So You Want To Be A Physicist Discussion

[vorcil]

Last week I accidently deleted this thread. Luckily we have a copy at Physicspost.com so I'll link it here again.

Part 1:
http://physicspost.com/science-article-205.html

Part 2:
http://physicspost.com/science-article-206.html

Part 3:
http://physicspost.com/science-article-207.html

I will also include these two articles:

7 Keys to Success with a Physics Degree
http://physicspost.com/science-article-211.html

A Career in Physics
http://physicspost.com/science-article-17.html

it's a very good article, i enjoyed reading it thanks

 

[ZapperZ]

I have written a new chapter in the "https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt&hl=en"" essay. In Chapter XIX, I discuss what should be highlighted in your curriculum vitae.

The reason why I'm including this in the essay is that, after going through two different search processes to hire a postdoc candidate, I notice a general pattern that many applicants seem to be emphasizing the less relevant part of who they are, and under-emphasizing (sometime even completely missing) the most relevant part, based on the nature of the job. This is something that can be easily corrected, but it requires a little bit of thinking and a little bit of careful consideration of the nature of the job that one is applying for.

I'm hoping that by clearly clarifying what a potential employer is looking for, one can understand how to better write a more effective CV.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

I cringe every time I read in here of kids still in high school, or barely starting college, who already either are focused on a particular career, or already made up their minds that on a particular, exact career that they want to do. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having an ambition and aiming to want to be something. However, one needs to step back a bit and figure out if the "choice" being made here was made based on having all the necessary information (i.e. a well-informed decision), or made entirely based on superficial perception.

There are two important issues here that should be addressed and considered.

(i) It is highly unlikely that an 18-year old knows extremely well what is involved in being, say, a theoretical astrophysicist. So how did someone like that arrived at the conclusion that that is what he/she wants to be? More often than not, this person saw some TV shows, or went to some facility, or read some news coverage, and over a period of time, "fell in love" with the idea of being a theoretical astrophysicist.

(ii) It is also very likely that this person hasn't yet been exposed to ALL (or at least, a lot) of the exciting aspects of other field of studies. It is one thing to have seen all the "merchandise" and then make an informed selection, it is another to have only seen one or two and decided that those are sufficient to make a choice.

While there is nothing wrong with having a goal, there is a lot of things wrong when such a decision causes one to have blinders on and not even consider looking at other possibility. It is one of the reason why I conducted a https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=293634" here on PF. I wanted to see how many here who actually ended up in the VERY exact field that he/she envisioned when he/she was that young. If you simply look at the results, you'll see that only 15% of the poll participants ended up in the very exact career that they envisioned[*]! Significantly more of the participants end up doing roughly the same type of field of study, but not exactly the area of specialization that they had in mind.

What is the lesson in all of this? The lesson here is that, if you're just starting out in your academic life, there's a VERY good chance that you WILL NOT end up in the very exact specialization that you had in mind. That is a very important take-home message, and could be one of your first smack of reality. What this means is that you should NOT close the door on other subject areas just because you already have an ambition to be something. Just because you want to be a theoretical astrophysicist doesn't mean that you shouldn't at least look into solid state physics or read new discoveries coming out of atomic/molecular physics. There's a good chance that you will not be a theoretical astrophysicist, and you need to prepare yourself for such a possibility. It is why I've always tried to emphasize an undergraduate education that is as WIDE-RANGING as possible. Want to be a theorist? Well, take that extra lab class anyway! You'll never now that your ability to make that thin-film deposition might be the very skill that get you that job, or that graduate school admission. Idealism can only go so far before financial reality steps in and smack you on your face.

Zz.

[*] I am still skeptical of this number, and so far, only one participants have given an explanation on his selection. I think this number might be even significantly lower than what we end up with. I am guessing that many didn't actually read the full options posted in the first message of the poll. Of all the physicists that I've chatted with, I don't ever remember even one of them telling me that they are doing what they had in mind exactly when they were 17/18 years of age.

 

[Heresy]

(i) It is highly unlikely that an 18-year old knows extremely well what is involved in being, say, a theoretical astrophysicist. So how did someone like that arrived at the conclusion that that is what he/she wants to be? More often than not, this person saw some TV shows, or went to some facility, or read some news coverage, and over a period of time, "fell in love" with the idea of being a theoretical astrophysicist.

