Job Skills Got my BS in Physics but I don't know what to apply for

[Dr. Courtney]

Was anyone here actually hired as a programmer or data analyst with a physics degree who did not have years of programming and software development experience?

I was offered a programming job right out of school, but I declined it. All my prior programming experience was on projects while in school. The main reason they offered me the job was I performed well on the programming "test" they administered during the interview (it was in C). A year later, I was hired as a test engineer at a wireless communication company. I accepted this job, which was about 50% programming.

Teaching seems like a cool job, but from what I hear, the younger children can be a handful. But, hell, you got like three months of vacation per year. You probably ain't going to get that doing anything else. Imagine having summer vacations with no work lol. What would you do? And they still make a descent salary. To me, 40k is pretty good. My friend started at 40k where I am, and the cost of living here is very cheap. You can make 60 to 80 in other areas. He says it's hard work, but I don't believe him. I think the difficulty in the job is trying to manage a classroom of kids and having to grade papers. If you get that teachers certificate, I don't think you'll be out of a job for very long.

Classroom management can be a challenge in many places. The book, "The First Days of School" by Harry K Wong was very valuable to me when I started my first high school teaching job. His most important points are 1) Student learning results from their efforts, not from the teacher's. 2) Use your first days to build good classroom habits so students spend most of their time in class making efforts that will result in learning.

Grading is not that big of a deal. But you need to give some consideration and design your approach for a manageable load. A teacher simply cannot give 100 students the same level of individual grading attention that he can give 20. The trick is designing a system of daily accountability for students to do their work without creating an unmanageable workload for yourself.

My favorite approach for high school math, physics, and chemistry was to have students set each day's homework on a table when they came in. As they spent 5-10 minutes working a "bell work" assignment on the board, I would quickly peruse their homework but giving credit in the grade book for the appearance of an "honest effort" rather than detailed correctness. Thus an honest effort on each day's homework could earn all the homework points in the class. After the 5-10 minutes, students would retrieve their homework and we'd discuss the bell work problem and I'd field questions from the home work.

Lots of teachers have now gone to online homework systems which are graded automatically. It is very time efficient, but for me, it is more important to teach and enforce good habits of pencil and paper solutions. The way most students interact with online math/physics/chemistry homework does does not enforce good pencil and paper problem solving habits, which I view as essential to learning and growing in problem solving. When I have used online systems, I have an additional step of checking notebooks and require that each problem be worked carefully and completely. But this greatly increases the labor of accountability. (I did it when homeschooling my own sons, both physics majors now, but it is too much labor for a class of 20 students.)

 

[Locrian]

Was anyone here actually hired as a programmer or data analyst with a physics degree who did not have years of programming and software development experience?

I was hired as an actuarial analyst with basically no real programming experience. This is the case for most actuarial hires, though they do need more familiarity with excel than is typical.

He says it's hard work, but I don't believe him.

Over the last decade I can think of eight people I've worked with who moved from grade school teaching to actuarial or data science work. From that small sample (and some relatives who are teachers) I gather it is generally tougher teaching lower grades than high school. As a side note, all eight were thrilled to have escaped.

IMO $40k is painfully low salary. However, the benefits teachers get historically were extremely good. Be careful; due to ballooning pension and other benefit costs, many government jobs are quietly cutting benefits for new hires. You might not be getting as good a deal as your peers without even realizing it.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

IMO $40k is painfully low salary.

It's not bad for New Orleans area, and it's a lot better than the other jobs the OP has a realistic chance at until the programming skills are improved. I've known lots of teachers complain about the salary, but you need to realize it's for about a 190 day work year; whereas, most "real" jobs are closer to a 250 day work year. There's a lot more time in a teacher's year for side jobs and to improve one's job skills for moving toward more lucrative fields. I've always had a side business when I've been a teacher.

 

[Zap]

40k isn't bad where I am, especially starting off with no professional experience.

It's interesting to hear you were offered an analyst job with no programming experience and don't have a PhD. I know of one person who was offered a job as a statistician with no programming experience, but he had a PhD. This is great news.

 

[Zap]

Teachers make bank. You peoples are crazy.

Imagine this. I move to California with a sleeping bag anf a backpack somewhere warm and close to the beach. I start some entry level bs job for 40 or 50k a year, but spend nothing on housing or food, sleeping on the beach and begging for food. I’ll pay off my loans in one year and retire after ten.

 

[symbolipoint]

Teachers make bank. You peoples are crazy.

Imagine this. I move to California with a sleeping bag anf a backpack somewhere warm and close to the beach. I start some entry level bs job for 40 or 50k a year, but spend nothing on housing or food, sleeping on the beach and begging for food. I’ll pay off my loans in one year and retire after ten.

Not exactly. If you are single, and are careful about not wasting your money, your "bs" job at 40k a year should be enough to live somewhere in some kind of housing, cheap apartment or something, and maybe you can save some. Point is, do not waste your money; have something to save. There is possible salary increase with time, or a change of jobs for an increased salary. Still avoid wasting your money and maybe save more.

 

[fresh_42]

I removed a sub-discussion about homelessness. It doesn't belong to "what to apply for with a BS in physics".
Not alone that it is unlikely an option for most people, it is also loaded with too many unproven assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes. I cannot imagine someone studied physics just to become homeless.

Please stay on topic.

 

[Salviati]

Was anyone here actually hired as a programmer or data analyst with a physics degree who did not have years of programming and software development experience?

I was and I was lucky. I did physics for my undergrad then computational science for my masters. I got a job doing some backend development without having any actual software dev experience (just MATLAB and some numerical analysis) because the people at the company were really nice. I learned c++ mostly on the job. The problem now is that since my programming knowledge is so job-specific and not having gone through an proper comp sci curriculum, I always fail the technical component of a software dev interview. If I even transition to another software dev job I would probably have to go back down to a junior position and a have major drop in salary.

 

[Zap]

Can you give us an update, OP? Did you find a job? Are you a fry cook? Are you on welfare? Are you making 100k in silicon valley? What happened?

There are a lot of posts like this on the forum. I made one myself, and almost all of them end abruptly. It would be nice for you to inform the public what has transpired after making a post like this.

I myself am considering going into teaching. I am a professional student, after all, and I have 4 years of teaching and tutoring experience. I never wanted to be a teacher, but I have to take what I can get.

My friend seems to think that the fact that I have 250 credits under my belt makes me highly employable as a teacher. They pay teachers starting at around 50k in Texas, according to him, which is more than three times what I am currently making as a grad student. 50k is about how much an associate engineer or scientist makes, so I don't understand why teaching is considered a low paying job. No upward mobility?