Explaining your Physics degree to relatives

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges faced by a second-year physics student in Thailand when trying to explain the potential career paths associated with a physics degree to family members. The conversation touches on the perceptions of physics among laypeople and the difficulty of articulating one's future in the field.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration at being frequently questioned about their future career options in physics during family gatherings.
  • Another participant suggests that laypeople may not understand what physicists do, which complicates the explanation of career prospects.
  • There is a call for the original poster to reformulate their question to make it more answerable by others in the forum.
  • Some participants imply that the original poster may lack confidence in their career prospects, suggesting that they should reflect on their own thoughts about their future.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on how to effectively communicate the value of a physics degree to non-experts. There are differing views on how to approach the original question and the challenges involved.

Contextual Notes

There is an indication that the discussion may be limited by the participants' assumptions about the audience's understanding of physics and the specific career paths available to physics graduates.

TechieDork
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I'm studying 2nd year Physics in Thailand and I always have hard time explaining what I would do with my Physics degree for a living to my relatives and family.

Every relative gathering on holidays, I'll always get bombarded with questions .

-So what's you're going to do after college,son.
-You better go for an engineering.
-I expect you to be the first doctor in our family.
 
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TechieDork said:
I'm studying 2nd year Physics in Thailand and I always have hard time explaining what I would do with my Physics degree for a living to my relatives and family.

Every relative gathering on holidays, I'll always get bombarded with questions .

-So what's you're going to do after college,son.
-You better go for an engineering.
-I expect you to be the first doctor in our family.
Is there a question in there...? If not, I have one: So what's you're going to do after college, son?
 
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Maybe most laymen have no idea what physicsts
russ_watters said:
Is there a question in there...? If not, I have one: So what's you're going to do after college, son?
Oh Sorry,I forgot to put the question mark in there.
Yeah,it's a question
 
TechieDork said:
Yeah,it's a question
Sorry if this sounds rude, I don't mean it that way.

So you are asking us, what you will do with your degree for a living? Really, how can we answer that?

You need to reformulate the question into something that can be answered by strangers on the internet.
 
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gmax137 said:
Sorry if this sounds rude, I don't mean it that way.

So you are asking us, what you will do with your degree for a living? Really, how can we answer that?

You need to reformulate the question into something that can be answered by strangers on the internet.
...or attempt to answer the question itself. I'm going to hazard a guess, @TechieDork , that you posted this because you aren't confident in the answer. If that's true, you should put some direct thought into it.
 

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