Getting an Employment Outlook for Physics Majors

[deltabourne]

I assume this is a good place to ask this... being a physics forum and all

I'm an undergrad right now (first year) and my major is physics, and I'm thinking of taking on math as a double major (sounds like fun right? :DWow). I'm also planning on going to grad school to a doctorate.

Anyways, I have a feeling a lot of people feel that it's a dead end major and that I'm going to end up without a job. Everyone I talk to tells me the infamous story of the person they knew with a physics and math PhD that teaches HS or something. Hell, even my mom told me of someone they knew that this happened to.

Now I know money isn't everything (and I wouldn't change my major for the world, I love physics), but does anyone have any information about employment for physics graduates and basically what the deal is about the whole situation? I've poked around on tons of sites (like the Occupational Handbook by the government) and everything I've found contradicts what people say/think.. but still, it'd be nice to get information from the horses mouth so to speak. (Oh btw, first post :D)

 

[deltabourne]

Originally posted by Ambitwistor
Well, it depends on what subfield you go into... there's more demand for condensed-matter experimentalists than there is for quantum gravity theorists, for example. Good academic positions can be hard to come by, particularly in some fields, but there is also industry, federally-funded research labs, etc...

It also depends on what you mean by "employment for physics graduates". Many physics graduates, like many graduates in most other fields, go on to be employed in fields other than what they obtained their degree in, such as computer programming, engineering, economics, teaching, etc. (And personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching high school. I've known very talented Ph.D.'s --- including the best teacher I've ever had at any level --- who left the university system by choice to teach HS.)

The bottom line is, I haven't known any physics graduates who had trouble finding work.

I understand what you mean, I know most physics grads don't even go on to work in research positions. I know there's nothing wrong with teaching HS, it's a very honorable position and I respect all the teachers I had, but i'd just rather not be forced to pigeon-hole into a specific profession, if you know what I mean.

This is sort of a secondary question, but is there a place I can find out what the different fields are? I keep seeing things like condensed-matter, plasma, particle, etc. fields of physics but I can't really distinguish what they actually ARE

 

[J/Psi]

one of my dad's notable quotes: "What are you going to do with a PhD in physics?"

i defended my thesis about ten years ago and have worked in finance ever since.