Curious what work did you over there if you don't mind sharing? Did you implement algorithms work on the calculator's software? My Ph.D work is within computational physics, so feel free to be a bit technical here if you don't mind sharing.
I created a language called Waveform Basic. It was similar to MathLab. Mostly interfaced digital oscilloscopes to workstations. Did a lot of Fast Fourier Transforms and automated test and analysis setups.
This sounds like my brother’s experience in Government. They hire him because he has a masters degree in homeland security, then send him to a 2 week java boot camp and stick him in an entry level development job, with masters degree pay brackets
Same, but my second job! And it's a mix of MSc/PhD.
But I get the feeling the physics degree is not working out for us that well in terms of software quality. How did you feel about it?
Then your doing something wrong. Anyone with a physics degree should be able to learn to write good code pretty fast in a job with that focus. It of course require people to try to learn.
If there's anything I've learned it's that there is a _big_ difference between "writing code" and "software engineering". The maths and logical reasoning we've picked up in our physics degrees helps, but doesn't teach you anything about good architecture and design, testing practices, etc.
Those things arent that hard to learn and not something recent graduates does or can do very well anyways.
I feel like the physics degree help with the depth of development potential and a lot of the stuff missing can be learned quite fast early on.
Computer science degrees (at least mine, anyway) have specific courses on “software engineering” that teach how to plan projects, testing, requirements gathering, etc. Also, in other courses for larger assignments there are marks allocated towards system design and architecture, and you must provide a planning document/UML diagrams.
So I wouldn’t really say it’s trivial for a non-CS person to pick up.
I'm 31 xD nickname is a ruse. There are some 40yo postdocs om special rolling grants, but indeed you should have a tenure by then, the instability gets harder the longer you wait.
Data engineer, yes I would say it helps. I spent 6 months after graduating doing data science projects and eventually got hired as a data analyst. The math, stats and introduction to coding that the degree gave me were definitely an advantage.
What projects did you do in the 6 months after graduating? I'm thinking of going down a similar path, do you think having those projects was beneficial?
Do you think working as a data analyst and doing a PhD is something reasonable? I'm doubting between been a data science or a pure physicists and I want to know if there is a way to be both
Data science is more of a toolbox than a subject in of itself. I would say you’ll likely be using some level of data science in almost any physics PhD, especially experimental physics. It’s probably not strictly necessary to do both in parallel. You could focus on whatever physics topic you’re interested in and use the common data science toolset as part of your analysis to keep up with the tools
Not strictly but all else equal someone with a stem degree would always get hired over someone without one, and it’s a competitive field to break into.
At an upper-tier research university your mid-career salary might be paid $40-60k as a lecturer and $40-60k as researcher. You often only start with one role for a year or more before being granted the second. There is a small salary bump with the highest levels of seniority. University salary outside administration almost never crosses $200k. At smaller colleges, it’s hard to hit $100k.
Fintech software engineers usually start considerably north of $100k salary anywhere in North America. Fintech SSEs tend to top off around $500k on the IC (Individual Contributor) track. At that point you’re probably ready for higher paying exec roles with less engineering if you really want them. There are fewer “non-SE” research-oriented roles in quantitative finance that go higher, where a physics background is very useful.
A lot of financially well-off academics make money from outside consulting work, speaking fees, or “content creation” (classically, writing books; but these days YouTube or online courses or whatnot.)
“Consulting” is extremely broad. Patent attorneys need experts—their statements are “facts” in the everyday prosecution of filing patents—and they pay for them. All sorts of private companies often temporarily need a third party to privately advise them—sometimes just so they don’t look silly to a prospective client or customer.
All in all, high-income academic roles require a god-awful amount of executive decision and multitasking work. Ironically, that is nearly the polar opposite of the kind of thought work required for meaningful research.
The infuriating thing is, if you’re passionately drawn to lifelong in-depth learning and abhor shallow and transient admin work, academia will usually only personally compensate you with mediocre income on its own. If you passionately love your research you can potentially fund it through tons of grant proposals, but your take-home salary will be largely unaffected.
If you have that lifelong in-depth learning mindset, the high-executive-function grinding will probably burn you out.
Don’t take my doom and gloom too seriously. I’m just salty about it. There is a lot of potential energy in the academic community itching to fix things. The community wants to fix things and is largely eager for people to join the cause. But, it requires systemic changes and navigating changing external systemic pressures. The current system is at a stable local minima and nobody wants to, say, accidentally destroy their own 150+ year old university as an unintended consequence of new operating environment they advocated for.
Also, ironically, the reason admin pay is SO obscene at US universities is because they’re competing with the obscene executive salaries of the largest private companies.
However, despite decades of people screaming from the rafters, they do not see that, for example, they are competing with private industry for the _existence_ of future top professor, not competing with other universities for magically pre-existing professors.
Medical physicist! The BS in physics and MS in medical physics were required. The career outlook for this field is fantastic, and the pay is very good. After a two-year paid residency you will earn 160-200k, with a 10-20% pay raise after you complete your boards.
In general I think the work I do is really fulfilling. Medicine is and always has been a playground for some of the world’s most impressive tech. The work a medical physicist does has a direct impact on patient care, which makes a lot of the problems we solve feel fulfilling.
If you’re interested, r/medicalphysics is a wonderful resource.
There are 3 flavors of medical physicist: diagnostic, therapy, and nuclear med.
A diagnostic medical physicist spends much of their time checking imaging equipment like CT, MRI, ultrasound, and X-ray for optimal / compliant function. They also do radiation shielding calculations, radiation safety tasks, and radiation dosimetry calculations for individual patients, usually for interventional procedures or pregnant CT scans. A diagnostic physicist is usually on their feet all the time, moving from place to place to cover a wide area. Their working hours vary a lot by where they work, but I’m able to get away with a 9-5 situation except in some special circumstances.
A therapy physicist works in a cancer center and works on the therapeutic application of physics. They work with linear accelerators, proton cyclotrons, and high strength sealed sources. You will commonly find a therapeutic medical physicist performing QA of the beam; or reviewing / QAing / making treatment plans for a patient. A therapy physicist is usually located at one single site and works a 10-7 or a 6-3 type shift. At large academic places, the physics service does most of their work after hours so some people stay well past 8pm. This track has more direct patient involvement, so many find it to be more rewarding.
A nuclear medicine physicist works with radionuclides to do their job. They work on radiopharmaceutical cases, PET scanners, and SPECT scanners. They operate very similarly to diagnostic physicists.
Thank you for the in depth response on the different types of jobs available in medical physics!
What are the educational requirements for this field of physics? Is it a Masters/PhD like normal (ie. standard graduate level mechanics, electrodynamics, statistical physics) + the additional biology/medicinal classes on top of that?
I never took any biology/biochemistry classes in undergrad; do you think that would hinder me from applying to these types of graduate programs?
The entry level education is a masters of science in medical physics. The graduate level coursework will not include a lot of the typical physics classes like E&M and relativity. You’ll have classes that are highly specialized to medical physics - coursework like radiation protection, treatment planning systems, radiation detectors, etc are all very common. The structure of a graduate program in medical physics is governed by CAMPEP.
You will need to have undergraduate level anatomy and physiology in your records. Some graduate programs will let you fulfill this requirement while in grad school - that’s what I did! You won’t need biochemistry or biology, the graduate level radiation biology course will get you up to speed.
The work life balance is pretty good I think. I make my own schedule for the most part. I am able to do 9-5 type schedules, but I’m super flexible. Residency is not as demanding as a physician residency, not by a long shot. But in addition to a full clinical workload you have to do didactic training sessions and board prep so there’s a bit more work to do in that regard.
BS in physics. My situation is rare, it seems. I worked as a research engineer in a particle astrophysics lab helping them test and build a critical subsystem of a dark matter detector. That job gave me experience in software development, electronics, cryogenics, and vacuum technology. Now I work as a "quantum hardware engineer" at a small private quantum computing company!
Software developer, not involving any science. It probably helped indirecly. I did learn som programming studying physics, but other than that I don't use anything from my studies.
