What advice would you give to someone pursuing a career

Don't.

Pure or Applied?

Learn to write, learn to program, learn to be an effective communicator.

Don't worry. It will all add up. :)

How old are they? I wouldn't wish math upon children, but if they are older it depends.
Are they a manlet, then yes. Math will likely prevent them from multiplying.

>>16958373
Learn mathematics.

Only do the math. Not the meth

There is no such thing as "career in mathematics". Well, unless you intend to teach mathematics, I guess.

how boring of a person are you ?

>>16958373
Get your PhD, that's the first basic step.

How old are you? If you're in HS, you're in luck. To get in the best programs, you need to stay 1 year ahead than the general pop. By the time you're out of HS, you should be able to ace any first year exam.
If you're in college already, too bad. Focus on building a good rapport with your professors and be a leader for your peers, at any uni of note they (and/or their contacts, once or twice removed) will be your future research group and your formal or informal reccomendations.

>>16958373
Career in mathematics, as in professor or researcher, or as a quant, actuary or risk analyst?

>>16958897
>>16959681

Not OP, what's so wrong about pursuing mathematics? It's a worthy discipline to study, I think

Figure out what you want to do with math as a career, if your only plan is to look for a career in math you'll probably end up unemployed or unhappy. There are a lot of interesting applications though. You could get into cryptography, you could focus in statistics, you could focus in applied maths and go into engineering. As someone who went straight through a BS in Physics without doing any prior research I will tell you the best thing for you to do before you jump straight into learning is to do a little bit of research and figure out what sorts of applications mathematics has, decide which ones interest you, and then you can focus your education in that direction. That way there's no way at the end of it you'll be regretting not learning anything that you're going to ever use again, because at the very least you'll be able to do whatever it is you were interested in in the first place.

>>16959790
kek why are you asking those whose education ended in high school what's wrong with a scholarly pursuit ?

Go for it OP. Any job you want, 300k starting.

>>16958373
Get out while you still can!

Nah I guess it's cool if you want to be an educator or researcher. I don't see the value unless you apply the math to other subjects, like Physics, Computer Science, or Engineering. Just Math doesn't stand on much merit imo.

>>16958869
Opinions will be divided, but I think if you work hard and your chances of success will multiply!