When Ryan Mayer ‘15 was at Messiah, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with minors in business administration and statistics. He chose to go this route because of his love for numbers and his desire to gain a business sense in the real world.
Now, Mayer is currently working as product strategy analyst at GEICO, an American auto insurance company. He is responsible for analyzing data and making sound business decisions to help GEICO be both profitable and grow at a fast rate. In insurance, the product is a promise to compensate insured individuals for their losses, so the key in his position is how to best disperse the premiums among various risks.
Mayer said that majoring in mathematics is surely a challenge, as he found a variety of unfamiliar theoretical aspects in mathematics. To be able to delve into this field, Mayer claimed that a person should possess a strong passion for numbers, a desire to be challenged and an interest in the abstract and unknown.
“I’d consider the pros and cons of majoring in mathematics to go hand in hand,” said Mayer. “With a major in mathematics, you can do anything coming out of school, but the con is the broadness of the search. The job market is wide open, but sometimes it is hard to know exactly where you fit and what you are passionate about.”
According to Mayer, his job captures a lot of what he learned from Messiah, as Messiah made a lot of large impacts on his personal growth. One of these impacts is his involvement in the lacrosse team while in college and the way experiencing various adversities and challenges hugely shaped his outlook on life.
“Also, through my academics I was challenged to think about academia from a Christian worldview and that has greatly helped me in my career,” said Mayer. “Messiah helped me to better understand how to best mimic Jesus in my workplace and more importantly, in my life.”
His future plans are to remain at GEICO and gain continued experience with insurance and analysis as well as with leadership skills. He is also working to receive his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation and considering pursuing a master’s degree in business administration.
Mayer advises students to simultaneously experience what college life offers and nurture relationships. “Enjoy the entirety of your college experience,” said Mayer. “Make lifelong friends, do things you never thought you would, value your professors, invest in your academics and strive to mimic the life of Jesus daily.”
-My Nguyen ‘17