Salary
Average Salary: $100,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $4,174,800
Pssstt...come a bit closer. Want to know a secret? (And we know you do, because cryptographers looove secrets.)
While there aren't statistics available for cryptographers specifically, mathematicians make on average a little over $100,000 per year (source). In other words, one hour of your time is enough to buy almost exactly ten Big Macs—or $48/hour (source).
Nervous about that student loan debt? (Yeah, you'll likely wrack up some debt from undergraduate and graduate degrees.) Don't be. Entry-level positions for mathematicians, including cool cryptographers like yourself, pay around $60,000. And in twenty years, by the time you're a silver fox hipster with years of expertise in coding, you'll be making an average of $140,000 (source). The more senior and managerial your position, the more likely your income will be around that average.
And there are even more benefits to be reaped. Literally. Ninety-two percent of mathematicians report having medical benefits, 77% have dental benefits, and 64% have vision benefits (source). Even if you weren't a math major in college, what's not to like about those numbers?