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United States24734 Posts
Something I often get asked (and was just asked on IRC) is what jobs you can get when you study physics. I'm going to address this issue entirely from a U.S. perspective.
The first answer usually given, and one I often comment on, is teaching. For some, studying physics + education is perfect: it's what I chose to do. It definitely has its drawbacks, and physics teachers aren't as in-demand as they used to be. Still, this can be a solid route to take if you love physics.
Then comes the problem... "what else?" I've been reading sections from various websites addressing physics jobs. They all seems to say the same thing: physics is a great thing to learn; it helps you think, and the tools you pickup are invaluable in many different fields. This is true. It is pretty simple: more physics = better. These online resources all seem to be neglecting the other part of this though: with just physics (say, a bachelors), you can't do much. If you study architecture, then also having a physics degree is great. If you have a finance degree, then having a lot of physics coursework is wonderful and your employers will love it. Engineers (electrical, mechanics, civil, aerospace, etc) who are strong in physics are probably good and happy engineers, who are well received at interviews.
To put it another way, for someone who is a physics undergrad and doesn't want to do get a phd (which will take roughly 5-7 years, I believe), what are their non-academic options, besides becoming a high school teacher? I hear that physics grads are paid better than anyone else. I hear that physics grads go into a diverse group of fields such as (taken from physics.org):
- Communication
- Environmental
- Space
- Energy
- Medicine
- Architecture/Civil Engeering
- Law & Finance
- Sports and Games
- Music and Television
- Transportation
Is any of this actually available to a physics grad after they get their bachelors? Doesn't virtually all of this require additional degrees, or at least large amounts of coursework? Am I missing something?
note: one thing I left out is that you can get a masters: this makes you applicable for adjunct teaching positions in higher education... but I think this is rarely a career choice people make, except out of necessity.
 
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Good blog! I knew someone who had extensive physics training, and did a lot of work in computation. All the experience he got from coding physics simulations, he eventually moved on to be a software engineer in a field unrelated to science. Granted he picked up all his experience in a PhD and postdoc positions.
One misconception I had going into undergrad is that I was really focused on my own major (chem), so I tried to get as much relevant information out of my coursework so I could move on to do something chemistry related. I found the world is very multidiscplinary, so its worth to explore other topics and just focus on building technical skills such as coding, lab techniques, and otherwise to make yourself look employable.
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Out of own experience with Physics courses; if you manage to get a good physics degree, most jobs will be easily approachable, just because of your ability to access and solve problems.
edit: If you think about it, it is obvious, pretty much everything you mentioned is existing because of brilliant physicist.
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I'm seeing a lot of job entries for "optics engineer" when I search monster.com with "BS physics".
My guess would be a niche engineering position that you can't directly get a degree in. Then once you get experience you can move into standard engineering or software positions.
btw, if you learn LabVIEW there is a whole market out there for control, test automation, etc. I know for a fact that you can make a career out of that if you desire to.
I think test engineering is a viable path for those with a BS in physics.
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United States24734 Posts
On March 09 2013 15:54 gaymon wrote:
Out of own experience with Physics courses; if you manage to get a good physics degree, most jobs will be easily approachable, just because of your ability to access and solve problems.
edit: If you think about it, it is obvious, pretty much everything you mentioned is existing because of brilliant physicist.
You sound just like these websites I mentioned. Exactly which jobs are approachable without additional training beyond a bachelors in physics? It's easy to say how wonderfully qualified physics grads are, but I just can't find evidence to back it up.
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On March 09 2013 16:35 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 09 2013 15:54 gaymon wrote:
Out of own experience with Physics courses; if you manage to get a good physics degree, most jobs will be easily approachable, just because of your ability to access and solve problems.
edit: If you think about it, it is obvious, pretty much everything you mentioned is existing because of brilliant physicist. You sound just like these websites I mentioned. Exactly which jobs are approachable without additional training beyond a bachelors in physics? It's easy to say how wonderfully qualified physics grads are, but I just can't find evidence to back it up.
Cant really answer that question because i have no idea how the job-market looks like and what skills are actually needed but that was just an estimation.
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United States24734 Posts
On March 09 2013 15:57 fight_or_flight wrote:
I'm seeing a lot of job entries for "optics engineer" when I search monster.com with "BS physics".
My guess would be a niche engineering position that you can't directly get a degree in. Then once you get experience you can move into standard engineering or software positions.
btw, if you learn LabVIEW there is a whole market out there for control, test automation, etc. I know for a fact that you can make a career out of that if you desire to.
I think test engineering is a viable path for those with a BS in physics.