I blame The Big Bang Theory, haha.As for me, I'm an 18 year old who just finished his first year of college - and still has no idea what he wants to do with his life =/ I'm trying out economics/philosophy courses in the summer after a year of math, physics, and computer science. Supposedly I'm going to have to pick between physics and economics by August with the experience of two first year courses - great. Is there any other way to get more information on what I'm about to decide on?

Even if I go into a second year of studies and decide to switch later it'll probably just set me back for a year - I know these decisions aren't final but I do like to be efficient with my time.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is a rather good article on the http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2009_05_22/caredit.a0900066" . Especially for students who have just finished with their degree, or someone who intends to switch career from one to the other, this article might be an eye-opener on what to expect.

When young scientists "first start becoming acquainted with what it means to do research in the private sector, it's really quite a culture shock," says Michael A. Santoro, a business ethics professor at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey. "In business, everything begins with the profit motive. ... Just the very idea of research is geared towards a product rather than knowledge itself. The most critical factor in determining whether a scientist is going to be successful in making the transition from the university to the private sector is the ability to buy into that point of view."

One could point out that the old Bell Labs, and even the old IBM research labs, were not like that described above. But I think those were the good old days that are no longer here.

Zz.

 

[tgt]

What is the job market in theoretical particle physics like? Should new Phd students expect to get a job to do postdoc research in their field at the end of their Phd or do only the best get jobs?

 

[ZapperZ]

The AIP has released the latest data postdoc salary. As of Feb. 2008, http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/emp/postdocsal.htm" in physics at US institutions based on the responses the AIP received from its survey.

Since I'm already doing statistics here, I'm going to post again the link to answer many of the questions regarding (i) what can I do with such-and-such physics degree (ii) how much can I earn with my physics degree (iii) where can I work, etc... etc. I keep seeing these questions popping up very frequently. I know the link to this AIP statistics page has been posted many times before, but since these are often missed, and since this thread is stickied (and hopefully, gets read), it might be convenient to repost the link here.

So folks, if you have any question on physics career, and possibly other statistics involving physics students, degree, etc., I can't think of a better place to look than at the AIP statistics webpage.

http://www.aip.org/statistics/

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Eventually, and if you are in a more prominent position, or if your work gets some publicity, you will have to talk to the media that want a story and description of what you do. Many of us in this profession are not trained in how to interact or respond to the media. This can be bad, and certainly has the potential to blow up in one's face.

While many institutions have a public relations office that can help and guide someone on how to deal with the media, it is always nice to have some guidance well ahead of time and way before one needs it. That's why http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.0242" , written by Kathryn Grim of Fermilab's Communications office, is such a wonderful resource. It gives a clear and concise guidelines on not only how to communicate to the media, but how to effectively convey the message in such a way that there's a greater chance that the story becomes compelling to the public that will read it.

Come to think of it, while the article is titled "Communicating Science to the Media", the same guidelines is also suitable to be used in communicating science to the public.

Zz.

 

[twofish-quant]

I think I wanted to be an astrophysicist some time when I was eight years old.

The one big advice that I'd like to give is go into the game with the assumption that *you will not get a job in academia*. The bad news is that jobs in academia are extremely scare, and the odds are that you won't get one. That's the bad news. Someone did some statistics of all of the astronomy Ph.D.'s that graduated from my university and about 15% ended up with jobs in universities.

The good news is that there are a lot of decent jobs outside of academia. About 70% ended up doing something astronomy related (national labs, science journalism etc.). 30% ended out outside of physics, but everyone ended up with some decent job somewhere.

As far a what I do. I worked as a programmer in the oil industry and ended up working on Wall Street. If you think of a physicist as "numerical modeling specialist" then lots of jobs open up.

 

[Phivar]

How long did it take for you to write this, ZapperZ? It's clearly tons of valuable info here. I'm totally reading this!

 

[ZapperZ]

How long did it take for you to write this, ZapperZ? It's clearly tons of valuable info here. I'm totally reading this!

It took me a long time, over a period of about 3 years, I think. It was a "cute" little project that someone suggested. It simply mushroomed over the years after a number of people found it and started recommending it. When that happened, I felt that I had a responsibility to try and do as good of a job as I can, and to try and finish it.

Zz.

 

[fedlibs]

In the essay, you mentioned computer courses being necessary for a physicist's education. Would you recommend computer courses in high school? I didn't plan on taking computer programming courses because my schedule included other courses I originally wanted to take. Do you think I should switch over now, when I still have the chance?

