Research in grad school affecting career options

[blondie68]

I'm about to graduate with a BS in Physics and am currently trying to decide which graduate school to attend. I'm trying to decide between four right now (UIUC, U of Michigan, Northwestern, and Indiana U). I'm not completely set on an area of research yet, and I'm trying to consider the various options different fields would allow me.

I have a boyfriend, whom I hope to marry sometime during graduate school, and he will pass his boards to become an RN as of August. We have been long distance for a few years now since we are attending different schools, so I would especially like to avoid having to do the long-distance thing in the future again. So as I consider all of my options I'm trying to keep in mind what would be best for us as a couple in addition what would be best for me as a physicist.

I've worked in Gravitational Wave Physics (LIGO and LISA) before , on instrument science projects, and I really enjoyed it. There is a professor at Michigan who is doing instrumental work with LIGO and might be interested in taking me on as a PhD student. However, I have a few concerns with pursuing GW physics.

The first is that on this specific project (and many projects in the field), after I finish the first two years of classes, I would have to move to one of the LIGO sites to finish my PhD. The second is that my impression is that it would be hard to pursue a career path outside of academia with this sort of background. If it were just me I was concerned with, this wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but it effectively means I'm going to be moving every 2-4 years for the next 10 years or so. In addition to it probably being very difficult for my boyfriend to find and adjust to a new job every 2-4 years, it doesn't seem to be a lifestyle that lends itself well to settling down and/or having kids.

For this reason, I'm considering research fields that would allow me more options in industry beyond my PhD, such as AMO physics or condensed matter. I've seen that many students from labs in these fields go on to work in industry or government labs rather than academia.

There are many research opportunities in these fields that I find fascinating, so I'm not too worried about that, but I know that deciding what research direction to go in should weigh heavily in my decision of where to go to grad school. I just would like any input/advice anyone has about dealing with this situation, and I'd like to make sure none of the assumptions I've made here about my opportunities are incorrect. I feel like I'm weighing so many factors that will influence future decisions and career paths, I'm getting a little overwhelmed and would appreciate any help.

 

[twofish-quant]

For this reason, I'm considering research fields that would allow me more options in industry beyond my PhD, such as AMO physics or condensed matter. I've seen that many students from labs in these fields go on to work in industry or government labs rather than academia.

One problem with graduate career advising is that students don't get a good feel for what their options are outside of academia, and this leads students to underestimate how applicable their degree is.

Basically employers care about skills (can you program in C++? can you do integral equations? can you build microcontrollers?). How you got the skills and how you apply those skills is pretty irrelevant. I got hired because I knew C++ and Fortran. The fact that I learned to program C++ and Fortran programming supernova simulations was something that most of my employers really don't care about.

One other problem is that the number of Ph.D.'s is small enough and the time lag is long enough so that even small shifts can flood the market.

I just would like any input/advice anyone has about dealing with this situation, and I'd like to make sure none of the assumptions I've made here about my opportunities are incorrect.

The problem with choosing a field based on industry applicability is that you most likely will guess wrong. What I've ended up doing now is a job that didn't exist in 1991 when I started graduate school. There is just no way that I think I could have guessed in 1991 that I'd be doing what I'm doing now.

What did help me was to get enough "general skills" is that I ended up alright regardless of how history turned out. Also, I like being somewhat entrepreneurial and creating opportunities.

I feel like I'm weighing so many factors that will influence future decisions and career paths, I'm getting a little overwhelmed and would appreciate any help.

Something to remember is that there are limits to human prediction. At some point, you will have to stop thinking and take a leap into the unknown. People react to the unknown in different ways. For me, I enjoy being at the "frontiers of knowledge" and part of the reason I ended going into physics rather than getting an MBA is that its sort of fun to do "new stuff."

The other thing that I've figured out is that people are important. I have almost zero clue what my career is going to look like in ten or even five years. I do know that as long as we are in good health, my wife will be there. I can't count on the economy, but I can count on my wife. This means that my wife is going to be at the center of my planning for what is going to happen next.

 

[elkement]

I can relate to that very well as I had to face similar decisions many years ago. My significant other and I both graduated in physics together and we did not want to live the postdoc lifestyle.

I had specialized in experimental physics with a focus on laser physics, optics and materials science. The following experiences turned out to be helpful in the long run. I think the value of these experiences does not depend much on the subject as such - I also agree with twofish-quant.

- I engineered and developed something like a product, I could prove I am able to work in a team, meet requirements and deadlines. I got in touch with project partners from both academia and industry and was able to correct my probably distorted picture about the real world.
- I was sort of forced to manage the related international research project with mainly industrial partners - at that time I considered this an overhead and a burden on top of my real science job. (I was partly funded by that project when I did my PhD). In retrospect that was invaluable as I was able to acquire some skills in project management, controlling / budgeting.
- Troubleshooting experience, solving any sorts of hardware and software problems by 'reverse engineering' what somebody else had built. I also acquired some programming experience.

I had also worried about the choice of subjects etc. But I probably underestimated more fundamental choices related to 'how' I wanted to work - in contrast to 'what' should be the subject of my work. For example it took me quite a while to discover that I absolutely need to work self-employed and that I want to define to the utmost extent how and where I work. I would rather trade in the perfect physics subject to have this freedom (and I once had to take a decision close to that and never regretted it).
Today my husband and I run a small company consisting only of the two of us - this was our longterm vision.