I'm doing some searching along these lines and so far everything requires experience or academic specialization. It's late so I'll look more deeply tomorrow, but maybe you could show a couple of examples? As for labview I should read up on that.
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it seems to me that a lot of pure science degrees are kind of in the same boat. Great you have a bachelors in chemistry what are my options beside lab work and teaching?
There more often springboards for doctors and stuff.
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It doesn't have to be additional coursework. It could be involvement in undergrad research that employers find attractive.
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I think with a degree in physics you are about on the same footing as an engineer when it comes to the same kind of jobs. Those that have trouble getting a job are those who have picked courses, projects and work experience more geared towards academia. As with most education, if you first start thinking about what you want to do after your schooling after you're done, it's going to be harder to get a job afterwards.
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Not to say doing physics is useless, i mean if you wanna study it, i guess it's not problem. But from a graduate perspective, it's not really time-efficient, as in, the work that you put in (physics isn't all that easy) doesn't pay off as much as you would expect. For medicine and law, employers look at your marks for your med and law degree along with work experience (if any) related to the industry. For law, extra curricular activities are taken into consideration, so whether or not you did a physics degree doesn't matter.
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As a future Physics student; I'd like to know as well.
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Physics grads are paid better than anyone else? I'm highly suspicious of that fact. You can do a lot with a physics degree, but usually it boils down to some kind of programming or engineering. In both cases, the average physics grad is going to be earning less than the average CS or engineering grad.
On the other hand, there are a lot of physics Phds earning incredible amounts of money in finance. But again, if finance is what you're aiming for, you're still better off getting your degree in finance.
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moktira
Ireland1545 Posts
There are a lot of jobs in industry that hire people with physics degrees. Right now photonics is pretty big business and it's mostly physicists who are hired (check out the Tyndall Institute in Ireland for example, probably most of the companies associated with it would also hire physicists). One of my physics lecturers worked for a photonics company in Silicon Valley. A good few of my friends went into photonics.
Lab technician jobs do not require PhDs either. You can also get jobs in observatories, one of my friends did this for 6 months in the Canary Islands after his degree.
There are also research jobs that are not destined for pure academia, these will often require you begin doing a PhD but will pay you while you are doing it so it's effectively a job with a large amount of further training.
I'm pretty sure the IOP did something before about physicists working as opticians before. Also radiologists in hospitals are often physicists who received on-the-job training, I considered applying for a job in that before I decided to do a PhD, I heard later that the person who got it was a physics graduate.
Of the people I know who did physics and didn't do a PhD; one got a job with Intel, another in Sellafield (a nuclear power plant). I also know both gas and electricity companies in Ireland hire people with physics degrees, I imagine this is the same with a lot of energy companies.
Less pure physics jobs you can get are in IT, such as IT consultants for businesses which one of my friends is. Also provided you got competent training in programming software engineering is a possibility. Two of my friends went into finance, one chartered accounting and the other actuary (though he had a masters). Both of these did require further training but that was necessary for finance graduates too. One of my friends also got a job with the Irish radio and television company but the requirement there might have just been a degree and the fact that she did physics may not have been taken into account.
Also one guy in my year got a job with Apple and another does in game support with Blizzard, but again I'm not sure if their degrees in physics had any impact in getting those positions.
And a lot of people I know who did physics did not plan to do a PhD after but changed their minds as they went further with it and there is good funding opportunities for PhDs in physics (in Europe at least).
There's also science journalism but that most likely would involve extra courses, still, we need better science media correspondents.
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I went to an engineering school and had one physics major friend. He went on to be a graduate research assistant at Los Alamos National Lab for a few years then went to John Hopkins APL to be an analyst. As to what he actually does, he can't tell me without killing me. Or something to do with E Coli. It does pay pretty well, approaching 100k for government work with a few years experience, but probably the money is in consulting.
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As it's the most difficult major after Mathematics, don't worry. I have a friend who studied Physics and he is now a strategy consultant. All the business stuff is just details that you learn on the job anyway, If you are able to study physics, you could have studied anything else. It's basically a 4 year long IQ test. Not all employers know this but the interesting ones do. So what you've proven by getting a degree in Physics is that you have a big brain. This alone can get you hired in many places.
What you may lack is detailed knowledge or specific skills. However, there are many opportunities to become an excellent programmer during an undergrad. You can also do a minor in finance ( and ace it since you can do physics ) or chemistry. You can also go towards engineering. This way you will get the best of both worlds.
In summary, physics is a godly degree. You can have many options that CS/Engineering/Business majors have, but you also have a lot of opportunities that they don't.
