What do astrophysicists do outside of academia?

[AerospaceKid]

I am wondering what astrophysicists do outside of academia. also what would their salary be with a PHD?

 

[bpatrick]

work for a bank as a quantitative analyst?

find work as a computer programmer?

data mining?

become an actuary?

starbucks manager?

all of these are educated guesses, I'd imagine there are loads and loads of options available, but some of these may be more common than others.

 

[hadsed]

A couple of useful links:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=491468
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=391553
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=354287
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=376191
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=404234
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=532100

Also look around for twofish-quant's posts, he's an astrophysicist who worked in oil and financial industries with some insightful posts.

Might also be helpful to look in the academic advice forum as well.

 

[DrummingAtom]

Lol. hadsed you should be in charge of the sticky's.