Statistician

As a statistician, you turn piles of numbers into clear answers. Businesses, hospitals, sports teams and the government all collect huge amounts of data, and they need someone who can work out what it actually means. That is your job.

Most days you will design ways to gather data - like surveys or experiments - then use maths and computer software to study it. You look for patterns, work out how sure you can be about them, and explain what you have found so anyone can understand it. You will use software like R or Python, and you need solid maths skills. But the most important part is your ability to ask the right questions and communicate what the numbers tell you in plain English, because the people using your findings might not be mathematicians.