 

[ZapperZ]

A lot of people I know did their first programming courses in college. There's no need to hurry here on this one. It is more important to have a solid background in mathematics first if you have the choice.

Zz.

 

[Joydivining]

Hey ZapperZ,

Thanks (again) for the wisdom imparted by your efforts in writing up this extensive post, and greetings from Australia.
I'll be starting my final year in undergraduate Physics this coming semester and have effectively set myself up for a double major in mathematics and theoretical physics. One of the units I've enrolled in deals with computational mathematics/analysis using MATLAB (a package better suited as a torture device than a useful program, according to my Engineering friends) but I'm concerned that my complete ignorance of programming will hamper my ability to continue on with honors and post-graduate education unless remedied.

Having last performed any programming ~4 years ago in high school with Visual Basic and finding the wealth of knowledge associated with (computational) programming and modelling overwhelming or even intimidating, how would you suggest I go about pacing myself into things?
To elucidate, much of what I've read deals primarily with software- or web-based applications and I'm not sure how to set my late-blooming computer science education up for packages used by my PhD friends/demonstrators that took computer science classes.

The computational mathematics unit offered by my Faculty of Maths: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/units/MTH3051.html


Thanks again!

 

[ZapperZ]

There is another wonderful set of advice being given in the Science Career Advice section this week. This time, it is a http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_01_08/caredit.a1000005" , i.e. how and what to write for your personal statement in your grad school application. We get questions on how to write one of these on PF all the time, so this might be a good article to read especially to those intending to apply for grad school or even postdoc position.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

When I wrote this essay, one of the "theme" that I try to always keep as an underlying message is that, while it is good that one has a particular ambition to go in a particular direction, or a strong idea on what type of physics career one wants to go into, a "backup" plan must always be in place. One can maximize one's "employability" (something that I've always stressed throughout the essay) but not limiting oneself to only the narrow field of study or the narrow range of skills involved in that field. I've advised people to learn computer skills, do more experimental work even if you plan to be a theorist, go learn a characterization measurement even if that work will not end up in your dissertation, etc. In other words, don't hedge your bet all in one basket.

One of the most common career track for physicists is to go into academia. Getting a faculty position, doing (hopefully) minimal teaching load, and spending time with research work. The problem with this is that, even under the best of times, the number of positions available at various universities (especially here in the US) has always been small when compared to the pool of applicants. In many cases, a position opens only when a faculty member retires or leaves the department. This overall impression is supported by the recent http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/acad/awf08.pdf". If one looks at Table 1 and Figure 1, there has been no significant change in the total number of physics faculty since 1998. There is even less of a change between 2006 and 2008.

One could argue that during those years, funding for physics had been very challenging, and that certainly was true. While funding for NIH went through the roof, funding for the physical science via the NSF and DOE's Office of Science had either been flat, or even decreased. So, with the recent influx of funding with the Obama administration, will things change? We don't know yet. Recent reports has shown that things are still very tight, and http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_01_15/caredit.a1000006" . With the economy the way it is, and with the knowledge that many of the recent influx of money is primarily due to a one-time shot-in-the-arm via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, such "prosperity" might not last very long. The state of the economy also weighs down heavily, since many state universities depend on state budgets for support. Private institutions also are not immune to the crisis - many major private schools have seen their endowments took a deep plunge after the stock market crash.

The moral of the story has always been that, one must try to diversify oneself as much as possible during one's schooling years. There should be a conscious effort to think about life after graduation, and the possibility that what one is aiming for may not be achievable. It isn't enough to simply be good at something and think that one qualifies to work as so-and-so at such-and-such a place. There must also be an available position.

The small glimmer of silver lining in all of this is that, for students who still have a few more years before they enter the job market, things can easily change for the better. The economy continues to recover slowly, and the reinvestment in sciences is pushing ahead with many major science projects that would have languished. These projects are expected to start operations within the next few years and would need postdocs and full-time employees. So there are indications that things are improving ... just not at this very moment.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

If you are thinking of doing theoretical high energy physics, you might want to read this first:

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2010/02/the-high-energy.html

Zz.

 

[Brown399]

Great read.
Bravo, and thank you.

 

[ZapperZ]

Great read.
Bravo, and thank you.

Thank you for reading.