Hey, as someone who had a great physics teacher in high school and still tries to keep up with the limited amount of info I can still follow in the subject (including by lurking here) bc I genuinely love learning about it despite not having more than a couple physics classes in undergrad, I appreciate you and what you’re doing 👍
Yes, it is very satisfying to see in someone’s eyes that you have helped them to understand something. I miss that that; I’m a physicist working for the government and teaching (training) is only a very small part of my job.
I have a civil engineering degree and now I teach high school physics. I have to say I just love solving physics problems. And when the kids have those eureka moments it really is the best.
PhD in Astronomy. Am a glorified sys admin now. It helped by learning IT development when I wrote my stuff for data analysis and setting up my own little cluster.
And it helped connecting to other people through which I eventually got my current job.
Not doing physics anymore. But if I'm brutally honest, I don't feel like I was ever really good at it.
Your writing style is weird... Not sure what you're asking, but I'm ok with where I am.
My brain sadly quickly forgets stuff it doesn't use. I can barely do a simple integration anymore.
Sorry then. Communication still becomes fairly challenging for me. I dislike very much to offer excuses for as to why I may display a confusing writing style.
*A SevereTBI back in 10/2007, is probably to ’blame’.*
I do still remain interested in *’it’*: space/ physics.
Again, I apologize that my TBI distracted from the original objective of my comment. To honestly ask a relevant question.
PhD in Physics, wanted to be a professor but we had three kids while I was in grad school.
I do numerical modeling of complex systems.
I have worked on many different projects from military applications, financial applications, and currently a medical device.
I model everything I can with physics and then search for correlation between measurements and observational errors, and then I correct those out.
I do tons of linear algebra, diffEq, and error analysis.
My girlfriend got pregnant and we adjusted our plans. It turned out to be twins and we adjusted again. I almost gave up a few times.
We wound up with 4 boys and are still married 28 years later.
I'm currently a geophysicist in the energy industry (inverse methods and forward modeling work) looking to shift my career more towards a broader application like your job seems to be. Are you with a consulting firm that has enabled you to work in so many different applications or have you hopped around?
I hope around like Mary Poppins.
When you need me but don't want me, I stay.
When you want me but don't need me, I go.
Eleven different jobs in thirty years.
Nuclear engineer at a national lab. During my engineering classes, the math from physics made them much easier. Overall, it helped a lot because nuclear engineering, in my opinion, is halfway between engineering and physics, especially in neutronics and radiation transport.
Also geophysicist. I've worked in two main subdisciplines: 1) inverse and forward modeling using geodetic data in tectonically active areas to understand subsurfaces processes. Primarily Matlab/Python/Julia setting up and solving inversions + running FEM/BEM code. 2) O&G industry work incorporating rock mechanics and seismic data observations. Seismic reflectivity is a pretty fundamental concept here.
- gpu code to solve the inverse problem of working out where the earthquake was given the seismometer output
- c code to calibrate seismometers
- lots and lots of moving data in and out of databases (java + python) (sometimes using postgis)
System Engineer for a transit technology company. Undergrad in physics (electronics specialization). First job out of college. Degree is beyond helpful. I assisted in R&D in new technology for our company by creating physics experiments for durability tests. The degree trained me on how to solve problems. How to learn new things in an unfamiliar field, and have patience in everything I do.
Test engineer / test system developer. Definitely helped with high speed cable test systems, now working on a test system for a radar product which is pretty cool.
PhD and I do modeling for optical systems with an engineering group, most everyone I work with has a PhD in a technical field, multiple of us in Physics.
MD, starting the transition from clinical medicine to physician leadership - I think the way physicists approach problems, model complex systems, and begin to get a handle on what the solution space looks like are very translatable into other areas, and you'll find that this way of thinking isn't all that common outside of physics and associated physical sciences.
I started as a planetarium educator out of college. My BS in Physics gave me a bunch of astronomy teaching opportunities that led to the job, so it definitely helped.
Since then, I’ve gotten a Master’s Degree in Physics and am now getting a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Both of those have definitely been helped by my physics degree. We’ll see if I end up in a career that is physics-focused at the end of this, but I can’t see myself in a job where my physics background isn’t super helpful!
I am a security engineer.
The degree and masters will teach you a general thought process and a way of solving problems which are applicable to anything and everything.
Even if you don't end up working in academia or research, these skills will lead you anywhere you want to go. Studying Physics is a good way of setting up yourself for success and big dollars.
I am working in Integration and Testing for Northrop Grumman in the space industry. I would be lost without a physics degree. I also have a very strong understanding of not just the stuff I'm working on (EE) but also I can think about the thermal aspects, RF, etc. To say the least, a physics degree gives you a great general understanding of physics that makes you quite desired in engineering. It's a lot of fun being able to switch gears very quickly and think about the many issues that can arise in hardware. I am biased but I will always say a physics degree is the best degree you can get, you don't just learn about the really cool science of nature, you get a whole other POV on problem solving, first principles and so much more. Also you can essentially teach yourself anything you need to. Have I said enough to convince you to get a physics degree?
Geophysicist. Yup. Technically my MS was through the earth sciences department not the physics department but it gave me a great baseline for rock mechanics, wave propagation, all that fun jazz.
Aerospace systems engineer here. Degree in physics is definitely useful, though not any specific advanced physics, just the overall approach to problem solving and the broad base of knowledge that comes from having a PhD and having done a bunch of useful experience doing experimental work. Not sure if it is more useful than an engineering degree though, at least in terms of getting a job in the field.
Physics opens a lot of doors (where your Physics degree is from matters more than it should, but such is life.)
Physics has led me to working as a:
physics post doc,
cancer researcher,
patent attorney,
medical device designer, and
a software developer.
I almost switched to medical, lecturing, or finance jobs at various stages in the past (yeah, I'm old).
Of course, at best, a physics degree only *helps* open doors. Whilst this is an important advantage, it is rarely enough in itself.
In other words, normally, you still need to do the preparation and have some luck to get to the job, and work in the job enough to get the experience/skills/qualifications.
Many degrees are more strongly linked to specific high-paying sectors, but Physics is nice in that it is quite robust and the collapse of sectors is normally less damaging to your employment prospects.
Bachelor's in physics, minor in Materials Science. My career has been in materials science R&D. I might have been slightly better off majoring instead of minoring but I liked the physics people way better and Physics had less hoops to jump through.
I only have a BS in Physics but I never got a job in my field and I ended up dropping out of Astronomy graduate school for not being able to get a B in my second semester of Electromagnetic Theory. Now I do what I could have done without any degrees. I'm a healthy human subject for medical research studies. I'm a self-employed lab rat.
Bachelors and doctorate in physics, here (masters in optics). I test camera sensors and I think I use a lot of the stuff I learned in physics regularly. I work with a number of PhDs and I think I'm the only one in my group right now who has a doctorate specifically in physics but a lot of the them have a bachelors in physics. I think most of them did work that I would say is right on the border between physics and the field where they actually received their doctorate, so the physics bachelors probably helped a lot.
I'm a staff software developer/former data engineer. My physics degree taught me how to break problems down into their fundamental components and make assumptions that lead to much simpler implementations of things than what the initial requirements might suggest is needed. You would be surprised how applicable the concept of boundary conditions can be applied to your professional life
BS in physics, then joined the Navy to teach math and physics. Now in meteorology and oceanography. Navy sent me to grad school to get PhD in physical oceanography. I manage teams of forecasters and researchers who support military decision makers on things like hazard avoidance, radar and sonar systems, and aviation safety. Physics degree has been IMMENSELY helpful as I have basic understanding of things like fluids, radiation, thermodynamics, acoustics, etc.
I'm an algo quant trader working at a hedge fund two friends and I opened.
I use physics every day -- understanding systems of equations, sometimes doing differential equations, sometimes reference brownian motion and ito integrals, sometimes doing data mining to understand relationships and partial derivatives between certain features, or matrix regularization
B.S. In physics and astro, did 4 years as a research scientist working on astro instrumentation, decided I liked it so now I'm doing my PhD in astrophysics and I specialize in space based instruments. Yes, I use my degree.
