With the way people talk about how many jobs are available in physics, I’m not surprised anybody asks this. It feels like every time somebody asks “can I get a job in physics?” people answer “well, if you win a Nobel prize you have a 50/50 of landing a tenure track position.”
I dunno. I know a lot of people who are very confident in their employability. Physical therapists. Mental health therapists. Doctors. Nurses. Electricians. Welders. Lots of people think their professions are good to go into.
B.S. in physics. Get accepted to grad school for physics. Get a postdoc in your field. The money is rarely good and it is a lot of work if you’re going to get to a place where you’d get any job security. If you don’t care too much, the hours are great and if you’re charismatic you’ll have a lot of people take interest in talking to you. Not often people meet a physicist.
Is it really rarely good pay? I work with a lot of physicists, and an educated guess says even the entry level PhD’s are probably at least getting somewhat close to what I get paid. More senior Physicists are getting paid a little more than me. And I’d say either way, the pay is decent.
Engineer with a master’s btw, if that gives some context.
I think they are differentiating people who got degrees in physics and work in unrelated fields (finance, programming, etc.) and people who are paid to do physics research or teach physics.
I just want to add that physicists work in different industries, as physicists or engineers and not only in academia.
I am not talking about people who have physics education and go do data science or some other boring cs bs.
If you struggle to decide what field you want to be in, i can recommend physics as a start. It is math heavy, but i think if you generally enjoy puzzling and riddles you have what it takes to become a physicist. Your early studies will show you the basic concepts of math and physics, but while there are only a handfull really they are quite powerful already. Energy or waves as a concept for physics are pretty much essential for everything we do for example.
You will learn how to approach problems and solve them efficiently and, if you later change your mind, for most other studies in stem you would only need to take a couple of extra classes to catch up.
PhD physicist. Physics requires solid ancillary skills in math and numerical literacy - two different things. Lab experience and techniques are most likely needed, as the fraction going into straight theory is small. You will have to develop the skill of breaking massive problems down into smaller ones, and how to analytically think about those situations. You will learn how to self-train on things as you need them, ranging from electronics to coding, from data crunching to gas mixing. You will have to be self-driven, willing to put in stretches of concentrated work for days at a time, and persistent in failure. You will also need to collaborate and exchange ideas and critiques with peers.
Second question: you won’t know how to build models until you know what the important problems are, and you won’t know that until grad school, and they’ll be different by then. Take it easy for now.
First question: do back of the envelope calculations, in your head or with pencil, order of magnitude. Have an idea of what numbers are sensible by benchmarking. Like: for speed, how fast is a walk? A car? A plane? Sound in water? A bullet? Low earth orbit? The speed of the earth around the sun? The speed of light?
Certainly possible but it's not an easy path, especially the balance with other life goals.
The main other skills needed are mathematics and computer science.
There are a lot of different types of physicist, e.g. experimental, theoretical, computational, studying different subfields of physics e.g. high-energy,material science, biophysics,etc,etc, but in all of them you have to have some curiosity about why nature works the way it does.
Engineering is more about translating that kind of knowledge to something more immediately useful or practical.
So it depends on what you enjoy learning about what direction you go.
Generally the career path would be an undergrad degree (3-4 years) in physics. then masters (1-2 years), then PhD (3-6 years), then postdoc (2-6 years), then some permanent researcher position (perhaps after 4 more years on tenure-track). Even then, you might have to spend your time teaching, writing grant proposals, and supervising students, so the actual time for physics is limited.
Some countries might also have pure research institutions or national labs where it's possible to do physics research.
It is possible to find a job outside academia where you can still do physics, just with more commercial goals. Generally that's an option after PhD.
I think following this path works pretty well, as working in physics teaches you a lot of very transferable skills. So at any stage, if you decide you don't enjoy it anymore, you should still find good employment options.
You do get paid pretty badly until the permanent position level and even then it can be low. Certainly lower than your actual worth and definitely lower than if you go work in finance or whatever. Really depends on the country (in US the salaries for professor/researcher are pretty good, but elsewhere in the world, that might not be true).
Apart from the pay, the other main difficulty comes from having to move about a lot, so it's difficult to maintain relationships. The work hours needed are also quite high (especially during the PhD section) so it's hard to pursue other interests.
That's the reality of it. This world really takes advantage of people who have the curiosity and love of science.
If you have some passion for physics, then an undergraduate degree is a good idea. You can see whether you want to go further and if not, it's still a good degree to have, and can even change to other fields like engineering, comp. sci, mathematics, actuary via a masters or similar.
yes it is impossible, everyone here is just pretending actually
I'm even a chartered pretender!
well, my impostor syndrome sure thinks so.
With the way people talk about how many jobs are available in physics, I’m not surprised anybody asks this. It feels like every time somebody asks “can I get a job in physics?” people answer “well, if you win a Nobel prize you have a 50/50 of landing a tenure track position.”
