National laboratories vs academia

[Simfish]

Many people often discourage people from going into grad school since there are far more grad students than faculty openings.

But what about national laboratories? Is it much easier for someone with a PhD to enter a national laboratory than it is for someone to successfully get a position in academia? How does a position in a national laboratory compare to a postdoc position?

 

[Phyisab****]

They are not discouraging people from going to grad school, they are discouraging people who have this professorship or die attitude. There are many jobs for physics PhD's that don't involve academia. And no, they are not all in quantitative banking.

 

[Vanadium 50]

NL staff jobs are at least as competitive as faculty jobs. You have the ability to work on research full-time, you have better infrastructure than at most universities, and the pay is supposedly better. This makes for a very attractive package.

 

[capandbells]

They are not discouraging people from going to grad school, they are discouraging people who have this professorship or die attitude. There are many jobs for physics PhD's that don't involve academia. And no, they are not all in quantitative banking.

What are they?

 

[Phyisab****]

What are they?

They run the range of physics which is applicable to commercial applications. Look up any high tech Fortune 500 company and browse the available jobs. For example (I found these in 5 minutes):

https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/job_...obmail=null&isd=0&lnl=0&adv=0&t=1292549146589

https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/job_...obmail=null&isd=0&lnl=0&adv=0&t=1292549459603

https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/job_...obmail=null&isd=0&lnl=0&adv=0&t=1292549743679The company I did an internship with last summer (which I will not name for anonymity but is also a high tech Fortune 500 company) has similar opportunities. I worked with a number of PhD physicists.Edit: Here's another one which looks extremely interesting.
https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/job_...obmail=null&isd=0&lnl=0&adv=0&t=1292550291879

 

[Phyisab****]

http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/states/state.html

Here is a very nice website. This data is for physics bachelor's, but if you look at the companies listed, most of them also hire PhD's.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Many people often discourage people from going into grad school since there are far more grad students than faculty openings.

But what about national laboratories? Is it much easier for someone with a PhD to enter a national laboratory than it is for someone to successfully get a position in academia? How does a position in a national laboratory compare to a postdoc position?

Zz can tell you a lot more, but in my experience, there are (essentially) two tiers of employees in national labs: civil servants and contractors. I've worked for a contractor, and it's basically like getting a job. Civil servant positions are similar in spirit to academic appointments, and very difficult to obtain.