---

feeling old now wrote:

Good perspective though. I need to hear both sides of this.

A little more info about me - though I was biology major, I now work in commercial real estate. So I can't envision a path for myself into a different field other than by getting some background education in that field.

As for me not knowing what I'm getting into - that may be correct. This is what I think a statistician does, please tell me whether this is right or not:

Research - scientists need someone to tell them when the results of a study are statistically significant; how do we attribute a result to the one specific variable we're testing as opposed to normal fluctuation; they will also provide insight at the outset of the study into which data should be collected, which populations to focus on, which other factors to exclude, etc.

Politics - polling seems to be a mix of art and science; how do you predict nationwide trends off of sample sizes of 8000 people?; how do you factor in things like polling was done by phone, polling was only done in one state, polling was done during normal business hours of 9 am to 5 pm, and created models to then project this limited information to the entire country which is extremely heterogenous

Insurance - where is the balance point between what you charge and the risk you take on; this may be more what an actuary does, but that's still heavily based on statistics

Business, government, economics, sports, etc. Seems like there's a place in any field for someone who is qualified to analyze data, make predictions, factor out background noise or anomalous data.

And it seems like you also have to be able to communicate your point to laymen. Can't just show up with hundreds of charts and graphs.

Any and all of this seems appealing to me.

---