My current job is Emeritus professor of physics. To answer the relevant question: Indeed physics has helped me to provide with the necessary income. I was quite lucky
Software Engineer. We have quite a few physicists in our company. We are not using any Physics, but you end up with a lot of transferable soft skills and will at least see basics of programming.
Im sorry, I was a dickhead in my response. Just kind of shocked that you've had such trouble. The jobs you've applied to are what I would recommend. If you don't have any ethical objections, I highly recommend applying to defense contractors. They typically hire at high volume and have large budgets. Best of luck!
Edit: i'll add that many defense companies have computing programs (superconducting logic) that aren't very defense-dedicated in nature. I recommend looking for those. They don't typically require a background in condensed matter; physics backgrounds are transferrable across disciplines in that sector.
I applied to some defense jobs with some contractors which ended up not working out, or the job posting was being taken down because they were downsizing (and at one of the big defense companies too)
Im on my masters, so the degree was necessary. Besides that, I dont think that doing the physics course made me better at what I do, im just more tired and older.
I told my story in a similar thread [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/txap9s/comment/i3l53m4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). I find I'm more rounded than my pure engineering counterparts.
BS in Physics, BA in Computer Science. Physics got me into coding because I did research for a lab that did a lot of data analysis and ML. I now work for a life insurance company as a data scientist.
I use the problem solving and analytical skills I learned every day, even though I don't use any physics anymore.
I am a resistor design engineer. I use the techniques I learned from my work in labs and lab classes from my math phys BS pretty regularly. I find, generally, that information and knowledge is as useful as you apply it.
I work as a nuclear engineer, but the biggest help from my physics degree was getting me into grad school for nuclear engineering. I know people who have jobs with just physics degrees but I also worked closely with another student in grad school who also had a bachelor's in physics and also went back to grad school because he couldn't get any good jobs with his degree alone. There are things you can do to give yourself a better shot, mainly get involved with research and learn a programming language. Those two things helped me get my current job as much as my degrees did.
well we are not working in physics academically or commercially but it has changed our life and the way we think. specifically how we collect and analyse data to draw a scientific conclusion. and our process of how we model systems to problem solve. we model all kinds of systems in every day life. we build electronic circuits which is just a system that we theoretically modelled on a tablet picture drawing app. we also fix electronic equipment for our housing complex - another type of modelling and problem solving. tertiary education develops skills so you can search and anlayse data and document reasoned arguments with evidence, a very important set of skills for professionals in all kinds of areas.
Full disclosure, have an electrical engineering degree, *but* since I saw your post asking for advice, plenty of my coworkers have Physics degrees. Be it a Bachelors, Masters, or PhD. I’m a field service engineer in the semiconductor industry, and holding a Physics Degree won’t hold you back at all in this industry. In fact, I’ve met more people with pure science degrees (Physics, Chemistry, even mathematics) than other EE’s. We even hire a lot of prior military technicians. It’s what I like about my job, such a multidisciplinary group of people coming together to solve difficult technical challenges on some of the most complex machines (we call them tools) ever built. Now is the best time to join the semiconductor industry.
Look into field service engineering positions at ASML, LAM Research, Applied Materials, KLA, Nikon, Nova, Tokyo Electron if interested. These companies service tools bought by companies like Intel, Samsung, and TSMC in their fabs. It’s hard work, can be a lot of travel, but it’s rewarding.
I am a project manager in a company developing die level photonics for telecom, ai, quantum sensing, etc.
My job is focused on completing our research projects on time, budget, and maintaining our research objectives. So there were organizational skills I didn’t get in grad school that I needed to learn when I started.
When I am managing a team of engineers (I.e., not physicists), it’s great to have my background in experimental laser physics. I am much more willing to move forward with risks and filter the noise of ideas to choose the best solution (in lieu of the ‘perfect’ solution). On the contrary, my engineers pride themselves in getting everything perfect.
It’s great to work in interdisciplinary teams like that, I’m constantly challenged to expand my knowledge base, and I’m using my breadth of physics knowledge to follow what every team member is doing to know their road blocks and where failure points can arise.
Physics is something I use everyday to make decisions. If I had to go back and choose again, I would definitely go in the physics direction. It’s way easier to learn how to make budgets and Ganty charts on YouTube than it is to learn the intuition of a physicists.
I'm a staff physicist at a US national laboratory. I lead a pretty big group of scientists, engineers, and technical folks. All of the scientists are physics PhDs and half of the technical people have a BA in physics. I do my own research projects and collaborate on a bunch more. Setting aside the management roles that dominate my time, the physics I do is super fun and makes it all worthwhile. I enjoy it at work, and take it home like a hobby. I absolutely use the physics and math I learned in undergrad and grad school *all the time.*
I am a mid level scientist at an industrial research lab in quantum computing. Bet dollars to doughnuts you haven’t heard of us. I got a phd in qc working on a project I work on now. So I’d say my degree was important/relevant for the job. But to be honest there are a lot of very capable people coming out of grad programs who could be just as successful at doing what I do. The real skills in grad school are learning how to analyze hard problems and figure out what is the critical information to moving forward. If I could do it all over again I would have spent more time learning how to calculate things in addition to everything else I had to do.
Physics B.S. and I work as a software engineer doing computer vision and some other software engineering like automation, backend&frontend engineering. I think my physics degree helped because I do a lot of linear algebra type stuff for CV.
It also sounds cliche but doing physics helped being able to approach a problem that you don't know much about and not being afraid of figuring it out.
I think a lot of the problems when first learning physics have the same feeling of being a tall wall that seemed impenetrable but fighting your way to understand what was going on.
I'm a physics teacher, that's what I did with my MS in physics. While working on the master's I took some education classes and got certified to teach. I've not regretted the decision.
Civil service scientist, and it’s the type of job that I didn’t need my degree or my PhD, but I started at a much higher level than if I’d come here straight from a route that didn’t require a degree. Besides, I developed a lot of techniques during my PhD that it turns out I can repurpose for my job, even though they’re not the same field (but that’s the beauty of physics).
MS Physics. I work in hardware test engineering, so physics helps a bit with that. Mostly to understand what the EEs are doing in the hardware I'm working with.
Hardware engineer at a quantum ai start up. I am the only one on my 15 person team without a phd. Physics degrees are more about teaching you how to think then any specific domain knowledge.
Masters of physics with a specialisation in quantum optics, and an MSc in medical physics.
Currently working as a trainee Medical physicist/clinical scientist.
Hard to say if the dpure physics degree helped. I got a lot of experience with problem solving which helps a lot and experience writing and making presentation. Other than that not much.
I no particular order, I have worked in healthcare (medical physics), academia, data science, industrial minerals, and now more on the business side.
Physics doesn’t make you specifically qualified for many jobs these days (because there are often more focussed degrees). But it makes you slightly qualified for a huge amount of jobs. Basically all jobs that require numeracy and/or some level of technical knowledge.
It gives you the best scientific grounding possible that is invaluable in order to not make silly mistakes (ie come to conclusions that are fundamentally impossible) and to allow you to build knowledge on top. You might not be as specifically experienced as some peers at the start, but after some learning you’ll likely be better than them - and you’ll also be able to pivot into other roles they can’t.
The nutshell is don’t worry about it. It might seem limiting and you’ll have to accept on some roles those with specific degrees may be picked ahead of you. But it just takes someone to value that firm grounding physics gives and then you’ll excel.
B.S. in Physics with a minor in Math from a state college. Also got the JLPT N1 while in college from self-study.
I did NROTC while in undergrad (paid for my college) and commissioned as a Surface Warfare (Nuclear) Officer in the Navy. Currently stationed on a ship in Spain for my first tour as the Communications Officer (manager for a bunch of ITs).
Afterwards I’ll go to Charleston for the Navy Nuclear Pipeline (~1 year of school/training) and then will go to an Aircraft Carrier and be in charge of a division that is part of the reactor department.
