It can be tough. Here are some common options:
1) Maths/science teacher in high school
2) Pick up some programming courses, do a few CS courses, and sell yourself as a software developer, especially if applied to some more 'numerical' subfields (i.e. not web app development but numerical...
If you're talking about working on the actual processes / materials work in fabs, then that is a very niche field for which you need a PhD.
Think about it like this: How many fabs are there in the world? That's your employment pool.
Most companies nowadays are fab free, meaning they design the...
No it doesn't.
If you want to work in industry, get the masters in engineering and make sure your project has lots of hands-on experience with lab work besides just theory.
If you want to be an academic, get a PhD in whatever you find most interesting.
Once you start working in...
Power is a good one since a lot of the old timers are retiring and universities haven't been producing a lot of grads in that field (but the work might be a bit dull).
FPGA design is a nice niche field with some good opportunities (we always have a hard time finding good fpga designers)...
I was in a similar boat and almost switched to physics during 1st year. Ended up staying in engineering but majoring in engineering physics.
I don't regret staying in engineering. Doing eng phys still let me take a bunch of physics/math courses I was really interested in (quantum, e&m...
Ummm ... companies very rarely "look" for PhD engineers. Most engineering designers have bachelors or masters degrees, and you don't need a research qualification to be a designer, since you're not doing academic research.
True industrial research positions where you're publishing papers and...
That is indeed strange, where I work, program managers are more senior people that are in charge of multi-million dollar multi-year projects. Its a position you work up to and usually requires at least 6 years experience.
I'd say the most junior ones make ~85K and more senior over a hundred.
There definitely are good careers in DSP in industry, however, you can't just be a theorist using Matlab. Learn a practical skill like implementing signal processing algorithms in DSP processors and/or FPGAs and you should be quite employable.
Wow! This sounds like me 7 years ago. I thought the same thing, went into optics, and guess what I'm doing now, working as an EE! (after graduating optics went and got a masters in EE, best decision I made in my career)
Circuit design is just one tiny part of electrical. It's such a broad...
If you do physics, doing an engineering trade that requires a license (like Mech) is out.
Electrical / computer work is more likely. I know someone with a physics degree who is a hardware engineer (designing electronics etc.)
Many sell themselves as programmers. Many also end up doing...
To get an idea of what kinds of jobs are available with a degree ... think about who would voluntarily give you money to use your skills. I.e. where do you produce value?
There are a large number of companies making a lot of money producing aerospace products.
Astrophysics is only (meagerly)...
My undergrad was in engineering physics (basically applied physics, but done in the engineering department). For a master's I switched gears and did EE, focusing on robotics/image processing. I work in industry now developing chips to do image processing.
EM can be a niche field, but there...