What math helps with is signaling. Employers care about your problem solving skills (as opposed to actual mathematical knowledge) and there’s virtually no bette

What math helps with is signaling. Employers care about your problem solving skills (as opposed to actual mathematical knowledge) and there’s virtually no better signal than IMO/Putnam or their easier variants. On the other hand a mediocre math phd is not all that useful at all outside of publishing mediocre papers in mediocre journals, since the student probably just has a lot of knowledge but not many problem solving skill.s