Are Physics Careers in Canada Viable?

[Ju00611]

Any Canadian physicists on here? I'm taking engineering (1st year), but next year I want to switch to physics. I realize that a job in academia is pretty unrealistic given the amount of competition, but if I were to get a Ph.D. in physics, are the job prospects for physics decent in Canada?

My dream would be the work at a national lab such as Perimeter, Triumf or SNOLAB. Is this a reasonable goal? I'd hate to get a Ph.D. in physics only to become a programmer (not that there's anything wrong with that, but I could just get a BS in computer science). Thanks in advance!

 

[Choppy]

It's like physics in the US, only colder.

It sounds like you're already aware that a job in academia is competitive. For the most part, I don't think the odds are all that different from the US.

A lot can depend though, on the specific sub-field that you go into and the demand for it. I'm a medical physicist in Canada and relative to a lot of the other sub-fields that are largely academic, there is more demand for medical physicists. That's because there are employment prospects outside of universities. The same is true for geophysics. The oilfields are slow right now, but they tend to employ a lot of people with a background in geophysics.