This is a good time to remind people who don't wish to read this thread from the beginning that the entire essay can be found at this link:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt

I continue to get queries on where the "rest of the essay" is located, or if I've written anymore beyond Chapter so-and-so. So if you've missed the entire essay, that's the link to follow.

Zz.

 

[Brown399]

Thank you for reading.

This is a good time to remind people who don't wish to read this thread from the beginning that the entire essay can be found at this link:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt

I continue to get queries on where the "rest of the essay" is located, or if I've written anymore beyond Chapter so-and-so. So if you've missed the entire essay, that's the link to follow.

Zz.

That format is so much better =p

 

[Agent M27]

I just finished reading your essay and I can honestly say I am more excited to be a physicist than I was previously! Thank you for your time and effort to give us a true inside look at the entire process. I am only in my second year so I still have some years to go, but an attempt at a PhD is deffinitely in my future. If I may ask where did you get your PhD and in what area? Thanks.

Joe

 

[physics_pupil]

Excellent material!I really enjoyed reading it.

 

[yukawa_m]

i liked these articles.i hope they'll be useful

 

[ZapperZ]

Homework copiers, BEWARE!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/higher-education/new-mit-study-on-student-cheat.html

That brings us to the new MIT study, conducted by Physics Professor David E. Pritchard of MIT, Assistant Professor Young-Jin Lee of the University of Kansas, and two other researchers.

According to the study, students who copy homework problems requiring algebraic responses wound up performing poorly on problems that required similar work on the final exam—by as much as two letter grades.

Students who copy more than 30 percent of their homework problems have more than three times the course failure rate as other students, even if they started the course with the same math and physics abilities.

This study has been accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Sp. Topics - Physics Education Research, but has not appeared in print yet as of today (contrary to the report). I'll update this when it appears online. Papers from this journal are available for free.

Edit: the paper is now available online:

http://prst-per.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v6/i1/e010104

Zz.

 

[Who Am I]

Great info, however, it needs some grammar correction and then it can be put into a book.

I'm glad I have the internet and interest on my side as far as getting into grad school goes. That's considering that I am a high-school senior and I won't start my undergraduate degree for another 5 months.

I might start here and begin to suck up information until I am an expert on getting into the program that I want.

Stanford, MIT, Columbia and Caltech are my top choices. I will be attending the University of Arizona for my undergrad degree, which means that it will be a bit more of a stretch to get into those programs compared to a school ranked in the top 20 or 30.

So, I'll need all the help I can get.

 

[Daytripper17]

In your essay, you recommend inquiring about research work around the middle of year 3...but I've always heard that it's quite important to start doing some work (be it lab work or data analysis) during the summer after your first year or at the latest the summer after your second year. The idea is to be involved in three research projects by the time you apply to grad school so that you can have your three letters of recommendation from the three professors you did work for. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[ZapperZ]

In your essay, you recommend inquiring about research work around the middle of year 3...but I've always heard that it's quite important to start doing some work (be it lab work or data analysis) during the summer after your first year or at the latest the summer after your second year. The idea is to be involved in three research projects by the time you apply to grad school so that you can have your three letters of recommendation from the three professors you did work for. What are your thoughts on this?

I am in the camp where I dislike the idea of freshman and sophomores already seeking "lab work" that is outside of the class work. I would rather such students pay attention to their classes and get their grades up as high as possible. Aim for straight A's! As I've said, these are going to be the easiest of all the classes that you will encounter. No amount of "research work" is going to mask bad grades when you apply for graduate school.

When I was going through all the application for summer internships, practically all of the students who applied got good letters of recommendations from their class instructors, not from instructors who worked with them in some research project. These students somehow left a very good impression on the instructors, all within the framework of a class. They talked to the instructors, ask questions in class, see them during their office hours, etc. In other words, you do not have to do some research work for someone just so you can have excellent letter of recommendations.

Besides, and I'm being blunt here, what exactly is the type of "research work" that you can do as a freshman or a sophomore? Again, I've supervised many undergraduate summer interns, and most of them require a lot of hand-holding, even when we give them a very limited task to do. And these are juniors and seniors.

The #1 criteria in getting into a good graduate program is... GRADES. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Zz.

 

[Sunmaz]

This is a wonderful resource. I am currently reading through it (I'm on part IX) and I have some constructive criticism: there are numerous grammatical errors that at times cause me to have a quizzical look and be forced to reread the sentence/passage. The errors are mainly issues with plural versus singular verbs and nouns but also a few more pervasive sentence structure issues. Thus while I find the text excellent, I strongly recommend that you thoroughly edit the English in it and perhaps get it proof read by a friend as well.
I hope you do not let that detract from my compliment - it is a refreshing and informative text that I am thoroughly enjoying.

