Opportunities for an Aspiring Physicist

[Zap]

That's fair. A lot of BS grads after the crash in particular got forced into jobs that they were vastly overqualified for. I did a quick search for lab tech jobs near where I live, and most only require a high school education.

Regardless, physics majors do enjoy higher salaries and lower rates of unemployment than most any other major. And this fact has remained true for quite a long time.

Yes. I think physics is a better degree than chemistry, despite there being less jobs in physics. That was my whole argument.

 

[kimbyd]

Yes. I think physics is a better degree than chemistry, despite there being less jobs in physics. That was my whole argument.

"Better" in the sense of higher pay and less unemployment for sure. But I think you overstated your case substantially. Chemistry isn't terrible. Physics is just exceptional when it comes to income potential.

 

[CrysPhys]

@CrysPhys , you've given some examples above about students choosing a supposedly "hot" area while in university, only for the demand to dry up by the time they graduate. Can you give examples you know of personally of the opposite -- students who chose, for whatever reason, to pursue studies in a "cold" area (i.e. in low demand at the time said students entered school) who found upon graduation was suddenly in very high demand?

The following is a considerably simplified account of one example.

~1989~1990 was a pivotal period in the computer and telecommunications sectors. Before then, major companies in those sectors thought it was necessary to have their own in-house R&D and manufacturing capabilities, including wafer fabrication, for microelectronic devices. Consequently, there were good opportunities for physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers, and electrical engineers in microelectronics.

Telcom companies had invested a lot of capital building out fiber-optic networks. Many thought the current generation of devices would provide ample bandwidth to meet customer demand, and further investment in microelectronics was not justified. Computer companies were becoming increasingly alarmed at the projected costs of developing the next generation of wafer fabrication: it would be more profitable to design chips and outsource fabrication to foundries.

Many major corporations came to the realization that the biggest profits were in systems, software, and services; they slashed the budgets (and workforce) for microelectronics. At the same time, government agencies also started shifting funds away from microelectronic devices and materials to software. So if you were entering college ~1990 or so, microelectronics was not looking so great as a sure bet for a job. But by ~1995 or so, InterNet and mobile telecommunications traffic was climbing; network and data processing capacities were stressed; and new generations of devices, including new generations of wafer fabrication and materials, were in great demand (including integrated circuits based on silicon and compound semiconductors, and optoelectronics devices based on compound semiconductors and more exotic materials). Students who had followed their passions for microelectronics years earlier were in great demand upon completion of school. [ETA: At least until ~2000~2001, when many were laid off. As I've discussed in several threads, getting a job upon completion of school is just the first step; maintaining a career over many decades is an entirely different story.]

[There are similar examples for antenna engineers and RF engineers. The future looked grim several years before the market for mobile telecommunications exploded.]

 

[kimbyd]

I think this highlights a significant issue with choosing one discipline over another:

Some disciplines are very specialized. If you have a lot of need for them, salaries can get quite high. If you don't, the opposite can occur. Thus specialized disciplines are always risky.

This is, I think, one of the big reasons why people with physics majors do so well. The fundamental work involved in studying for and doing physics is problem-solving. People who study physics become generalists who can very rapidly pick up and perform tasks in very different areas. We benefit greatly in our job prospects from being regarded as generalists, as well as the general aura of, "Oh, you studied physics! You must be so smart!"

I mean, look at me. I got my Ph.D. in physics a little over a decade ago. I was a post-doc for a few years, and then got hired by one of the major software companies. Now that I've been at the company a few years and have interviewed over a hundred candidates, I know why I succeeded: the interviews focused heavily on problem-solving, and I was superb at it. Most candidates, well, aren't.