The Should I Become a Physicist? Thread

PookDo

I printed it up and read parts of it this morning before work. I am focusing on brushing up on my math skills before I start school. A lot of it addressed some questions I have but I am sure other ones will be answered when I get to read it all the way through. I still question my ability to do it just starting school at 43 but it's something I want to do really bad

algaidaman

Thanks for the write-up ZapperZ!! That was some really good information.

algaidaman

No time like the present!!

ZapperZ

It's official! Physics is Hard!!!

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceno...s-is-hard.html

Zz.

Condensate

Thanks Brown Arrow!
That was very helpful.

ZapperZ

How Physics Careers Compare To Others

http://www.physicscentral.com/buzz/b...49717892784113

It's difficult to take these "studies" seriously, but it is still an amusing read. Even if we give them large error margins, physics still doesn't come out too bad.

Zz.

ZapperZ

Another reminder that the complete "So You Want To Be A Physicist" essay can be found at this link.

Zz.

Jack21222

I've been accepted to grad school at Northeastern University, Zz, and you can take partial credit for that. It wasn't until reading your essay that I realized I would be able to go to grad school. At the time, I assumed it wouldn't be possible financially. I'm sure I would have learned about assistantships eventually, but your essay was the first place I heard about them. This lead me to buckle down and work harder at my classes, knowing that grad school was a possibility.

Now, it's a reality. Thank you, Zz.

ZapperZ

You're very welcome. I'm glad the essay was useful in some parts for you. Thanks for the feedback.

And congratulations!

Zz.

Albereo

Hey I haven't read through all 8 pages of the replies so forgive me if this has come up before. In your "Undergraduate Preparation" section you note that a student should have working knowledge of two programming languages, minimum, and recommend that these are Fortran and C.
I think this needs updating. Most experimental work these days uses Matlab (well discounting LabView but that can be learned in a particular setting). And the importance of Mathematica cannot be overstated for graduate classes and theoretical work. I'd say that by and large these two have replaced Fortran, but C remains as a useful base language.
I would strongly recommend Matlab because it's a pretty intuitive language if one has a basic grasp of vector algebra, it's easy to start off with some basic differentiation/integration programs, numerical analysis, etc. And it's fast and powerful and very widely used.

Astronuc

A lot of programs are now written in C++, but Fortran is still around. Python would be useful.

Computational physicists use either C++ or Fortran.

ZapperZ

In case someone had problems with the previous links to the essay, this alternate link should work:

So You Want To Be A Physicist

Zz.

rqureshi24

Nice work man, my physics teacher who we joke is a physicist would appreciate that link.

roluohao

I'm currently reading Feynman Lectures on Physics.
And maybe I am wondering~

cow051213

Hi roluohao I'm also on Feynman Lectures on Physics.
Can someone send the Essay to me please? I am in China right now and I guess the link is somehow flitered out.

ZapperZ

This post can also be sub-titled as "So You Want To Be A Theorist?"

I did a quick count on the job advertisements listed in the April and May 2012 issues of Physics Today. I categorized the nature of the job advertisement into 3 types:

1. Jobs looking for experimentalists
2. Jobs looking for theorists
3. Jobs looking for either or both, or the description wasn't clear. These are often higher-level administration position and thus, usually not open to new PhDs and postdocs.

I did a quick count, and I also did not double count for repeated listing for the same job in May issue. So here's what I found:

1. Number of advertisements looking for experimentalists = 19
2. Number of advertisements looking for theorists = 5
3. Number of advertisements looking for either/both or unclear = 14

So if you look at the ratio of jobs specifically for experimentalists to the job specifically for theorists, it is almost 4:1! The nature of the jobs that are seeking experimentalists also tend to be quite varied. It ranges from Academia, National Labs, Industries, etc., whereas the overwhelming majority of theorists jobs are from Academia. This should come as no surprise to most people.

So, still want to be a theorist?

Zz.

George Jones

What is this ratio for Ph.D. graduates?