The Should I Become a Physicist? Thread

nSlavingBlair

Hi Zz, a wonderful overview of the life of a physicist you've done there! I haven't managed to read it all yet (there's a lot there), but I was wondering if by chance you knew how many Australian astrophysicists get to stay in Australia for their jobs?

As you may have guessed, I live in Australia. Perth actually, supposedly the most isolated city on the planet. Lucky me! I know the SKA has a 50% chance of being based only about 3 or 4 hours out from where I live, but the chances of me getting straight into that after I graduate are rather small.

I'm in my fourth year, though I'm taking a half load (so still doing second year units), otherwise I would have graduated last year. Part of the reason for that is so I can get really good marks, as I realise it's an incredibly competitive field.

Back to why I started this reply; growing up the only major places I knew of to study astrophysics/astronomy are in Germany and America. I know that's changed a little now, but astronomy isn't something Australia is known for. I really, really don't want to leave my country.

Also, if there's any Aussies here that aren't sure about how to continue onto physics at uni, I'll be happy to help. Though the Eastern states tend to have a different educational system to what I had. Actually WA's educational system has changed in the last couple of years while I've been at uni too.

ZapperZ

I've mentioned that my "So You Want To Be A Physicist" essay is skewered towards the US higher educational system since that is the one that I'm intimately familiar with. Thanks to a number of member from the UK who have posted in this forum, we also have some idea on the UK educational system and what one has to go through to get a physics degree there.

Now along comes this article from The Independent in the form of a Q&A with Peter Main, the director of education and science at UK's Institute of Physics (IoP). It describes in detail how one gets a physics degree in the UK, including a short description of career options. I only wish there was some description of the graduate program towards obtaining a Ph.D.

Still, a very good article for incoming physics students in the UK.

Zz.

vorcil

it's a very good article, i enjoyed reading it thanks

ZapperZ

I have written a new chapter in the "So You Want To Be A Physicist" essay. In Chapter XIX, I discuss what should be highlighted in your curriculum vitae.

The reason why I'm including this in the essay is that, after going through two different search processes to hire a postdoc candidate, I notice a general pattern that many applicants seem to be emphasizing the less relevant part of who they are, and under-emphasizing (sometime even completely missing) the most relevant part, based on the nature of the job. This is something that can be easily corrected, but it requires a little bit of thinking and a little bit of careful consideration of the nature of the job that one is applying for.

I'm hoping that by clearly clarifying what a potential employer is looking for, one can understand how to better write a more effective CV.

Zz.

ZapperZ

I cringe every time I read in here of kids still in high school, or barely starting college, who already either are focused on a particular career, or already made up their minds that on a particular, exact career that they want to do. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having an ambition and aiming to want to be something. However, one needs to step back a bit and figure out if the "choice" being made here was made based on having all the necessary information (i.e. a well-informed decision), or made entirely based on superficial perception.

There are two important issues here that should be addressed and considered.

(i) It is highly unlikely that an 18-year old knows extremely well what is involved in being, say, a theoretical astrophysicist. So how did someone like that arrived at the conclusion that that is what he/she wants to be? More often than not, this person saw some TV shows, or went to some facility, or read some news coverage, and over a period of time, "fell in love" with the idea of being a theoretical astrophysicist.

(ii) It is also very likely that this person hasn't yet been exposed to ALL (or at least, a lot) of the exciting aspects of other field of studies. It is one thing to have seen all the "merchandise" and then make an informed selection, it is another to have only seen one or two and decided that those are sufficient to make a choice.

While there is nothing wrong with having a goal, there is a lot of things wrong when such a decision causes one to have blinders on and not even consider looking at other possibility. It is one of the reason why I conducted a non-scientific career poll here on PF. I wanted to see how many here who actually ended up in the VERY exact field that he/she envisioned when he/she was that young. If you simply look at the results, you'll see that only 15% of the poll participants ended up in the very exact career that they envisioned[*]! Significantly more of the participants end up doing roughly the same type of field of study, but not exactly the area of specialization that they had in mind.

What is the lesson in all of this? The lesson here is that, if you're just starting out in your academic life, there's a VERY good chance that you WILL NOT end up in the very exact specialization that you had in mind. That is a very important take-home message, and could be one of your first smack of reality. What this means is that you should NOT close the door on other subject areas just because you already have an ambition to be something. Just because you want to be a theoretical astrophysicist doesn't mean that you shouldn't at least look into solid state physics or read new discoveries coming out of atomic/molecular physics. There's a good chance that you will not be a theoretical astrophysicist, and you need to prepare yourself for such a possibility. It is why I've always tried to emphasize an undergraduate education that is as WIDE-RANGING as possible. Want to be a theorist? Well, take that extra lab class anyway! You'll never now that your ability to make that thin-film deposition might be the very skill that get you that job, or that graduate school admission. Idealism can only go so far before financial reality steps in and smack you on your face.

Zz.
[*] I am still skeptical of this number, and so far, only one participants have given an explanation on his selection. I think this number might be even significantly lower than what we end up with. I am guessing that many didn't actually read the full options posted in the first message of the poll. Of all the physicists that I've chatted with, I don't ever remember even one of them telling me that they are doing what they had in mind exactly when they were 17/18 years of age.

Heresy

I blame The Big Bang Theory, haha.


