What Are the Job Prospects for Astrophysics Majors?

[phyzguy]

People are often asking about the job prospects in astrophysics. I thought this survey was interesting. Note the #2 entry - unemployment rate for astronomy and astrophysics majors - 0 %.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/10-college-majors-lowest-unemployment-rates-163049193.html

 

[eri]

Astrophysics involves a lot of physics, math, and often computer science. It's unlikely most of those people are employed in the field of astrophysics, especially with just a bachelors in it, but it does make you employable in other fields. My friends from college who majored in astronomy with me are now working jobs in engineering, teaching math, for defense contractors, designing computer games, and one is a nurse. And then there's me, working in astrophysics - but only because I got a PhD in physics after the bachelors, and they did not.

 

[Violinist]

Astrophysics involves a lot of physics, math, and often computer science. It's unlikely most of those people are employed in the field of astrophysics, especially with just a bachelors in it, but it does make you employable in other fields. My friends from college who majored in astronomy with me are now working jobs in engineering, teaching math, for defense contractors, designing computer games, and one is a nurse. And then there's me, working in astrophysics - but only because I got a PhD in physics after the bachelors, and they did not.

What kind of work do you do? Do you ever get a chance to work on string theory?

 

[twofish-quant]

It's unlikely most of those people are employed in the field of astrophysics, especially with just a bachelors in it, but it does make you employable in other fields.

Also I think there is a personality effect. If you are interested in trying to figure out the deep mysteries of the universe, you are also likely to be interested in trying to figure out the deep mysteries of the job market and of how resume writing works.

For example, I think one reason the unemployment rate in astrophysics is low is because people think it's useless for career purposes. If everyone thought it was useful, everyone would get the major, and so there would be a glut. So the trick is to do what everyone else isn't doing, but how do you do what everyone else isn't doing since you are part of everyone else?

Spend a few hours pondering that... You can put together a quick mathematical model about how this sort of feedback works.

And then there's me, working in astrophysics - but only because I got a PhD in physics after the bachelors, and they did not.

Also most Ph.D.'s don't end up as research professors. However, one curious statistic that I found from the person that keeps track of these things is that about 70% of people end up doing things that are related to science research.