What's a good career for someone good at recognizing patterns, but not a math whiz?

[Anonymous]

Do they exist?

[Anonymous]

intelligence analyst

[Anonymous]

People who can recognize patterns are far rarer than math whizzes. Unfortunately, its usefulness is very under valued, probably because so few people can do it well and know its value. Outside of intelligence, I am not sure how you can emphasize this skill. Its one many lines of work could really benefit from but they don't know it. I could hired for writing and normal analytical skills many years ago, but its pattern recognition that has really helped me advance.

[Anonymous]

Interior decorator

[Anonymous]

Law enforcement.

Litigator.

[Anonymous]

Academics.

[Anonymous]

Recognizing patterns is a useful skill in any field. However if you want this to be a part of your job description, you need to be able to be able to back up those patterns with statistics.

If you are good at recognizing patterns that will save a lot of time. However, it's not enough to simply recognize patterns. Once you have gathered the data, you need to have some knowledge of statistics to support your analysis. Maybe 50 years ago it would have been enough to be a savant who could identify patterns, but I can't think of a current job that specifically requires pattern recognition, but no math.

Sorry.

[Anonymous]

CPA, particularly forensic accounting
Actuary

[Anonymous]

Social science researcher - I'm a sociologist and I love looking for patterns in data. The pp is correct about needing statistics if you're a quantitative researcher. But if you do qualitative analysis, that is a different animal all together. You still need to use a rigorous methodology but it's not about looking for statistical patterns based on numerical coding.

Unfortunately I can't think of a recent book to suggest but one classic of qualitative analysis you might find interesting is Arlie Hochschild's The Second Shift.

[Anonymous]

nsa code breaker
intel analysy/investigator

[Anonymous]

Interesting question. I'm a legislative drafter, and I think pattern recognition is one of my biggest strengths. I never really understood higher level math (adored basic algebra) but was able to intuit my way through high school and college by guessing how to apply examples to new problems.

[Anonymous]

Biologist or organic chemist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CPA, particularly forensic accounting
Actuary

+1. I'm a CPA but I'm definitely not a math whiz.

[Anonymous]

Lawyer

[Anonymous]

Computers have replaced you.