- #36
armis
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Mr.Fermion said:I am finishing my ph.d in experimental condensed matter this fall the thesis defense is basically scheduled. So I can't say that I can directly answer your question directly but I can offer my 2 cents at least. I think that often times when people choose to get a ph.d in physics it feels like some sort of calling and many of the graduate students I meet have no idea why they are really doing it, many just tell me "I love physics and I had to continue to learn more about it".
I was definitely like them when I started, I wanted a sense of accomplishment and I only got that from doing research. There no feeling like having a very nice results that explains something that was previously unknown. Its extremely addictive and gratifying. However, the problem is that getting to that feeling often times takes years, at least in my case. The other side if the coin is that most first year graduate students don't really realize what they are committing too and often times fail to think of the personal and economic ramifications of graduate school.
On the plus side the University will pay your tuition, so at the end of your degree you will not be in debt as you would have been had you attended law school or medical school. However, professional schools are typically 3-4 years in length, in graduate school you are signing up for 5-7 years on average. You will get paid during this time, but on average you will make 15-25k a year depending on school and research group, it sounds like you are on the high end of this bracket. You can also make more money if you have and NSF or similar fellowship, but the high end on those is 40k. The reason I bringing money up is because an average graduate student won't be able to save for retirement for example, and you are also unlikely to make the amount of money you are going to lose over a ph.d compared to if you go in the work force after college. Me and a friend worked it out one day and in order to make up the amount of money lost during your ph.d you would need a starting salary of nearly 250k after graduation, and that's based on average salary of physics B.S that chose to go into industry.
Also keep in mind you will be working 60-80 hour weeks for the next 5-7 years regularly, sometimes more. You will rarely have weekends off, and most of your time will be spent either coding, instrument building, baby sitting your experiment, or designing electronics.
Having said all that I would probably do it all over again, I have no idea why. I think there a sense of accomplishment that comes with a ph.d degree that for some people is difficult to attain in other avenues of life.
In terms of job prospects, I am currently looking for my next move. I am very interested in the financial sector and there was in fact a firm that was recruiting in the last meeting I attended. I handed them my resume and I got pretty far in the interview process, however during the second technical interview the quant I was talking with said "You sound pretty enthusiastic about your research are you sure you want to do this" that and coupled with some really hard technical questions led to me receiving an e-mail that said " we think you are qualified for this job but we don't think there is a match in our current research team". I don't know if that was code for we think you are stupid or if I was too excited about my research. I also applied to Intel and got and interview there but completely bombed it because I really wasn't interested in micro processor manufacturing. Currently I am going through the interview process at Hitachi, have no idea how it will turn out but I figure most of this is just practice since I still have another 8 months until graduation.
My bigger point is that, at least in my experience, there seem to be people hiring physicist out there. Maybe I am just not what they are looking for. But, I got the sense from talking to recruiters and from my interviews that anyone with semi conductor, graphite, or polymer physics experience would be a of great value in the industrial sector. I think you would have great opportunities if you did you ph.d in photovoltaic. There are also post doc opportunities, which I am personally considering because I could transition into a field that has more application to the industrial sector, even do I love superconductors and have become very intrigued by topological insulators.
I don't how much this opus will help you, I apologize for the length but this has been my thoughts on my ph.d degree.
Thanks! This was most helpful. I didn't mind the length and I wished it was twice as long!
Did you do your PhD in your home country or abroad?