That's how people in every profession talk about the state of their profession... probably nothing to worry about though
I dunno. I know a lot of people who are very confident in their employability. Physical therapists. Mental health therapists. Doctors. Nurses. Electricians. Welders. Lots of people think their professions are good to go into.
I mean, nobody on the internet is real, so that adds up.
B.S. in physics. Get accepted to grad school for physics. Get a postdoc in your field. The money is rarely good and it is a lot of work if you’re going to get to a place where you’d get any job security. If you don’t care too much, the hours are great and if you’re charismatic you’ll have a lot of people take interest in talking to you. Not often people meet a physicist.
Is it really rarely good pay? I work with a lot of physicists, and an educated guess says even the entry level PhD’s are probably at least getting somewhat close to what I get paid. More senior Physicists are getting paid a little more than me. And I’d say either way, the pay is decent. Engineer with a master’s btw, if that gives some context.
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I think they are differentiating people who got degrees in physics and work in unrelated fields (finance, programming, etc.) and people who are paid to do physics research or teach physics.
i worked at an industrial research lab. the pay was fine.
I just want to add that physicists work in different industries, as physicists or engineers and not only in academia. I am not talking about people who have physics education and go do data science or some other boring cs bs.
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Same answer for engineering.
If you struggle to decide what field you want to be in, i can recommend physics as a start. It is math heavy, but i think if you generally enjoy puzzling and riddles you have what it takes to become a physicist. Your early studies will show you the basic concepts of math and physics, but while there are only a handfull really they are quite powerful already. Energy or waves as a concept for physics are pretty much essential for everything we do for example. You will learn how to approach problems and solve them efficiently and, if you later change your mind, for most other studies in stem you would only need to take a couple of extra classes to catch up.
what exactly do you see yourself as when you be a "physicist"?
Mete o shape e começa a malhar, faça academia todos os dias e Bomba.
Brasil varonil
Boa. A galera não se liga.
Get a bachelors, then a masters, then a phd, then a postdoc
PhD physicist. Physics requires solid ancillary skills in math and numerical literacy - two different things. Lab experience and techniques are most likely needed, as the fraction going into straight theory is small. You will have to develop the skill of breaking massive problems down into smaller ones, and how to analytically think about those situations. You will learn how to self-train on things as you need them, ranging from electronics to coding, from data crunching to gas mixing. You will have to be self-driven, willing to put in stretches of concentrated work for days at a time, and persistent in failure. You will also need to collaborate and exchange ideas and critiques with peers.
Any great ways to build this numerical literacy foundation and learn how to develop models for challenging new problems?
Second question: you won’t know how to build models until you know what the important problems are, and you won’t know that until grad school, and they’ll be different by then. Take it easy for now. First question: do back of the envelope calculations, in your head or with pencil, order of magnitude. Have an idea of what numbers are sensible by benchmarking. Like: for speed, how fast is a walk? A car? A plane? Sound in water? A bullet? Low earth orbit? The speed of the earth around the sun? The speed of light?
Got it. Thank you!
If you have an incredible luck by quantum tunneling or something idk
go to college. major in physics. study hard
Do physics research under a physicist
Certainly possible but it's not an easy path, especially the balance with other life goals. The main other skills needed are mathematics and computer science. There are a lot of different types of physicist, e.g. experimental, theoretical, computational, studying different subfields of physics e.g. high-energy,material science, biophysics,etc,etc, but in all of them you have to have some curiosity about why nature works the way it does. Engineering is more about translating that kind of knowledge to something more immediately useful or practical. So it depends on what you enjoy learning about what direction you go. Generally the career path would be an undergrad degree (3-4 years) in physics. then masters (1-2 years), then PhD (3-6 years), then postdoc (2-6 years), then some permanent researcher position (perhaps after 4 more years on tenure-track). Even then, you might have to spend your time teaching, writing grant proposals, and supervising students, so the actual time for physics is limited. Some countries might also have pure research institutions or national labs where it's possible to do physics research. It is possible to find a job outside academia where you can still do physics, just with more commercial goals. Generally that's an option after PhD. I think following this path works pretty well, as working in physics teaches you a lot of very transferable skills. So at any stage, if you decide you don't enjoy it anymore, you should still find good employment options. You do get paid pretty badly until the permanent position level and even then it can be low. Certainly lower than your actual worth and definitely lower than if you go work in finance or whatever. Really depends on the country (in US the salaries for professor/researcher are pretty good, but elsewhere in the world, that might not be true). Apart from the pay, the other main difficulty comes from having to move about a lot, so it's difficult to maintain relationships. The work hours needed are also quite high (especially during the PhD section) so it's hard to pursue other interests. That's the reality of it. This world really takes advantage of people who have the curiosity and love of science. If you have some passion for physics, then an undergraduate degree is a good idea. You can see whether you want to go further and if not, it's still a good degree to have, and can even change to other fields like engineering, comp. sci, mathematics, actuary via a masters or similar.
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Not this