Percival, if you don't mind, would it be possible to send you a private message on this point? I think it's part of the protocol here to ask in public first. Cheers!
The thing about where I went to school is a part of the story, I guess--if I had gone to the US, I would have had an extra year at university, I could have lived on my own, and not to mention the reduced stress of exams at semester instead of the end of the year.
What I should mention as...
You make a very good point, and it would probably be easier for me to find work in another field than in physics or science more generally. As in, even if I were to become a physicist, I would only ever be a mediocre physicist, at that, whereas I guess I could be higher ranked in other fields...
I wouldn't say anything about "magical transformations": having put myself through the works for this, I am actually now sitting here contemplating going back to do an undergrad when most of my peers are beginning their second postdoc position. It's not nice, but it might be the only I have left...
This is also an interesting trajectory. How and where did you get into engineering? Did you go back for a BEng or straight into an MSc? Thank you so much for your thoughtful post; I really appreciate it.
I have indeed considered therapy for a long time no, but this is actually much easier...
Many thanks. I'd be curious to know: supposing I did find a university which took me on as an undergraduate for a second baccalaureate degree. This would probably be an institution nowhere near as good as where I went the first time, I'm guessing--but the internet does turn up some interesting...
Thank you so much to the people who replied. I have been able to get a lot of very different jobs, but these have been in fields totally unrelated to physics.
About the uselessness of degrees: I guess basically I just wasted a three-year opportunity. I could, I imagine, find a place to take me...
Hi all,
This is, for me at least, a devastating story, but I might try to re-build my life in my early thirties and possibly go back to physics after more than 12 years out.
I got into one of England's best--and indeed, world's best--universities to study physics way back in the...