Job Prospects in Medical Physics and Engineering

[vt.d]

Hi PF,

I've recently graduate with an MS Physics with no specific emphasis. I quickly learned that it is very difficult to obtain a career in physics and I am considering continuing my education onto PhD Medical Physics or MS Electrical Engineering. I am very interested in all of both of these fields.

I am concerned that the job market for MSEE is also difficult. Is this a valid concern?

Would a PhD Medical Physics offer better job prospects?

Any thoughts on PhD Biomedical Engineering or PhD Condensed Matter Physics?

 

[Choppy]

Medical physics is a competative field. Unfortunately getting a PhD in it does not guarantee you a job these days. I can't tell you what things will be like ~5 years from now when you graduate. I know there will be an increased demand in the field- simply because more people will be getting cancer. There is a reasonable demand for qualified medical physicists right now, but the bottleneck for getting that "qualified" designation is a residency, which follows the PhD and there are generally less of those than there are PhD graduates. And even getting through a residency doesn't guarantee that you'll get a position (although all graduates from the residency program I'm part of have all gotten jobs in the field).

 

[Ben Espen]

A PhD in Biomedical Engineering can be used to get into the medical device field. Typical names for positions with that kind of degree are Product Development Engineer, Product Manager, Product Specialist.

Of course, the usual caveats apply.