 

[ZapperZ]

Many of these were written "on the fly", i.e. while I have some structure that I follow, the actual writing were done "as is". So I'm not surprised that there are a lot of typos and grammatical errors, which I do correct whenever I find them upon re-reading.

I did say that I will need a proof-reader if I ever want to turn this into a more "serious" document. At this point, I really do not have a lot of time to go over the whole document carefully. I can't do the proof-reading myself, because often, I'm reading what I THINK I wrote, not what I actually wrote.

Zz.

 

[Sunmaz]

Fair enough. Like I said it is excellent nonetheless.

 

[ZapperZ]

A good, FREE book for anyone to download from the National Academies Press.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12192"

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

A new statistics has been published at AIP. This time, it surveys http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/bach2010.pdf".

The complete data are not out yet. So far, the available data are on the initial status of the physics bachelor upon graduation. So keep an eye on the page for the next release, which is "forthcoming", it says.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

A rather useful essay on http://chronicle.com/article/Becoming-a-Successful/66133/" . While it is certainly useful for those about to get his/her Ph.D or those starting out as postdocs, the essay should also give a good idea to students intending to pursue a career in science on what is involved and what social skills are necessary to be a successful PI. While science is a study of the natural/physical world, the practice of science is still a social and human endeavor.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

I think I may have to do this periodically in this thread.

I get asked often on where the "rest" of the essay is, because people who joined in this thread late or skimmed through the first few posts might have missed the link to the essay. So I often get PMs asking me for it. I've concluded that I may have to post this link periodically in here.

The entire essay can be obtained at this link:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt

I've started writing a new chapter to it about a couple of months ago, but somewhere along the way, I got busy and also lost a little bit of motivation. I will have to kick myself into gear some time soon to try and finish that chapter.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

The AIP has released the latest statistics on the http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/emp2010.pdf" degree holder. This came from a survey done in 2006 and 2007.

39% were employed, 4% were still seeking employment, while the remainder went on to pursue graduate studies. This survey then focused on the 39% who were employed. 59% of those were employed in the private sector, with a significant majority working in the engineering field.

Physics bachelor’s working in the private sector accepted positions with a diverse set of employers doing a wide range of activities (see Figure 3). Over 70% of the physics bachelor’s who accepted employment in the private sector work in a STEM field. As has been true in the past, employment in the field of engineering represents the largest proportion of these private sector positions, followed by computer science and information technology positions. Non-STEM positions accounted for 29% of the new bachelor’s employed in the private sector. The types of positions in this category are very diverse, with "finance" and "marketing and sales" being most frequently cited.

Zz.

 

[vorcil]

Zapper, is there a problem in persuing physics if you are not a math prodigy?

while doing physics as an undergraduate degree you will do math and physics papers simutaneously,

if you are not good with calculus and algebra, then you'll find the mathematics within physics quite difficult,

just expect to study hard, if you are no good at mathematics, you will be no good at a majority of physics

 

[vorcil]

The AIP has released the latest statistics on the http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/emp2010.pdf" degree holder. This came from a survey done in 2006 and 2007.

39% were employed, 4% were still seeking employment, while the remainder went on to pursue graduate studies. This survey then focused on the 39% who were employed. 59% of those were employed in the private sector, with a significant majority working in the engineering field.



Zz.

THAT'S QUITE ALOT OF PEOPLE DOING POST GRADUATE PHYSICS WORK!

1 more year and I get to do post grad XD

 

[ZapperZ]

The Science Career Advice section has a very useful article on http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_08_27/science.opms.r1000093" , especially during this challenging economic times. It might be a very valuable reading especially if one is considering an academic track career. While it isn't strictly confined to physics, it certainly give a good general impression on what one should do as a postdoc in terms of a long-term view of one's career possibilities.

Zz.

 

[Astronuc]

Cern's Greybook on Univeristy Physics Programs
http://greybook.cern.ch/institutes/


I stumbled across Gerard 't Hooft's page - HOW to BECOME a GOOD THEORETICAL PHYSICIST
It is a nice complement to ZapperZ's excellent essay.

http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/theorist.html

It has a LIST OF SUBJECTS, IN LOGICAL ORDER. Keep in mind that one cannot do everything, but one can be familiar with various areas in physics.