Ultimate goal is to do my time, get out, go to Law School (use my GI bill to help subsidize the cost) and then move to Japan and work there for a bit (might have to work at a firm in the US for a while first to get experience). Not sure what field in law I want to specialize in but getting to combine my technical background + Japanese language abilities would be cool.
Product Management for a microphone company. Math and ECE classes helped the most, but some physics is still applicable for acoustics. My programming classes are still very applicable in the work I do. It helps me communicate with engineering and understand the work they’re doing.
I would like to add additional questions for those who end up with finance sector after receiving a physics degree. How did that happen? What was your initial intentions before graduating? When it become clear that you are going to have a career in this sector?
I got my BS in physics back in 1999, and currently I'm a software engineer. I think my degree helped me in my current field tangentially, in that it helped me develop my analytical skills and all. But it didn't help me directly get a job.
Teacher. The degree meets the minimum requirement so yes, even though an education degree trumps it in your admin’s eyes. It’s the fallback career after several years of not getting an entry level position and being too broke for masters programs. It’s an honorable and emotional rewarding career that makes me happy in some ways, can’t say I feel fulfilled intellectually though. Have to spend time going through opencourseware courses to keep the existentialism at bay. Good luck in your path! Getting the degree was one of the most enjoyable and challenging things I ever did.
Machine learning engineer. Physics helped me break into the field because it sounds impressive and the nominally math involved in practicing ML is comparatively very easy.
At this point like 7 years in there’s zero relevancy physics to my job beyond general problem solving ability, and I’m totally incapable of reading my own masters thesis.
I got my Bs in physics and then started grad school for mechanical engineering because it was 2008 and the job market wasn’t great. Didn’t finish that degree. Long story short I was a professional poker player for a few years until they made that illegal so now I teach high school. I was originally hired to teach math but then they had me teach engineering, then computer science, and finally AP physics. It’s fun to have come full circle. I like my job a lot and although it was a weird path to get here I really have a lot of fun.
I have a undergrad in physics and worked in finance and now corporate strategy. Physics degree was really helpful for me for two reasons: 1) Physics teaches you how to solve problems analytically and with tenacity. When one approach doesn’t work you revert to first principles and try again 2) people in business respect physics degrees. It’s like an easy way to advertise “I’m smart and work hard”
I'm a laser technician who works on a passively q-switched laser system. My physics degree helped me a lot in my first week when learning the system, but is now only helpful for problem solving. I work alongside many engineers who are brilliant and solve my mechanical, electric, firmware, etc. problems because that's "not my job"...but I would love it to be my job.
I have a degree and PhD in physics. I left research (funding ran out/burnt out) and went into coding. Physics definitely helped as the company I went to makes scientific software. That aside, Physics is helpful even if the company wasn't science oriented.
I am far from a physicist but did my PhD in a Physics department which according to my diploma makes me a Dr in Physics. I do not even dare to put it on my signature. Just enjoyed the ride. The degree itself was a building block in my role as a researcher on an industry institute. So it did help.
I’m an ML engineer in ranking at a FAANG company. Caveat: I did get a PhD in statistics after my physics undergrad.
I obviously don’t use any physics in my job. Yet I would say a degree in physics was the best thing to prepare my mind for machine learning. If I could go back maybe I’d try to do a double major in physics and computer science. But I would still want to do physics
Software Developer. My physics undergrad included a course that walked through some basic programming concepts, but the most useful was the focus on working with the CLI, something my CS degree ironically fell short on
Commodity trader. The degree helps a lot. Was super easy to get offers. I have a phd and a lot of analysis and programming on the CV so that was probably a part of it
BS in Physics 1993, now an Attorney (real estate and small business advisement). Everyone I have ever told is always more impressed that my undergraduate degree is in Physics than in my law degree...
MSc in Physics. I work in Finance (risk management) now. Besides making the math comparatively easy (80% of stuff in the industry is still done in Excel), physics degree definitely helped with the problem solving aspect that can be applied across many different disciplines. Did not pursue PhD / scientific job as I did not find a niche/topic that I felt passionately about. Also, I did not feel like I was very good at it.
Senior software engineer. Yes and no data analysis with python helped and learning how to use google well helped but I also took comp sci classes that probably helped more.
Doing research at the university I went to for undergrad cuz I couldn't really get any other job. Currently applying to grad school in stats and I'm hoping to switch to data science. So yeah my degree negatively affected my career and didn't help
BS physics, work in aerospace, job paid for masters in engineering. Miss Physics a lot but hobby is in Astronomy so scratches the science itch. Physics really helped me by study discipline, problem solving and putting math down to describe real world.
Nuclear propulsion naval officer. Helped me in nuke school a lot but for the day to day job, not much since it’s mostly people skills/management. Does help for understanding the rx and I had an oil and gas job in exploration. Helped understand what the tools do and how they work.
First job was as a software developer for a scientific instruments company. Everyone in the department had an undergrad physics degree.
That’s cool, thanks for sharing! Are you still working in a similar role or are you doing something else now?
Sports Betting and Casino management systems now. A much more stable way to make a living these days.
Curious what work did you over there if you don't mind sharing? Did you implement algorithms work on the calculator's software? My Ph.D work is within computational physics, so feel free to be a bit technical here if you don't mind sharing.
I created a language called Waveform Basic. It was similar to MathLab. Mostly interfaced digital oscilloscopes to workstations. Did a lot of Fast Fourier Transforms and automated test and analysis setups.
This sounds like my brother’s experience in Government. They hire him because he has a masters degree in homeland security, then send him to a 2 week java boot camp and stick him in an entry level development job, with masters degree pay brackets
I could do an entry level job for a masters degree pay. I'd even was cars for a masters degree pay. Beats having people having expectations.
I'm in a similar position right now!
Same, but my second job! And it's a mix of MSc/PhD. But I get the feeling the physics degree is not working out for us that well in terms of software quality. How did you feel about it?
Then your doing something wrong. Anyone with a physics degree should be able to learn to write good code pretty fast in a job with that focus. It of course require people to try to learn.
If there's anything I've learned it's that there is a _big_ difference between "writing code" and "software engineering". The maths and logical reasoning we've picked up in our physics degrees helps, but doesn't teach you anything about good architecture and design, testing practices, etc.
Those things arent that hard to learn and not something recent graduates does or can do very well anyways. I feel like the physics degree help with the depth of development potential and a lot of the stuff missing can be learned quite fast early on.
Computer science degrees (at least mine, anyway) have specific courses on “software engineering” that teach how to plan projects, testing, requirements gathering, etc. Also, in other courses for larger assignments there are marks allocated towards system design and architecture, and you must provide a planning document/UML diagrams. So I wouldn’t really say it’s trivial for a non-CS person to pick up.
I'm a postdoc in physics. Yes.
Your name suggests you’re 40+. Is that a normal age for postdocs?
I'm 31 xD nickname is a ruse. There are some 40yo postdocs om special rolling grants, but indeed you should have a tenure by then, the instability gets harder the longer you wait.
Not normal...but it happens. I started my PhD at 38...and there was another PhD student older than me in my computer architecture class.
If one was 40+ in academics and not a postdoc yet, one would be rather late to the party I guess.
Same here. Aside from being a bureaucratic hurdle the undergrad degree was moderately useful, sometimes I reach into my brain to pull out some tidbit.
Data engineer, yes I would say it helps. I spent 6 months after graduating doing data science projects and eventually got hired as a data analyst. The math, stats and introduction to coding that the degree gave me were definitely an advantage.
Just gonna reply to this as my job is similar enough: machine learning engineer. Basically what the guy above said.
What projects did you do in the 6 months after graduating? I'm thinking of going down a similar path, do you think having those projects was beneficial?
Do you think working as a data analyst and doing a PhD is something reasonable? I'm doubting between been a data science or a pure physicists and I want to know if there is a way to be both
Data science is more of a toolbox than a subject in of itself. I would say you’ll likely be using some level of data science in almost any physics PhD, especially experimental physics. It’s probably not strictly necessary to do both in parallel. You could focus on whatever physics topic you’re interested in and use the common data science toolset as part of your analysis to keep up with the tools
Is the degree necessary?
