What Career Paths Can a High School Senior Pursue with a Passion for Physics?

[Jakecrews28]

Hey so first let me say I am a senior in high school and I absolutely love physics. Especially astrophysics but I don't know much about the field or how the job market is or even what kind of places I could work. Physics is my first choice as a college major but I just don't know enough about the field. So if someone could explain all the different career routes and schooling I would have to go through to have the best chance of making this my career.

 

[rootone]

Employment opportunities in astrophysics are not plentiful.
The best chance of working in that field is probably to acquire skills that could make you a valuable member of technical support staff at an observatory, (or other astrophysics research institute)
That could be a combination of hardware and software engineering.
If you qualified at PhD level there is a remote possibility you could progress from that to eventually becoming a research project leader of some sort.

 

[Jakecrews28]

Is there any anything in physics that the jobs are plentiful or at least common? Or is there another major similar to physics that is heavily physics based? Like maybe majoring in engineering with a minor in physics?

 

[rootone]

Majoring in engineering with a minor in physics sounds good to me, and would also open the door to numerous other career possibilities in addition to astrophysics.