Careers & Jobs with Physics & Travel - Advice for Luke

[Luke*]

I don't know if this is appropriate here. But I just choose my GCSE options and they are 3rd science, geography and history, because they are my favourite. I am most interested in physics and want to travel alot. My dad is a Chief Electrician on a oil rig and said a good thing to do might be to do some sort of physics engineering and if I go with the right company could travel the world. Now I don't know if that made sense, but in my head it did. I was wondering if anyone could guide me on any specific careers or jobs which would include me traveling a lot and involve physics? It would be greatly appreciated.

Luke.

 

[Luke*]

Sorry for double post, but if anyone does know, could you also post around what type of pay there would be. Just a curiosity.

Luke.

 

[mgb_phys]

Physics underlies a lot of engineering but if you want to go into engineering you might want to do an engineering degree. This is the most guaranteed direct path into a career.

However, lots of companies hire physicists as general technical / project managers because they assume that physicists are fairly bright and can understand problems in a range of technical areas.
Another option is to work for a technical consultancy where you will travel and work in lots of different industries trying to find solutions to their problems.
Look at someone like Schlumberger (http://www.slb.com/) for an example of the range of careers.

Most pay for physicsts isn't fantastic but you won't starve. A senior engineer, especially on something like a rig, will earn more.

 

[Luke*]

Hey, thanks a lot for your reply, its appreciated. I was thinking of engineering on a rig as every man in my family has worked on a rig except my brother, but his current path looks like he will come across it :)

Do you have any more info or a site on the senior engineer or anything like that, that I may look at?

Thanks

Luke

 

[arunma]

Hi Luke. I don't know if you were considering an academic career path, but this will also allow you to travel abroad. I just started last May as a graduate student in high energy astrophysics, and there are many opportunities for travel. Collaboration meetings are often held at varying locations around the world, so I will have the opportunity to go to many different places. Departments usually send professors (and their grad students) to conferences as well. So if you like to travel, I think this might be a good career path as well.