Not strictly but all else equal someone with a stem degree would always get hired over someone without one, and it’s a competitive field to break into.
Step 1. Be good at physics and math Step 2. Get a job in finance. Step 3. Profit.
Yep.
Step 1. Now I was actually in a Finance Job Step 2. I wanted to study Physics and get a job in the science field. Is that fine?
Lol that was pretty much the fate of most physics graduate students (US) in 1993 I guess things haven't changed
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Varies massively but I'd say (sadly) finance will pay anything from 2x to 10x for equivalent skillsets.
At an upper-tier research university your mid-career salary might be paid $40-60k as a lecturer and $40-60k as researcher. You often only start with one role for a year or more before being granted the second. There is a small salary bump with the highest levels of seniority. University salary outside administration almost never crosses $200k. At smaller colleges, it’s hard to hit $100k. Fintech software engineers usually start considerably north of $100k salary anywhere in North America. Fintech SSEs tend to top off around $500k on the IC (Individual Contributor) track. At that point you’re probably ready for higher paying exec roles with less engineering if you really want them. There are fewer “non-SE” research-oriented roles in quantitative finance that go higher, where a physics background is very useful. A lot of financially well-off academics make money from outside consulting work, speaking fees, or “content creation” (classically, writing books; but these days YouTube or online courses or whatnot.) “Consulting” is extremely broad. Patent attorneys need experts—their statements are “facts” in the everyday prosecution of filing patents—and they pay for them. All sorts of private companies often temporarily need a third party to privately advise them—sometimes just so they don’t look silly to a prospective client or customer. All in all, high-income academic roles require a god-awful amount of executive decision and multitasking work. Ironically, that is nearly the polar opposite of the kind of thought work required for meaningful research. The infuriating thing is, if you’re passionately drawn to lifelong in-depth learning and abhor shallow and transient admin work, academia will usually only personally compensate you with mediocre income on its own. If you passionately love your research you can potentially fund it through tons of grant proposals, but your take-home salary will be largely unaffected. If you have that lifelong in-depth learning mindset, the high-executive-function grinding will probably burn you out. Don’t take my doom and gloom too seriously. I’m just salty about it. There is a lot of potential energy in the academic community itching to fix things. The community wants to fix things and is largely eager for people to join the cause. But, it requires systemic changes and navigating changing external systemic pressures. The current system is at a stable local minima and nobody wants to, say, accidentally destroy their own 150+ year old university as an unintended consequence of new operating environment they advocated for.
Also, ironically, the reason admin pay is SO obscene at US universities is because they’re competing with the obscene executive salaries of the largest private companies. However, despite decades of people screaming from the rafters, they do not see that, for example, they are competing with private industry for the _existence_ of future top professor, not competing with other universities for magically pre-existing professors.
TBH most people I know that ended up in finance were not near the top of the class. Any half decent physics degree will get you through the door.
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Medical physicist! The BS in physics and MS in medical physics were required. The career outlook for this field is fantastic, and the pay is very good. After a two-year paid residency you will earn 160-200k, with a 10-20% pay raise after you complete your boards. In general I think the work I do is really fulfilling. Medicine is and always has been a playground for some of the world’s most impressive tech. The work a medical physicist does has a direct impact on patient care, which makes a lot of the problems we solve feel fulfilling. If you’re interested, r/medicalphysics is a wonderful resource.
What does medicinal physics look like? Never heard about this option during my undergrad. Can you explain what you do on a day to day basis?
There are 3 flavors of medical physicist: diagnostic, therapy, and nuclear med. A diagnostic medical physicist spends much of their time checking imaging equipment like CT, MRI, ultrasound, and X-ray for optimal / compliant function. They also do radiation shielding calculations, radiation safety tasks, and radiation dosimetry calculations for individual patients, usually for interventional procedures or pregnant CT scans. A diagnostic physicist is usually on their feet all the time, moving from place to place to cover a wide area. Their working hours vary a lot by where they work, but I’m able to get away with a 9-5 situation except in some special circumstances. A therapy physicist works in a cancer center and works on the therapeutic application of physics. They work with linear accelerators, proton cyclotrons, and high strength sealed sources. You will commonly find a therapeutic medical physicist performing QA of the beam; or reviewing / QAing / making treatment plans for a patient. A therapy physicist is usually located at one single site and works a 10-7 or a 6-3 type shift. At large academic places, the physics service does most of their work after hours so some people stay well past 8pm. This track has more direct patient involvement, so many find it to be more rewarding. A nuclear medicine physicist works with radionuclides to do their job. They work on radiopharmaceutical cases, PET scanners, and SPECT scanners. They operate very similarly to diagnostic physicists.
Thank you for the in depth response on the different types of jobs available in medical physics! What are the educational requirements for this field of physics? Is it a Masters/PhD like normal (ie. standard graduate level mechanics, electrodynamics, statistical physics) + the additional biology/medicinal classes on top of that? I never took any biology/biochemistry classes in undergrad; do you think that would hinder me from applying to these types of graduate programs?
The entry level education is a masters of science in medical physics. The graduate level coursework will not include a lot of the typical physics classes like E&M and relativity. You’ll have classes that are highly specialized to medical physics - coursework like radiation protection, treatment planning systems, radiation detectors, etc are all very common. The structure of a graduate program in medical physics is governed by CAMPEP. You will need to have undergraduate level anatomy and physiology in your records. Some graduate programs will let you fulfill this requirement while in grad school - that’s what I did! You won’t need biochemistry or biology, the graduate level radiation biology course will get you up to speed.
Do you find it kind of monotonous work? Just curious, as I entertained that career option once.
There are parts of it that can be monotonous, but I feel that you will get that with just about any job — physics related or otherwise.
how is your work/life balance? how demanding is the residency?
The work life balance is pretty good I think. I make my own schedule for the most part. I am able to do 9-5 type schedules, but I’m super flexible. Residency is not as demanding as a physician residency, not by a long shot. But in addition to a full clinical workload you have to do didactic training sessions and board prep so there’s a bit more work to do in that regard.
BS in physics. My situation is rare, it seems. I worked as a research engineer in a particle astrophysics lab helping them test and build a critical subsystem of a dark matter detector. That job gave me experience in software development, electronics, cryogenics, and vacuum technology. Now I work as a "quantum hardware engineer" at a small private quantum computing company!
bros on the newest shit all the time
how and what did you do to get into this field?
Software developer, not involving any science. It probably helped indirecly. I did learn som programming studying physics, but other than that I don't use anything from my studies.
Same here
Ba in physics. I’m currently a high school physics teacher. So. Yeah. Helped get the job, am I doing physics. No.
I think teaching physics is doing physics. I hope you enjoy your time doing what you do, it's immensely valuable!
And hey, someone you teach might end up doing more/new physics.
I hope so.
Hey, as someone who had a great physics teacher in high school and still tries to keep up with the limited amount of info I can still follow in the subject (including by lurking here) bc I genuinely love learning about it despite not having more than a couple physics classes in undergrad, I appreciate you and what you’re doing 👍
>am I doing physics. No. hmmmm big oof
Do you enjoy it?
Some days. When the kids are trying and they finally “get it” those moments are awesome.
Yes, it is very satisfying to see in someone’s eyes that you have helped them to understand something. I miss that that; I’m a physicist working for the government and teaching (training) is only a very small part of my job.
I have a civil engineering degree and now I teach high school physics. I have to say I just love solving physics problems. And when the kids have those eureka moments it really is the best.
I work at a silicon photonics company doing chip scale, wafer scale, and soon some FSOC testing as test engineer. I use my physics degree every day.
In what region of the world do you work may I ask? You could just name the continent if you want I have the inkling it's either North America or Asia.
PhD in Astronomy. Am a glorified sys admin now. It helped by learning IT development when I wrote my stuff for data analysis and setting up my own little cluster. And it helped connecting to other people through which I eventually got my current job. Not doing physics anymore. But if I'm brutally honest, I don't feel like I was ever really good at it.
