Life of an experimental physicist

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the work life of an experimental physicist, including aspects such as hours worked, salary ranges, and daily activities. Participants explore the variability in experiences and outcomes within the field, highlighting the broad nature of the inquiry.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants argue that the question about the work life of experimental physicists is too broad, leading to a wide variance in answers that may undermine their validity.
  • Salary ranges for experimental physicists are noted to vary significantly, with some earning as low as 30k and others as high as 300k per year.
  • Work hours also vary, with some experimentalists working standard 9-5 hours while others report working 60-hour weeks consistently.
  • A participant shares an example of a physicist who transitioned from a PhD in astronomy to a well-paying job designing optical systems for gun scopes, suggesting that specific career paths can lead to different experiences.
  • Another participant expresses a desire for more typical or average data regarding salaries and work-life, indicating that outlier examples may not represent the norm.
  • There is a suggestion that understanding career trajectories (e.g., national labs, universities, industry) may provide more meaningful insights into expected salaries and work conditions.
  • One participant describes their typical workweek, which includes programming, statistical analysis, and lab measurements, emphasizing the diverse nature of tasks performed by experimental physicists.
  • Some participants challenge the notion of seeking an average salary, arguing that there is no single average due to the diversity of experiences in the field.
  • A participant suggests that basic information about salaries and daily life can be found through online searches, indicating a potential frustration with the discussion's direction.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally disagree on the validity of seeking an average salary or typical work life, with some asserting that the variability in experiences makes such averages meaningless. The discussion remains unresolved regarding what constitutes a typical experience for experimental physicists.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights the limitations of broad questions in capturing the diversity of experiences among experimental physicists, as well as the dependence on specific career paths and personal choices that influence work life and salary.

Nano-Passion
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Whats the work life of an experimental physicist like? Hours? Pay? Activities and duties? etc. etc.
 
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Useless question. It is much too broad. Because the question is too broad, the associated variance on the answers is going to swamp out their validity.

I know experimentalists who make 30k and ones who make 300K/year. I know experimentalists that work 9-5, 5 days a week. And ones who work 60 hour weeks consistently.
 
Norman said:
Useless question. It is much too broad. Because the question is too broad, the associated variance on the answers is going to swamp out their validity.

I know experimentalists who make 30k and ones who make 300K/year. I know experimentalists that work 9-5, 5 days a week. And ones who work 60 hour weeks consistently.

300k a year? That sounds a bit stretched. I didn't even realize an experimental physicist can make over 60k?

Please enlighten me on this. =d
 
The guy did his PhD in astronomy, but he focused on the optics used and how to design optical systems. He now works for a company designing, testing, researching, etc. gun scopes. He loves his job and they pay him really well.
 
Norman said:
The guy did his PhD in astronomy, but he focused on the optics used and how to design optical systems. He now works for a company designing, testing, researching, etc. gun scopes. He loves his job and they pay him really well.

Interesting. But it seems like an mathematical outlier in the data. I would rather have the average, or something to be reasonably expected to get a sense of what the life of an experimental physicist is like.
 
I'm not sure how insightful asking for the average of what experimentalists overal make--my guess is it is similar to theoreticians. It is probably more meaningful to think about where you want your career to go: national lab, R1 university, slacs, or industry and then compare mid-career wages.

As for a 'typical' workweek for this experimentalist: Lately I've spent a lot of time writing C++/python code to analyze data, thought long and hard about tricky statistical problems, built and ran monte carlo simulations of physics events and detector simulations, and actually found time to go the lab and measure something.
 
Nano-Passion said:
Interesting. But it seems like an mathematical outlier in the data.

Dismissing a data point because it doesn't agree with your prejudices is the mark of a poor scientist.

Nano-Passion said:
I would rather have the average

There is no "average". That's what people have been trying to tell you. I don't understand why you ask questions and don't pay any attention to the answers. This is also a mark of a poor scientist.
 
Sheets said:
I'm not sure how insightful asking for the average of what experimentalists overal make--my guess is it is similar to theoreticians. It is probably more meaningful to think about where you want your career to go: national lab, R1 university, slacs, or industry and then compare mid-career wages.

As for a 'typical' workweek for this experimentalist: Lately I've spent a lot of time writing C++/python code to analyze data, thought long and hard about tricky statistical problems, built and ran monte carlo simulations of physics events and detector simulations, and actually found time to go the lab and measure something.

For bold - Thank you very much. ^.^

Hm, one question, how many hours per week do you find yourself working?

Vanadium 50 said:
Dismissing a data point because it doesn't agree with your prejudices is the mark of a poor scientist.

There is no "average". That's what people have been trying to tell you. I don't understand why you ask questions and don't pay any attention to the answers. This is also a mark of a poor scientist.

I am not dismissing it, in fact I found it interesting. But, I'm looking for the mode .. An estimate of a number that is seen most often. Not looking for an outlier.

And I'm sorry if you feel that I don't pay attention to the answers. But that is not my intention-- and I'm just trying to get some things down straight and attain at least a sort of idea of what an experimental physicist work-life is like.
 

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