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United States24734 Posts
On March 09 2013 19:44 moktira wrote:
There are a lot of jobs in industry that hire people with physics degrees. Right now photonics is pretty big business and it's mostly physicists who are hired (check out the Tyndall Institute in Ireland for example, probably most of the companies associated with it would also hire physicists). One of my physics lecturers worked for a photonics company in Silicon Valley. A good few of my friends went into photonics.
Lab technician jobs do not require PhDs either. You can also get jobs in observatories, one of my friends did this for 6 months in the Canary Islands after his degree.
There are also research jobs that are not destined for pure academia, these will often require you begin doing a PhD but will pay you while you are doing it so it's effectively a job with a large amount of further training.
I'm pretty sure the IOP did something before about physicists working as opticians before. Also radiologists in hospitals are often physicists who received on-the-job training, I considered applying for a job in that before I decided to do a PhD, I heard later that the person who got it was a physics graduate.
Of the people I know who did physics and didn't do a PhD; one got a job with Intel, another in Sellafield (a nuclear power plant). I also know both gas and electricity companies in Ireland hire people with physics degrees, I imagine this is the same with a lot of energy companies.
Less pure physics jobs you can get are in IT, such as IT consultants for businesses which one of my friends is. Also provided you got competent training in programming software engineering is a possibility. Two of my friends went into finance, one chartered accounting and the other actuary (though he had a masters). Both of these did require further training but that was necessary for finance graduates too. One of my friends also got a job with the Irish radio and television company but the requirement there might have just been a degree and the fact that she did physics may not have been taken into account.
Also one guy in my year got a job with Apple and another does in game support with Blizzard, but again I'm not sure if their degrees in physics had any impact in getting those positions.
And a lot of people I know who did physics did not plan to do a PhD after but changed their minds as they went further with it and there is good funding opportunities for PhDs in physics (in Europe at least).
There's also science journalism but that most likely would involve extra courses, still, we need better science media correspondents.
This is a great post. Unfortunately, I can't find any evidence to support many of the claims (this may just be my fault). I've been searching all morning for job listings which accept entry level physics grads, and am coming up with almost nothing. I found a few things which require very specialized knowledge, a few things which require years of experience, a few things which require a strong programming background, and other things which block the typical physics grad despite listing a physics bachelors as a possible qualifying credential.
I didn't find much for lab technicians, although I'll keep looking. I haven't searched for observatories as those tend to be far away from where you/I live. Maybe I'm just not good at job searching, and am missing lots of great examples.
It seems like the biggest hurdle to getting a job for a physics graduate is if they don't know a lot of coding...
On March 09 2013 20:19 Tommie wrote:
As it's the most difficult major after Mathematics, don't worry. I have a friend who studied Physics and he is now a strategy consultant. All the business stuff is just details that you learn on the job anyway, If you are able to study physics, you could have studied anything else. It's basically a 4 year long IQ test. Not all employers know this but the interesting ones do. So what you've proven by getting a degree in Physics is that you have a big brain. This alone can get you hired in many places.
What you may lack is detailed knowledge or specific skills. However, there are many opportunities to become an excellent programmer during an undergrad. You can also do a minor in finance ( and ace it since you can do physics ) or chemistry. You can also go towards engineering. This way you will get the best of both worlds.
In summary, physics is a godly degree. You can have many options that CS/Engineering/Business majors have, but you also have a lot of opportunities that they don't.
This sounds great but I can't find these opportunities! If I can find a few job listings that match what we are discussing, I can point people to them and be like "see, if you search around you will find stuff..." but so far I can't find the stuff myself.
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This sounds great but I can't find these opportunities! If I can find a few job listings that match what we are discussing, I can point people to them and be like "see, if you search around you will find stuff..." but so far I can't find the stuff myself.
From what I read on different boards(read reddit) on the same topic. It seems that there is a difference between the job market for Physicists in Europe and the US. My view is that company's in Europe are more willing to train Phycists because there is a lack of engineers(in the Netherlands at least) and pretty much everyone that studies at a University in the Netherlands/Europe won't stop after his bachelors but will atleast get a Masters. Anyway, maybe just try applying for any job which seems as if it could fit with your Math/Physics background? I'm going to try and study both Math and Physics and when I was looking around at university's they showed that about 15% with a Math and/or Physics degree(Masters) went to work at Banks and another 15/20 % at large phone company's. Idk what they are doing there but maybe you can look around?
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United States24734 Posts
On March 09 2013 15:57 fight_or_flight wrote:
btw, if you learn LabVIEW there is a whole market out there for control, test automation, etc. I know for a fact that you can make a career out of that if you desire to.
I did a little looking into this finally... any idea how to learn this? This software starts at 1000 dollars!
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EPT