As for me, I'm an 18 year old who just finished his first year of college - and still has no idea what he wants to do with his life =/ I'm trying out economics/philosophy courses in the summer after a year of math, physics, and computer science. Supposedly I'm going to have to pick between physics and economics by August with the experience of two first year courses - great. Is there any other way to get more information on what I'm about to decide on?

Even if I go into a second year of studies and decide to switch later it'll probably just set me back for a year - I know these decisions aren't final but I do like to be efficient with my time.

ZapperZ

This is a rather good article on the difference between a career in acadamia and a career in industry. Especially for students who have just finished with their degree, or someone who intends to switch career from one to the other, this article might be an eye-opener on what to expect.

One could point out that the old Bell Labs, and even the old IBM research labs, were not like that described above. But I think those were the good old days that are no longer here.

Zz.

tgt

What is the job market in theoretical particle physics like? Should new Phd students expect to get a job to do postdoc research in their field at the end of their Phd or do only the best get jobs?

ZapperZ

The AIP has released the latest data postdoc salary. As of Feb. 2008, this is the spread in salary for postdocs in physics at US institutions based on the responses the AIP received from its survey.

Since I'm already doing statistics here, I'm going to post again the link to answer many of the questions regarding (i) what can I do with such-and-such physics degree (ii) how much can I earn with my physics degree (iii) where can I work, etc... etc. I keep seeing these questions popping up very frequently. I know the link to this AIP statistics page has been posted many times before, but since these are often missed, and since this thread is stickied (and hopefully, gets read), it might be convenient to repost the link here.

So folks, if you have any question on physics career, and possibly other statistics involving physics students, degree, etc., I can't think of a better place to look than at the AIP statistics webpage.

http://www.aip.org/statistics/

Zz.

ZapperZ

Eventually, and if you are in a more prominent position, or if your work gets some publicity, you will have to talk to the media that want a story and description of what you do. Many of us in this profession are not trained in how to interact or respond to the media. This can be bad, and certainly has the potential to blow up in one's face.

While many institutions have a public relations office that can help and guide someone on how to deal with the media, it is always nice to have some guidance well ahead of time and way before one needs it. That's why this article, written by Kathryn Grim of Fermilab's Communications office, is such a wonderful resource. It gives a clear and concise guidelines on not only how to communicate to the media, but how to effectively convey the message in such a way that there's a greater chance that the story becomes compelling to the public that will read it.

Come to think of it, while the article is titled "Communicating Science to the Media", the same guidelines is also suitable to be used in communicating science to the public.

Zz.

twofish-quant

I think I wanted to be an astrophysicist some time when I was eight years old.

The one big advice that I'd like to give is go into the game with the assumption that *you will not get a job in academia*. The bad news is that jobs in academia are extremely scare, and the odds are that you won't get one. That's the bad news. Someone did some statistics of all of the astronomy Ph.D.'s that graduated from my university and about 15% ended up with jobs in universities.

The good news is that there are a lot of decent jobs outside of academia. About 70% ended up doing something astronomy related (national labs, science journalism etc.). 30% ended out outside of physics, but everyone ended up with some decent job somewhere.

As far a what I do. I worked as a programmer in the oil industry and ended up working on Wall Street. If you think of a physicist as "numerical modeling specialist" then lots of jobs open up.

Phivar

How long did it take for you to write this, ZapperZ? It's clearly tons of valuable info here. I'm totally reading this!

ZapperZ

It took me a long time, over a period of about 3 years, I think. It was a "cute" little project that someone suggested. It simply mushroomed over the years after a number of people found it and started recommending it. When that happened, I felt that I had a responsibility to try and do as good of a job as I can, and to try and finish it.

Zz.

fedlibs

In the essay, you mentioned computer courses being necessary for a physicist's education. Would you recommend computer courses in high school? I didn't plan on taking computer programming courses because my schedule included other courses I originally wanted to take. Do you think I should switch over now, when I still have the chance?

ZapperZ

A lot of people I know did their first programming courses in college. There's no need to hurry here on this one. It is more important to have a solid background in mathematics first if you have the choice.

Zz.

Joydivining

Hey ZapperZ,

Thanks (again) for the wisdom imparted by your efforts in writing up this extensive post, and greetings from Australia.
I'll be starting my final year in undergraduate Physics this coming semester and have effectively set myself up for a double major in mathematics and theoretical physics. One of the units I've enrolled in deals with computational mathematics/analysis using MATLAB (a package better suited as a torture device than a useful program, according to my Engineering friends) but I'm concerned that my complete ignorance of programming will hamper my ability to continue on with honors and post-graduate education unless remedied.

Having last performed any programming ~4 years ago in highschool with Visual Basic and finding the wealth of knowledge associated with (computational) programming and modelling overwhelming or even intimidating, how would you suggest I go about pacing myself into things?
To elucidate, much of what I've read deals primarily with software- or web-based applications and I'm not sure how to set my late-blooming computer science education up for packages used by my PhD friends/demonstrators that took computer science classes.

The computational mathematics unit offered by my Faculty of Maths: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbo...s/MTH3051.html


Thanks again!

ZapperZ

There is another wonderful set of advice being given in the Science Career Advice section this week. This time, it is a follow-up on how to "Sell Yourself", i.e. how and what to write for your personal statement in your grad school application. We get questions on how to write one of these on PF all the time, so this might be a good article to read especially to those intending to apply for grad school or even postdoc position.

Zz.