Toward the bottom of the page is a list of textbooks in various physics subjects.
Classical Mechanics
Statistical Mechanics
Quantum Mechanics
Electrodynamics
Optics
Thermodynamics
Solid State Physics
Special Relativity
General Relativity
Particle Physics
Field Theory
String Theory
Cosmology

And I just saved Zz's essay in Word - just in case.

 

[Mépris]

In case people missed it, the entire series on "So You Want To Be A Physicist" http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt" .

The series has almost reached the end of its intended purpose. At this point, I'm looking over it to plug some holes into areas that I may have missed, or didn't emphasize enough. So any suggestions you have will definitely be welcomed. I've also started (although haven't gotten too far into it yet) a "prequel" to the series to include preparations for someone still in high school. Hopefully, that will be done soon to compliment what I've written already.

Zz.

Any more news on that, mister? (:

 

[ZapperZ]

Any more news on that, mister? (:

Not at the moment, no. I've shelved it (until I talk to more high school kids and teachers) in favor of continuing with and ending it on a physics career aspect of the series.

Zz.

 

[Mépris]

Not at the moment, no. I've shelved it (until I talk to more high school kids and teachers) in favor of continuing with and ending it on a physics career aspect of the series.

Zz.

Ah shame, I would have loved to read it. Thank you for the swift reply.

I'm at this particular stage in my little life where something like this would have been useful. At any rate, I'll read the initial article in full. ;)

 

[ZapperZ]

Since a lot of people found my self-evaluation thread titled "https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=64966"" essay. I've included this topic in Part VIIIa, trying not to change the number of previous parts, since I or someone have made references to parts of the essay over time.

In this new part, I've expanded a little bit on what I wrote in that thread, with some suggestions on what one might want to do after using such self-evaluation. I may, in the future, elaborate further on the many possible steps one can do, and to test out the effectiveness of such steps by actually taking the GRE Physics Subject test.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Science Career section has an article on the Academic track in US institutions. This might be something people who are interested in going the academic route want to read.

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2011_02_11/science.opms.r1100100

Zz.

 

[richardfatman]

Thank you for this amazing article.
I'm currently a high school senior and it is always my dream to become a physicist, especially a theoretical physicist.
After reading this great article, I truly get some idea on how to realize my dream.

 

[LizzzyBF]

Great article, just finished reading it.
I'd definitely be interested in reading anything about what to do while still in high school.
I know that I need to focus on physics and maths classes (not sure whether to do statistics as well as calculus next year though), and I have been reading some popular physics books in my spare time, but if there's any information about anything else high schoolers could be doing out there, it would be great to know.

 

[ZapperZ]

In last week's issue of Science, there was a useful article on the art of presenting a scientific talk for those who are "http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2011_06_10/caredit.a1100052" ". It gave a few simple exercises, both mental and physical, on how to overcome such anxiety, which we all go through.

In Part XIV of my http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt" essay, I described in detail what one needs to prepare in presenting such a talk. In the end, the only way to gain some control over such anxiety is to practice, practice, practice. As with any skill, the ability to speak and present something effectively can only be acquired upon repeated practice. Having such a skill can mitigate a bit the level of anxiety. It doesn't mean that you don't have it anymore, it just means that you have some control over it and that it doesn't overwhelm you anymore after some point.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

The question of employment in physics is one of those things that keep coming up in this forum. The AIP has now released the latest statistics obtained for Physics PhDs in the US from the class of 2007/2008. Here is the statistics on the initial employment of those PhDs.

http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/phdinitial.pdf

Over half of them (56%) went into postdoctoral position, while 33% went into a "potentially permanent" position. What is interesting is that out of those 33% that has a potentially permanent position, and overwhelming majority (62%) are in the private sector!

Looking even closer, those who have a potentially permanent position, the largest percentage of them (48%, which is almost half) are employed in a field outside of physics (Fig. 2). But is this bad? Not necessarily. If you look in Fig. 3, those who are in a potentially permanent position in the private sector are the ones with the highest starting salary (median $85,000).

Zz.

 

[Ryker]

I have to say this does NOT look gloomy at all!

 

[osnarf]

and only 19% were not in Physics, Engineering, or "Other Sciences", all of which I would probably be very happy working in. I may reconsider physics for grad school I thought it was much different.