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Career choices

T'ai Chi

Penultimate Amazing
T
Joined
May 20, 2003
Messages
11,219
Ok, I have a choice to make, and could use some advice:

Statistician (GS-9 level)

Economist (GS-7 to 8 level)

Which sounds more appealing? Fun? Rewarding? Is anyone else here a statistician, an economist, or has had experiences with statistics/economics careers?

I have a test for the economist position next week, which should be fun. :)
 
Rob Lister said:
Lawn Maintenance (WS1-WS3) is your best bet...given the choices.
Click to expand...

HAHAA, nice. :)

Don't make me reach through the computer and tweak your nose.
 
statistics is a Huge Growth Field right now. Biomathematics has more jobs than can be filled, and there will always be a need for data analysis.

But, ultimately, you should do what you like :)
 
I'd go with the stats. Perhaps a wider range of opportunity later on.
 
T'ai Chi said:
Ok, I have a choice to make, and could use some advice:

Statistician (GS-9 level)

Economist (GS-7 to 8 level)

Which sounds more appealing? Fun? Rewarding? Is anyone else here a statistician, an economist, or has had experiences with statistics/economics careers?
Click to expand...
If we are going to beat our swords into plowshares, then agricultural economics is the wave of the future.
 
Could you elaborate on this whole thread for non US posters? Is this some kind of educational course you're choosing, or some option given by an employer, or something else?
 
Go with statistics. I've listened to dozens of economists on NPR, and none of them agree with the others, leading me to believe it's a psuedoscience. :D
 
Update: Just received a letter today saying I passed this economics test, which tested my quantitative reasoning skills and my logic.
 
Since your obviously applying for a government job then the GS-9 one is the way to go. Either way you're probably going to be tasked with analyzing a mind-numbing amount of data to generate reports that no one will actually read (or understand) but will twist until they fit their preconceived notions.
 
Agammamon said:
generate reports that no one will actually read (or understand) but will twist until they fit their preconceived notions.
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Uh, I doubt it.
 
T'ai Chi,
I'm a statistician. Having so much fun I can hardly imagine doing anything else. Really.

Glad you did okay on your tests. BTW, I responded to your post earlier about priors, meta priors etc. I hope it made sense?

What interest me most in stats are the philosphical problems surrounding the nature of probability & the debates between bayesians & frequentists.

Several posts were made above that claim people twist stat results to suit their own liking & preconceptions. That is certainly true. My response to that, though, is that this situation results from a faulty philosophy of statistics. This philosophy, aka frequentism, makes (deductive) statements about data given hypotheses, whereas science in general seeks to make (inductive) statements about hypotheses given data.

Have you heard of alchemy? Basically, it was the pseudoscience of turning base metals into gold. Similar thing happens with frequentism - it tries to turn deductive statements into inductive ones. In the process, as previous posters have noted, consumers of statistics can read into the stat results anything they like about hypotheses, because those results didn't say anything about hypotheses in the first place. I could explain more if you like. . .
 
T'ai Chi said:
Ok, I have a choice to make, and could use some advice:

Statistician (GS-9 level)

Economist (GS-7 to 8 level)
Click to expand...

I've seen your statistical reasoning ability.

I would strongly suggest "economist."
 
T'ai Chi said:
Ok, I have a choice to make, and could use some advice:

Statistician (GS-9 level)

Economist (GS-7 to 8 level)

Which sounds more appealing?
Click to expand...
What's the diff? You'll be civil service ie walking around drinking coffee and eating doughnuts all day either way.

On 2d though, given how slow promos are, GS-9 job is definitely the way to go.

;)
 
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