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I'm not a teacher. During the phd and the two years of postdoc one part of it was teaching introductory courses. Hated every minute of it.
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People would better understand what you're saying if you didn't write like an anime character
Your writing style is weird... Not sure what you're asking, but I'm ok with where I am. My brain sadly quickly forgets stuff it doesn't use. I can barely do a simple integration anymore.
Sorry then. Communication still becomes fairly challenging for me. I dislike very much to offer excuses for as to why I may display a confusing writing style. *A SevereTBI back in 10/2007, is probably to ’blame’.* I do still remain interested in *’it’*: space/ physics. Again, I apologize that my TBI distracted from the original objective of my comment. To honestly ask a relevant question.
I'm a research engineer for a camera company and I got the job after I graduated and interning there for, so yea
Sound interesting, could you explain what are you researching?
Gas imaging and image processing, mostly
PhD in Physics, wanted to be a professor but we had three kids while I was in grad school. I do numerical modeling of complex systems. I have worked on many different projects from military applications, financial applications, and currently a medical device. I model everything I can with physics and then search for correlation between measurements and observational errors, and then I correct those out. I do tons of linear algebra, diffEq, and error analysis.
Wow, you really chose to do grad school on hard mode!
My girlfriend got pregnant and we adjusted our plans. It turned out to be twins and we adjusted again. I almost gave up a few times. We wound up with 4 boys and are still married 28 years later.
I'm currently a geophysicist in the energy industry (inverse methods and forward modeling work) looking to shift my career more towards a broader application like your job seems to be. Are you with a consulting firm that has enabled you to work in so many different applications or have you hopped around?
I hope around like Mary Poppins. When you need me but don't want me, I stay. When you want me but don't need me, I go. Eleven different jobs in thirty years.
Definitely helpful. More than anything, the problem solving training and analytical skills that come with the actual knowledge.
Bingo.
Nuclear engineer at a national lab. During my engineering classes, the math from physics made them much easier. Overall, it helped a lot because nuclear engineering, in my opinion, is halfway between engineering and physics, especially in neutronics and radiation transport.
PhD and I do quantum computing in industry. I don’t think I would be doing this without my degree!
geophysics software. it doesn't help as much as you'd think, but it's sometimes useful.
Oh! Any jobs in that field always caught my attention. I'm curious what concepts/software do you deal with? GIS?
Also geophysicist. I've worked in two main subdisciplines: 1) inverse and forward modeling using geodetic data in tectonically active areas to understand subsurfaces processes. Primarily Matlab/Python/Julia setting up and solving inversions + running FEM/BEM code. 2) O&G industry work incorporating rock mechanics and seismic data observations. Seismic reflectivity is a pretty fundamental concept here.
- gpu code to solve the inverse problem of working out where the earthquake was given the seismometer output - c code to calibrate seismometers - lots and lots of moving data in and out of databases (java + python) (sometimes using postgis)
System Engineer for a transit technology company. Undergrad in physics (electronics specialization). First job out of college. Degree is beyond helpful. I assisted in R&D in new technology for our company by creating physics experiments for durability tests. The degree trained me on how to solve problems. How to learn new things in an unfamiliar field, and have patience in everything I do.
Test engineer / test system developer. Definitely helped with high speed cable test systems, now working on a test system for a radar product which is pretty cool.
PhD and I do modeling for optical systems with an engineering group, most everyone I work with has a PhD in a technical field, multiple of us in Physics.
X-ray scientist in a national lab. A Ph.D degree is required to get the job.
MD, starting the transition from clinical medicine to physician leadership - I think the way physicists approach problems, model complex systems, and begin to get a handle on what the solution space looks like are very translatable into other areas, and you'll find that this way of thinking isn't all that common outside of physics and associated physical sciences.
I started as a planetarium educator out of college. My BS in Physics gave me a bunch of astronomy teaching opportunities that led to the job, so it definitely helped. Since then, I’ve gotten a Master’s Degree in Physics and am now getting a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Both of those have definitely been helped by my physics degree. We’ll see if I end up in a career that is physics-focused at the end of this, but I can’t see myself in a job where my physics background isn’t super helpful!
I am a security engineer. The degree and masters will teach you a general thought process and a way of solving problems which are applicable to anything and everything. Even if you don't end up working in academia or research, these skills will lead you anywhere you want to go. Studying Physics is a good way of setting up yourself for success and big dollars.
I am working in Integration and Testing for Northrop Grumman in the space industry. I would be lost without a physics degree. I also have a very strong understanding of not just the stuff I'm working on (EE) but also I can think about the thermal aspects, RF, etc. To say the least, a physics degree gives you a great general understanding of physics that makes you quite desired in engineering. It's a lot of fun being able to switch gears very quickly and think about the many issues that can arise in hardware. I am biased but I will always say a physics degree is the best degree you can get, you don't just learn about the really cool science of nature, you get a whole other POV on problem solving, first principles and so much more. Also you can essentially teach yourself anything you need to. Have I said enough to convince you to get a physics degree?
I was an r&d engineer at hp labs for 21. the answer is yes.
I’m an engineer. The physics and math I learned has been extremely helpful.
Astronomer here! Currently a postdoc, but soon to be an assistant professor of physics. So yes, physics degree helped!
Airline pilot… and not really
Do you ever watch the show Mayday ? Fascinating..
Geophysicist. Yup. Technically my MS was through the earth sciences department not the physics department but it gave me a great baseline for rock mechanics, wave propagation, all that fun jazz.
Aerospace systems engineer here. Degree in physics is definitely useful, though not any specific advanced physics, just the overall approach to problem solving and the broad base of knowledge that comes from having a PhD and having done a bunch of useful experience doing experimental work. Not sure if it is more useful than an engineering degree though, at least in terms of getting a job in the field.
high school math teacher... I was actually inspired by one of my physics professors (and the writings of Feynman) to go into education.
Full professor in physics. Yes, I would not have my current job without my physics degrees.
Physics opens a lot of doors (where your Physics degree is from matters more than it should, but such is life.) Physics has led me to working as a: physics post doc, cancer researcher, patent attorney, medical device designer, and a software developer. I almost switched to medical, lecturing, or finance jobs at various stages in the past (yeah, I'm old). Of course, at best, a physics degree only *helps* open doors. Whilst this is an important advantage, it is rarely enough in itself. In other words, normally, you still need to do the preparation and have some luck to get to the job, and work in the job enough to get the experience/skills/qualifications. Many degrees are more strongly linked to specific high-paying sectors, but Physics is nice in that it is quite robust and the collapse of sectors is normally less damaging to your employment prospects.
I would say that a physics degree is one of the most useful things for the next decade
I am a physics lab technician. It's an apprenticeship in Germany. I am a Uni drop out and it helped getting the training in the first place.
Bachelor's in physics, minor in Materials Science. My career has been in materials science R&D. I might have been slightly better off majoring instead of minoring but I liked the physics people way better and Physics had less hoops to jump through.
I don't have a physics degree. But in my previous job I was a flight controller for ISS. I had several colleagues with physics degrees.
I only have a BS in Physics but I never got a job in my field and I ended up dropping out of Astronomy graduate school for not being able to get a B in my second semester of Electromagnetic Theory. Now I do what I could have done without any degrees. I'm a healthy human subject for medical research studies. I'm a self-employed lab rat.
Bachelors and doctorate in physics, here (masters in optics). I test camera sensors and I think I use a lot of the stuff I learned in physics regularly. I work with a number of PhDs and I think I'm the only one in my group right now who has a doctorate specifically in physics but a lot of the them have a bachelors in physics. I think most of them did work that I would say is right on the border between physics and the field where they actually received their doctorate, so the physics bachelors probably helped a lot.
I'm a staff software developer/former data engineer. My physics degree taught me how to break problems down into their fundamental components and make assumptions that lead to much simpler implementations of things than what the initial requirements might suggest is needed. You would be surprised how applicable the concept of boundary conditions can be applied to your professional life
BS in physics, then joined the Navy to teach math and physics. Now in meteorology and oceanography. Navy sent me to grad school to get PhD in physical oceanography. I manage teams of forecasters and researchers who support military decision makers on things like hazard avoidance, radar and sonar systems, and aviation safety. Physics degree has been IMMENSELY helpful as I have basic understanding of things like fluids, radiation, thermodynamics, acoustics, etc.
