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On March 10 2013 02:03 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +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!
Torrents.
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United States24437 Posts
On March 10 2013 02:04 Recognizable wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 02:03 micronesia wrote: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! Torrents. I look forward to the interview question: so how did you learn LabView? XD
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On March 10 2013 02:05 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 02:04 Recognizable wrote:On March 10 2013 02:03 micronesia wrote: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! Torrents. I look forward to the interview question: so how did you learn LabView? XD
Why would they care? As if all the design company's care that pretty much everyone they hired torrented Photoshop at some point ^.^. Frankly, photoshop is easily crackable because they want individuals to use their products because when they start working at company's/start their own company they will have to buy the product they got used too or they can face legal action. Probably the same for this piece of software. You can tell them you learned it in your own spare time because you were bored and it seemed like a good idea. That will show them your great work ethic
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moktira
Ireland1541 Posts
On March 10 2013 01:18 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +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... Well what I said was certainly anecdotal based on people I know and have met over the last few years in my field, also it's worth pointing out (similar to what Recognizable said) that these were all in Europe (and mostly Ireland) and also that I graduated in 2007 so I'm giving you 5 year old information in the wrong region. Still, if you wish I can find evidence to back it up in Ireland and probably the UK and Europe too but it could indeed be very different in the US.
I just glanced at some websites that I have looked at in the past and they might give some indication rather than general searching. inspire for example is good and is US based, though mostly academic there are jobs for graduates listed too. PhysicsToday also gives a good list and I've applied the filter for degree here.
Non-US; tip-top through IOP which seems to have changed to brightrecruits since I was last on it gives a good list in Europe and, again while mostly in academia, there are positions aimed at graduates in the two links I provided. The IOP have advice on this in the UK which might be applicable in the US too.
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You can also go into computer science with physics degrees. Many good jobs for those people.
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My Dad did his masters in theoretical physics. He taught highschool and later became a stock broker.
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get a Physics degree
get into Finance because a Physics degree is a pretty good indicator that you're smarter than most Finance majors and you'll be able to understand the math side of Finance and work with the algorithms that influence/predict financial markets
make bank
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United States24437 Posts
On March 10 2013 04:06 udgnim wrote: get into Finance Can you elaborate on this part...?
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On March 10 2013 04:20 micronesia wrote:Can you elaborate on this part...? Well, one could take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Even if you only have the "inactive CPA" designation, a CPA with a physics degree would probably find a job in finance fairly quickly.
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United States24437 Posts
On March 10 2013 04:31 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 04:20 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:06 udgnim wrote: get into Finance Can you elaborate on this part...? Well, one could take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Even if you only have the "inactive CPA" designation, a CPA with a physics degree would probably find a job in finance fairly quickly. I was just reading through the material covered on that exam... not much of it was covered in my physics degree. How would someone go about passing this test without training? A tremendous amount of self-study?
I've heard the exam to become a CPA is not easy; I think a cousin of mine took it several times before he passed (this was many years ago, though).
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On March 10 2013 02:03 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +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! Yes.
First of all, most universities should have licenses freely available to students. If they don't simply contact NI and they'll work with you.
Most schools don't have any class that teaches labview, and it's something they may use only to be able to use a piece of hardware to control it or grab data off of it. Usually a grad student will learn just enough of it to write some type of procedure, and people will try to follow it. No one will have any idea what they are doing and it can be frustrating.
However, if you want to learn it in an academic environment, I suggest using it to simplify your final project. Once you've used it to do a big project, you can then pretty easily get the first level of certification and then ask NI if there are any local companies looking for a physics student who is certified in labview.
The second way to go about learning it is in a hobby environment. You can get a full labview license for personal use plus an arduino for $49. That's like getting labview for $20. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11225
I believe you have access to free online training once you have a labview license to help train you. There are three levels of training, basic, medium, and advanced. This used to be relatively expensive to get a hold of, but now it comes with the license.
edit: oh yeah, you can get a fully functioning version for 30 days free trial. 1 free trial per machine (unless you re-image it)
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On March 10 2013 05:26 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 04:31 farvacola wrote:On March 10 2013 04:20 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:06 udgnim wrote: get into Finance Can you elaborate on this part...? Well, one could take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Even if you only have the "inactive CPA" designation, a CPA with a physics degree would probably find a job in finance fairly quickly. I was just reading through the material covered on that exam... not much of it was covered in my physics degree. How would someone go about passing this test without training? A tremendous amount of self-study? I've heard the exam to become a CPA is not easy; I think a cousin of mine took it several times before he passed (this was many years ago, though). Well I'm not the best authority on test taking, so you may be right. I'm not suggesting that physics degrees confer much knowledge in regards to accounting, rather that they look good in the eyes of employers one might not think of. An individual is still going to need to be rather resourceful and inherently bright to make divergent paths meet in such a way.
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On March 10 2013 05:38 farvacola wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 05:26 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:31 farvacola wrote:On March 10 2013 04:20 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:06 udgnim wrote: get into Finance Can you elaborate on this part...? Well, one could take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Even if you only have the "inactive CPA" designation, a CPA with a physics degree would probably find a job in finance fairly quickly. I was just reading through the material covered on that exam... not much of it was covered in my physics degree. How would someone go about passing this test without training? A tremendous amount of self-study? I've heard the exam to become a CPA is not easy; I think a cousin of mine took it several times before he passed (this was many years ago, though). Well I'm not the best authority on test taking, so you may be right. I'm not suggesting that physics degrees confer much knowledge in regards to accounting, rather that they look good in the eyes of employers one might not think of. An individual is still going to need to be rather resourceful and inherently bright to make divergent paths meet in such a way.
