for! As of current there is a focus on software development but many degrees do not actually teach you the necessary skills for interviews and applications, which tools to use and how to apply your learnings. University is made as a bridge into Academic Research, though students are now using it as a bridge into the tech industry. With a lot of hype comes a lot of pessimism but if you persevere and focus on the above you are more likely to secure a role. Thousands of students graduate but very few meet job specifics, always research into roles early on and try to build your skills to suit the applications. Mass applying does not offer much chance when each application is lacklustre!

These are just some of the things I have personally learnt through recruiting students to replace me in past roles, volunteering with recruiters and attending conferences. Hope that helps!

Aura (Uni of Staffs Comp Sci)

Reply 8

Provs

Original post

by StaffsRep Aura

Unfortunately there is the reality that students are choosing Computer Science for the sake of a job and because it is the mainstream thing to do. Many are learning generic skills that are not applicable in the industry, forgetting what degrees were made for! Many graduate without portfolios, projects undertaken, internships, placements or a general idea of the various roles applicable to them. This causes mass panic, applications to a small subset of companies and roles while ignoring the majority.
I have seen personally students ignore applying for roles labelled as "technology", "IT", "service analyst", "quantitative research" and many more when they were the exact things they were looking for! As of current there is a focus on software development but many degrees do not actually teach you the necessary skills for interviews and applications, which tools to use and how to apply your learnings. University is made as a bridge into Academic Research, though students are now using it as a bridge into the tech industry. With a lot of hype comes a lot of pessimism but if you persevere and focus on the above you are more likely to secure a role. Thousands of students graduate but very few meet job specifics, always research into roles early on and try to build your skills to suit the applications. Mass applying does not offer much chance when each application is lacklustre!
These are just some of the things I have personally learnt through recruiting students to replace me in past roles, volunteering with recruiters and attending conferences. Hope that helps!
Aura (Uni of Staffs Comp Sci)

Thank you. So what should I do as my next step, as I am unsure of what I want to do particularly, but I want to work in the CS field

Reply 9

StaffsRep Aura

Official Rep

Original post

by Provs

Thank you. So what should I do as my next step, as I am unsure of what I want to do particularly, but I want to work in the CS field

If you are sure CS is the right field for you look into current job advertisements on sites like Bright Network and read through their profiles. See which ones sound preferable to yourself and what their requirements are. Mapping out goals for yourself to achieve over your degree is a brilliant thing to have! Based on your interests of computing + math see below.

Take for example this internship role, you know the following from it and what you need to build on throughout your chosen degree:
-Focus on Object Oriented languages e.g. Python and C#.
-Play around with projects relating to data science, machine learning and optimisation techniques to real-world problems.
-This specific role requires a masters and above, check whether similar do too or if undergraduate options also exist.
-You'll need to keep an active active GitHub/Kaggle profile throughout your degree for it.
-Personal projects in finance are a bonus.

This graduate role suggests the following:
-Python and SQL experience in analytical/statistical modelling techniques and data insights.
-MSc and PHD preferred.
-Knowledge relating to Cloud Computing (preferably google cloud), ML and AI ethics.
-DevOps/Software Engineering/CI/CD experience.
-Personal projects looking into commercial and business insights + AI solutions
-Using scalable frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and XGBoost.
-ML workflows using Apache Spark, Vertex AI.
-Safety tuning on Gemini, Claude and OpenAI APIs.

This Junior role:
-For any degree level.
-Experience with modern technology stacks: TypeScript, Node.js, AWS and React.
-Experience with cloud services (AWS, Azure and GCP).
-Portfolio showing clean, well-structured code and good engineering practices.

This placement role:
-Strong proof of Git management.
-Experience with foundation models, prompt engineering and agentic workflows
-Personal projects relating to bioinformatics, reinforcement learning, transformers and diffusion models, robotics (including VLA models), edge compute e.g. localised deployment.
-Python programming shown throughout.

Or even this role (last example though there are many many more out there!):
-Projects using SAS, Python or R, statistical techniques or data visualisation tools (eg. Tableau, PowerBI)
-Open to undergrads.
-Foundational ML knowledge.

Using these job adverts you can pick out which sound fun to you and the job titles that align with your wants. From a mix of those come up with a plan for yourself relating to your modules. If you do all this, follow the advice of your careers team (CV, portfolio, interview, coding assessment prep etc) and get a good grade on your degree you will likely be in the stat who succeeds because from my experience, not many bother. I wish I did all of this!

Phew that was a lot, hope it helps!
Aura (Uni of Staffs)

(edited 1 month ago)