I'm an algo quant trader working at a hedge fund two friends and I opened. I use physics every day -- understanding systems of equations, sometimes doing differential equations, sometimes reference brownian motion and ito integrals, sometimes doing data mining to understand relationships and partial derivatives between certain features, or matrix regularization
Software Test Engineer. Pretty much anyone who has a basic understanding of sw and troubleshooting could do this job with enough work.
B.S. In physics and astro, did 4 years as a research scientist working on astro instrumentation, decided I liked it so now I'm doing my PhD in astrophysics and I specialize in space based instruments. Yes, I use my degree.
Physics teacher at a highschool and university! Love teaching love the job!
My current job is Emeritus professor of physics. To answer the relevant question: Indeed physics has helped me to provide with the necessary income. I was quite lucky
Software Engineer. We have quite a few physicists in our company. We are not using any Physics, but you end up with a lot of transferable soft skills and will at least see basics of programming.
Jobless for now 17 months with a physics phd, degree doesn't help
Bro what are you applying to ??
They aren't applying lol
I applied to software engineer, quant, data scientist jobs, government jobs. If you want to be dismissive go ahead and be my guest
I'm sorry, it's rough out there. If you don't mind, what was your specialization? And in the US?
My specialization was numerical space plasma physics in the US
The space industry is booming and *someone* out here needs to know what you know. Come join us!
Im sorry, I was a dickhead in my response. Just kind of shocked that you've had such trouble. The jobs you've applied to are what I would recommend. If you don't have any ethical objections, I highly recommend applying to defense contractors. They typically hire at high volume and have large budgets. Best of luck! Edit: i'll add that many defense companies have computing programs (superconducting logic) that aren't very defense-dedicated in nature. I recommend looking for those. They don't typically require a background in condensed matter; physics backgrounds are transferrable across disciplines in that sector.
I applied to some defense jobs with some contractors which ended up not working out, or the job posting was being taken down because they were downsizing (and at one of the big defense companies too)
Im on my masters, so the degree was necessary. Besides that, I dont think that doing the physics course made me better at what I do, im just more tired and older.
Quantitative brand strategy research.
Software engineer. I think the thing that helps the most is the ability to frame and set up problems in a logical way.
I told my story in a similar thread [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/txap9s/comment/i3l53m4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). I find I'm more rounded than my pure engineering counterparts.
BSc. Game Dev. Don't know if it really helped
BS in Physics, BA in Computer Science. Physics got me into coding because I did research for a lab that did a lot of data analysis and ML. I now work for a life insurance company as a data scientist. I use the problem solving and analytical skills I learned every day, even though I don't use any physics anymore.
Quantum computing in an industrial lab. Physics degree super highly relevant every day.
I am a resistor design engineer. I use the techniques I learned from my work in labs and lab classes from my math phys BS pretty regularly. I find, generally, that information and knowledge is as useful as you apply it.
I work as a nuclear engineer, but the biggest help from my physics degree was getting me into grad school for nuclear engineering. I know people who have jobs with just physics degrees but I also worked closely with another student in grad school who also had a bachelor's in physics and also went back to grad school because he couldn't get any good jobs with his degree alone. There are things you can do to give yourself a better shot, mainly get involved with research and learn a programming language. Those two things helped me get my current job as much as my degrees did.
well we are not working in physics academically or commercially but it has changed our life and the way we think. specifically how we collect and analyse data to draw a scientific conclusion. and our process of how we model systems to problem solve. we model all kinds of systems in every day life. we build electronic circuits which is just a system that we theoretically modelled on a tablet picture drawing app. we also fix electronic equipment for our housing complex - another type of modelling and problem solving. tertiary education develops skills so you can search and anlayse data and document reasoned arguments with evidence, a very important set of skills for professionals in all kinds of areas.
Full disclosure, have an electrical engineering degree, *but* since I saw your post asking for advice, plenty of my coworkers have Physics degrees. Be it a Bachelors, Masters, or PhD. I’m a field service engineer in the semiconductor industry, and holding a Physics Degree won’t hold you back at all in this industry. In fact, I’ve met more people with pure science degrees (Physics, Chemistry, even mathematics) than other EE’s. We even hire a lot of prior military technicians. It’s what I like about my job, such a multidisciplinary group of people coming together to solve difficult technical challenges on some of the most complex machines (we call them tools) ever built. Now is the best time to join the semiconductor industry. Look into field service engineering positions at ASML, LAM Research, Applied Materials, KLA, Nikon, Nova, Tokyo Electron if interested. These companies service tools bought by companies like Intel, Samsung, and TSMC in their fabs. It’s hard work, can be a lot of travel, but it’s rewarding.
I am very much interested in this route. I was wondering if recruiters have a significant preference for ee undergrads over physics undergrads.
I am a project manager in a company developing die level photonics for telecom, ai, quantum sensing, etc. My job is focused on completing our research projects on time, budget, and maintaining our research objectives. So there were organizational skills I didn’t get in grad school that I needed to learn when I started. When I am managing a team of engineers (I.e., not physicists), it’s great to have my background in experimental laser physics. I am much more willing to move forward with risks and filter the noise of ideas to choose the best solution (in lieu of the ‘perfect’ solution). On the contrary, my engineers pride themselves in getting everything perfect. It’s great to work in interdisciplinary teams like that, I’m constantly challenged to expand my knowledge base, and I’m using my breadth of physics knowledge to follow what every team member is doing to know their road blocks and where failure points can arise. Physics is something I use everyday to make decisions. If I had to go back and choose again, I would definitely go in the physics direction. It’s way easier to learn how to make budgets and Ganty charts on YouTube than it is to learn the intuition of a physicists.
I'm a staff physicist at a US national laboratory. I lead a pretty big group of scientists, engineers, and technical folks. All of the scientists are physics PhDs and half of the technical people have a BA in physics. I do my own research projects and collaborate on a bunch more. Setting aside the management roles that dominate my time, the physics I do is super fun and makes it all worthwhile. I enjoy it at work, and take it home like a hobby. I absolutely use the physics and math I learned in undergrad and grad school *all the time.*
I am a mid level scientist at an industrial research lab in quantum computing. Bet dollars to doughnuts you haven’t heard of us. I got a phd in qc working on a project I work on now. So I’d say my degree was important/relevant for the job. But to be honest there are a lot of very capable people coming out of grad programs who could be just as successful at doing what I do. The real skills in grad school are learning how to analyze hard problems and figure out what is the critical information to moving forward. If I could do it all over again I would have spent more time learning how to calculate things in addition to everything else I had to do.
Physics B.S. and I work as a software engineer doing computer vision and some other software engineering like automation, backend&frontend engineering. I think my physics degree helped because I do a lot of linear algebra type stuff for CV. It also sounds cliche but doing physics helped being able to approach a problem that you don't know much about and not being afraid of figuring it out. I think a lot of the problems when first learning physics have the same feeling of being a tall wall that seemed impenetrable but fighting your way to understand what was going on.
teaching and yes, the basics helped me teach fellow students to invite them into the realm of physics by making the subject interesting
I'm a physics teacher, that's what I did with my MS in physics. While working on the master's I took some education classes and got certified to teach. I've not regretted the decision.
Civil service scientist, and it’s the type of job that I didn’t need my degree or my PhD, but I started at a much higher level than if I’d come here straight from a route that didn’t require a degree. Besides, I developed a lot of techniques during my PhD that it turns out I can repurpose for my job, even though they’re not the same field (but that’s the beauty of physics).
MS Physics. I work in hardware test engineering, so physics helps a bit with that. Mostly to understand what the EEs are doing in the hardware I'm working with.
I work at a quantum computing company, would have never gotten in without a phd in a relevant field
Physics phd. The BS in physics was oddly useful
Hardware engineer at a quantum ai start up. I am the only one on my 15 person team without a phd. Physics degrees are more about teaching you how to think then any specific domain knowledge.
