I'll point out one more thing. Physics is employable, but not as desirable in industry. You will get a job, but it *will* take a while (to be kind) and you will have to get creative.
First, you might recognize that well-established industries like Aerospace don't exactly have an appreciation for physics graduates. Don't ask me why, it's just the way it is. Maybe it's because engineering tasks are well defined, and they'd rather hire someone that can hit the ground running.
But. Industries reliant on high-tech like physics graduates. I figure this is because many of the people doing the hiring are full-fledged physicists themselves - or deal with full-fledged physicists. They tend to have a better appreciation for your capabilities - other than "you can teach physics".
The best example is the Semiconductor industry. Of course, during the height of the great recession of 2008, this industry hid in a cave for two full years before coming back out into the sun. I mean they didn't hire for a long time. But now they are hiring quite a bit.
The semiconductor industry is interesting in a few ways. Everything they do is high tech. First to market means everything in this industry, and you have to be the first to make the next chip. Processes change very fast, and the entire industry is in a state of experimentation. Engineers have their place, but the industry needs people that have a broad scientific background - the very definition of physics - and quick learners - again, the definition of physics.
The semiconductor liked me. Matter of fact, they are the ONLY industry that consistently liked me. They account for 70% of all calls I've received - which were not many, but good.
Of course, I didn't sit still during the recession. That would have been suicide. I started graduate studies, and took courses in materials science. Those helped. A LOT. So if you're stuck with physics, unemployed, it hurts but go back to school. If you do materials the semiconductor industry will like you a lot. If you do chemical engineering, the semiconductor industry will also like you a lot - because electrochemical methods and vapor deposition reactors are very important. If you do signals and controls systems the radar industry might like you a lot - although I only contemplated that path, never actually tried it. But I can imagine it would be very successful. Or you could try computer science, which is in tremendous demand - they seem to like programmers with strong quantitative skills. Heck physicists are hired on wall street as quantitative analysts to predict what the market will do. Of course they never predict ****, but they beat the market, which counts. Don't let me mislead you though - quant analyst jobs are demanding, and competitive. Everybody wants them because they have a physics Ph.D., are unemployed, and quant analysts are some of the highest paid jobs you could find (well well into the 6 figure starting salaries, sometimes as high as $500,000). But you would have to convince them you're a mathematical genius.
Not all calls were good. Some were crappy. Others were ok. But a few were pretty encouraging.
In no particular order, I've gotten calls from:
1. Axcelis Technologies, final test engineer, $23/hr (I turned it down)
2. Radiation Monitoring Devices, crystal growth technician, $45K/yr (I turned it down)
3. IBM, semiconductor process engineer, $62K/yr - under consideration
4. Veeco, technical support engineer, $63-65K/yr - under consideration
5. MathWorks, technical writer, $60K/yr - turned it down
The thing is - all these calls are recent, meaning within the last year. Nay, within the last three months. I spent 9 months looking for *anything* after finishing my B.S. Physics. And even over the past year, I heard mostly crickets.
The funny thing is, when they're hiring, they're all hiring. When they're not hiring, nobody's hiring. I've gone through 5 months without a meaningful call (other than the occasional $12/hr temporary offer), only to receive a small bundle of calls within a period of a few days - only to go another 2 months without a chirp.
It helps to know it works that way. It keeps you from convincing yourself that nobody calls you because you suck, and that nobody will ever call you because if they were going to they would have called by now. It's cruel, but it can be a year before somebody considers you for an attractive position.
The thing to remember is, don't let it go to your head when you do. It's easy to figure "oh, I'm good enough for this position, I'm sure good enough for somehting even better". You might pass on pretty good opportunities because they weren't perfect, only to spend the next two months regretting it. It can help to bypass this lesson and accept a pretty good offer when someone extends one to you.
But yeah, you'll do alright with Physics, and you'll be considered for engineering positions. It's just that you won't be considered for traditional engineering roles, and most of the demand will be in rapidly evolving high tech industries (personal experience). And you will definitely want to consider graduate studies - even if it's not a degree but just a few useful courses. Electrochemistry was single-handedly the most marketable course I've ever taken. I've gotten a handful of calls strictly because of that course. A course in signal analysis might be very marketable (although I haven't tried it, that's on a different end of the spectrum that I didn't pursue).
And it might be a while, depending on whether you graduated during a recession -this one or some future recession for the kiddies of, I don't know, 2018? Let's hope not.
