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"A college math or computer science degree would usually prepare one to
enter the field," says Anna Lysyanskaya. She's a cryptography professor at
Brown University. "I've had some college freshmen in my crypto class who did
well if they were willing to take on extra work."
The National Security Agency says the majority of mathematician-cryptographers
it hires have master's and PhD degrees. For the best career opportunities,
be prepared to spend at least six years in university.
"I think for a serious job, you'd probably end up wanting to get a master's,"
says cryptographer Greg Rose. "There's very little [in terms of] undergraduate-level
cryptography courses. But I think there are plenty of opportunities even if
they just have a bachelor's degree."
There are also plenty of PhDs in cryptography, in both the private sector
and in government, says Rose.
"Take for example the people who employed me up until [recently] - Qualcomm.
We had a security group of about 45 people and over half of those people had
PhDs," says Rose. "I know about a quarter of them had cryptography credentials
of some kind or other. The others were sort of general security. So we employed,
I'd guess, 10 PhD cryptographers."
It might surprise you to learn that cryptographers often have a musical
background.
"I think that creative people tend to be balanced people as well," says
Rose. "They tend to have abilities not just in one area but in a number of
areas which are complementary.
"And so, in the case of coders and cryptographers, quite often they're
musicians because there's patterns involved and they like patterns. Quite
often they have some kind of interest in art or something ... because a really
good cryptographic algorithm, some people regard them as beautiful."