Isn't this an accountancy test?
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On March 10 2013 07:09 Recognizable wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 05:38 farvacola wrote:On March 10 2013 05:26 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:31 farvacola wrote:On March 10 2013 04:20 micronesia wrote:On March 10 2013 04:06 udgnim wrote: get into Finance Can you elaborate on this part...? Well, one could take the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. Even if you only have the "inactive CPA" designation, a CPA with a physics degree would probably find a job in finance fairly quickly. I was just reading through the material covered on that exam... not much of it was covered in my physics degree. How would someone go about passing this test without training? A tremendous amount of self-study? I've heard the exam to become a CPA is not easy; I think a cousin of mine took it several times before he passed (this was many years ago, though). Well I'm not the best authority on test taking, so you may be right. I'm not suggesting that physics degrees confer much knowledge in regards to accounting, rather that they look good in the eyes of employers one might not think of. An individual is still going to need to be rather resourceful and inherently bright to make divergent paths meet in such a way. Isn't this an accountancy test? Yes, 'twas in response to Micronesia's inquiry in regards to how one with a physics background might get into finance. My only point is that employers look favorably on degrees like physics, even in unrelated fields like finance. Now whether or not a holder of a physics degree is actually good at accounting or the like is another question entirely.
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I am currently doing a joint honours in physics and computer science, I predict a lot of job prospects. The combination of strong programming and physics based skills such as problem solving etc is very desirable.
Personally I want to look into defence and weapon systems.
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Physics is a very good foundation, but it doesn't necessarily translate into useful on the job skills. This is the problem you have to overcome either with experience (via internships or related job experience) or additional schooling (proficiency exams or graduate programs) to demonstrate that you have the basic skill set to fulfill the necessary responsibilities. It is unlikely that the door will be shut in your face with respect to a broad area of employment opportunities given a physics degree (as opposed to other concentrations which are more narrowly tailored to specific jobs), but the degree will not in itself be sufficient to get you hired. You've got to show some kind of practical proficiency in some manner or another, especially if it's been a while since you graduated.
When you're in school it's about the degree, GPA, and internships. But once you've been out for a while, your relevant work experience is more important than your degree and GPA. And if you extend the time far enough, the latter almost becomes nonexistent in comparison to the former.
Also CPA =/= finance. CFA is for finance. But a masters would probably serve you better given the long period you've been a teacher (I assume). You could also try to become an actuary with the P exams. But it really depends on what you want to do, then tailoring your experience/exams to show you're a valuable prospect to interested employers.
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there are jobs out there a physics degree holder can do, but basically none of them are specifically tailored towards physics undergrads. many mentioned consulting/finance etc, but they also hire english and history majors. what i'm trying to say is this. real life work and school are often times completely irrelevant. many of these finance jobs require at most high school math and no more. what they expect from you isn't knowledge, its your ability learn and learn quickly. Unless we're talking about highly technical fields like software engineering or accounting, where you're expected to have some sort of foundation, most jobs are trained on the job. Don't limit yourself by asking "what can a physics degree undergrad can do." you can do pretty much anything if you can sell yourself. On the other hand, if you want some type of research or highly technical jobs, I suggest you go to grad school
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United States24437 Posts
On March 10 2013 13:09 dongmydrum wrote: Don't limit yourself by asking "what can a physics degree undergrad can do." you can do pretty much anything if you can sell yourself. Most job listings specifically have requirements that you will not meet unless you do other things in addition to having a degree in physics. It's certainly worth deciding which of these jobs you are interested in and then trying to meet those requirements through self study, additional coursework, internships, or whatever else, but that's not really the point of the discussion. The point is, are there jobs you can get without having to meet other major requirements? If no, then ok, but the world is very dishonest about this fact which is rather damaging to young physics hopefuls. If yes, then I'm trying to find them, and having great difficulty.
On the other hand, if you want some type of research or highly technical jobs, I suggest you go to grad school Serious research seems to go hand in hand with a phd. Highly technical jobs, from what I've seen, can be prepared for by getting a relevant MS. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
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The problem you will run into with a standard undergrad physics degree is that more companies willing to hire entry-level technical folks are looking for probably an engineering degree, even though they will list degrees like Physics as a suitable pre-req to apply. Just need to wow them with your problem solving skills. When you applied to college did you want to be a generic "scientist" I guess? What "ideal" job do you think you want? Back when I was in school I thought that was Biomedical Engineering for me, and ended up getting a double major with it ... but ended up not working down that path and don't even list it on my base resume anymore.
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On March 10 2013 02:05 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2013 02:04 Recognizable wrote:On March 10 2013 02:03 micronesia wrote: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! Torrents. I look forward to the interview question: so how did you learn LabView? XD
Well, this probably doesn't help but I'm finishing up my engineering undergrad and we use LabView a bit, but we have student licenses provided. Also, if you want to use LabView the point is interfacing with test equipment and stuff which isn't cheap at all either unfortunately.
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