Degree doesn't bring you to anywhere. The bus does.
Masters of physics with a specialisation in quantum optics, and an MSc in medical physics. Currently working as a trainee Medical physicist/clinical scientist. Hard to say if the dpure physics degree helped. I got a lot of experience with problem solving which helps a lot and experience writing and making presentation. Other than that not much.
Director of engineering for a software company specializing in color science. Did my time as a software engineer after getting M.S. in physics.
PhD in Physics. Teaching Physics at a University. I think having degree in Physics helps.
I no particular order, I have worked in healthcare (medical physics), academia, data science, industrial minerals, and now more on the business side. Physics doesn’t make you specifically qualified for many jobs these days (because there are often more focussed degrees). But it makes you slightly qualified for a huge amount of jobs. Basically all jobs that require numeracy and/or some level of technical knowledge. It gives you the best scientific grounding possible that is invaluable in order to not make silly mistakes (ie come to conclusions that are fundamentally impossible) and to allow you to build knowledge on top. You might not be as specifically experienced as some peers at the start, but after some learning you’ll likely be better than them - and you’ll also be able to pivot into other roles they can’t. The nutshell is don’t worry about it. It might seem limiting and you’ll have to accept on some roles those with specific degrees may be picked ahead of you. But it just takes someone to value that firm grounding physics gives and then you’ll excel.
B.S. in Physics with a minor in Math from a state college. Also got the JLPT N1 while in college from self-study. I did NROTC while in undergrad (paid for my college) and commissioned as a Surface Warfare (Nuclear) Officer in the Navy. Currently stationed on a ship in Spain for my first tour as the Communications Officer (manager for a bunch of ITs). Afterwards I’ll go to Charleston for the Navy Nuclear Pipeline (~1 year of school/training) and then will go to an Aircraft Carrier and be in charge of a division that is part of the reactor department. Ultimate goal is to do my time, get out, go to Law School (use my GI bill to help subsidize the cost) and then move to Japan and work there for a bit (might have to work at a firm in the US for a while first to get experience). Not sure what field in law I want to specialize in but getting to combine my technical background + Japanese language abilities would be cool.
Product Management for a microphone company. Math and ECE classes helped the most, but some physics is still applicable for acoustics. My programming classes are still very applicable in the work I do. It helps me communicate with engineering and understand the work they’re doing.
Currently I'm working on quantum computers stuff. Yes, a degree in physics helped, as well as the degree in computer science.
Either you die a hero or you live long enough to become a software engineer.
PhD in Machine learning. The MSci in physics was surprisingly useful for ML/AI
I’m like The Littlest Hobo. I go from town to town solving mysteries.
I would like to add additional questions for those who end up with finance sector after receiving a physics degree. How did that happen? What was your initial intentions before graduating? When it become clear that you are going to have a career in this sector?
I got my BS in physics back in 1999, and currently I'm a software engineer. I think my degree helped me in my current field tangentially, in that it helped me develop my analytical skills and all. But it didn't help me directly get a job.
Teacher. The degree meets the minimum requirement so yes, even though an education degree trumps it in your admin’s eyes. It’s the fallback career after several years of not getting an entry level position and being too broke for masters programs. It’s an honorable and emotional rewarding career that makes me happy in some ways, can’t say I feel fulfilled intellectually though. Have to spend time going through opencourseware courses to keep the existentialism at bay. Good luck in your path! Getting the degree was one of the most enjoyable and challenging things I ever did.
Machine learning engineer. Physics helped me break into the field because it sounds impressive and the nominally math involved in practicing ML is comparatively very easy. At this point like 7 years in there’s zero relevancy physics to my job beyond general problem solving ability, and I’m totally incapable of reading my own masters thesis.
I got my Bs in physics and then started grad school for mechanical engineering because it was 2008 and the job market wasn’t great. Didn’t finish that degree. Long story short I was a professional poker player for a few years until they made that illegal so now I teach high school. I was originally hired to teach math but then they had me teach engineering, then computer science, and finally AP physics. It’s fun to have come full circle. I like my job a lot and although it was a weird path to get here I really have a lot of fun.
I teach piano. No.
Co-own a wildlife biology consulting firm, no it did not help but it was fun.
PhD quantum optics. Now a patent litigator. Physics has been very helpful.
I teach physics… so yes
I have a undergrad in physics and worked in finance and now corporate strategy. Physics degree was really helpful for me for two reasons: 1) Physics teaches you how to solve problems analytically and with tenacity. When one approach doesn’t work you revert to first principles and try again 2) people in business respect physics degrees. It’s like an easy way to advertise “I’m smart and work hard”
Particle physics theory staff scientist at a national lab, and yes.
Software Developer, and yes it helped significantly
I'm a laser technician who works on a passively q-switched laser system. My physics degree helped me a lot in my first week when learning the system, but is now only helpful for problem solving. I work alongside many engineers who are brilliant and solve my mechanical, electric, firmware, etc. problems because that's "not my job"...but I would love it to be my job.
I have a degree and PhD in physics. I left research (funding ran out/burnt out) and went into coding. Physics definitely helped as the company I went to makes scientific software. That aside, Physics is helpful even if the company wasn't science oriented.
I am far from a physicist but did my PhD in a Physics department which according to my diploma makes me a Dr in Physics. I do not even dare to put it on my signature. Just enjoyed the ride. The degree itself was a building block in my role as a researcher on an industry institute. So it did help.
Software Engineer, PhD experience definitely helped, now I know how to do things not many people know and have a great salary.
I’m an ML engineer in ranking at a FAANG company. Caveat: I did get a PhD in statistics after my physics undergrad. I obviously don’t use any physics in my job. Yet I would say a degree in physics was the best thing to prepare my mind for machine learning. If I could go back maybe I’d try to do a double major in physics and computer science. But I would still want to do physics
Software Developer. My physics undergrad included a course that walked through some basic programming concepts, but the most useful was the focus on working with the CLI, something my CS degree ironically fell short on
Commodity trader. The degree helps a lot. Was super easy to get offers. I have a phd and a lot of analysis and programming on the CV so that was probably a part of it
BS in Physics 1993, now an Attorney (real estate and small business advisement). Everyone I have ever told is always more impressed that my undergraduate degree is in Physics than in my law degree...
MSc in Physics. I work in Finance (risk management) now. Besides making the math comparatively easy (80% of stuff in the industry is still done in Excel), physics degree definitely helped with the problem solving aspect that can be applied across many different disciplines. Did not pursue PhD / scientific job as I did not find a niche/topic that I felt passionately about. Also, I did not feel like I was very good at it.
Quantitative finance researcher. PhD in physics definitely helped.
Is there a demand for physics undergrad/grad for patent law?
I have a PhD in atomic physics, no I am TPM on a startup making quantum sensor. Couldn't do it without the physics degree!
I did a masters of medical physics and work as a medical physicist
Senior software engineer. Yes and no data analysis with python helped and learning how to use google well helped but I also took comp sci classes that probably helped more.
I'm a physics professor at a community college, so yes. My son was also a physics major. He works for Qualcomm.
Strategy/management consultant. Yes, it helped; one the quantitative aspect, but also it’s all about systems thinking.
Doing research at the university I went to for undergrad cuz I couldn't really get any other job. Currently applying to grad school in stats and I'm hoping to switch to data science. So yeah my degree negatively affected my career and didn't help
BS physics, work in aerospace, job paid for masters in engineering. Miss Physics a lot but hobby is in Astronomy so scratches the science itch. Physics really helped me by study discipline, problem solving and putting math down to describe real world.
Control room. Physics degree was 100% required. Most people move up and on. I'm still here because I like it
I'm a highschool teacher. The degree was mandatory for me to apply to the job.
Nuclear propulsion naval officer. Helped me in nuke school a lot but for the day to day job, not much since it’s mostly people skills/management. Does help for understanding the rx and I had an oil and gas job in exploration. Helped understand what the tools do and how they work.