- #36
ModusPwnd
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I think its best not to listen to rockstars (read: outliers) for employment and career advice. The companies you list employ a negligible fraction of graduating physics majors.
avinashbaliyan said:The rockstar of Engineering world rightnow is Elon Musk and what he says in this interview as advise for young people/ enternpreneurs
http://www.ted.com/talks/elon_musk_the_mind_behind_tesla_spacex_solarcity
"STUDY PHYSICS"
Infact he inspired his second wife A beautifull Hollywood star to take a course in Quantum Mechanics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cel...ley-the-worlds-sexiest-quantum-physicist.html
i heard from my friends friend ... , the number 1 chance to get a Job at Spacex is PHD in physics , Masters can do as well ( Also an american citizenship as per US Govt rules ) .
In all the job postings at Tesla , Space x and other major research companies i can see they mention clearly A degree in Engineering, Physics ,...
I am an engineer ,i had little bit of pure physics while preparing for Engineering Entrance exams , but studying physics more deeply recently ( studying more now n now pure Physics) has helped to think more clearly , fast n new ideas ( no doubt about that , i can see the difference with my own conscious mind.)
Vanadium 50 said:Outliers lie out in both directions. The unemployed and looking rate for physics grads in 2012 was 5%. Unemployment among recent college graduates was double or triple that.
Vanadium 50 said:Where some people see underemployment, others see a fussy prima donna who feels the world owes them a job of their choosing, and who are not in the least grateful for beating out that art history major for that job that's seemingly beneath them.
The 2012 AIP numbers have 5% unemployment, and 26% non-STEM employment. Dissatisfaction ranges between one-third (overall) and two-thirds (individual aspects). Let's take the bigger number and say that 5% are unemployed and 17% are underemployed. That's still a factor of 2 to 3 less than college graduates as a whole.
ParticleGrl said:Also, I don't think its makes sense to compare the physics degree holders to all-undergrads. It would make more sense to compare them to something like engineering degrees, since the average physics major isn't deciding between art history and physics they are deciding between some engineering degree and physics.
Vanadium 50 said:Where some people see underemployment, others see a fussy prima donna who feels the world owes them a job of their choosing, and who are not in the least grateful for beating out that art history major for that job that's seemingly beneath them.
Vanadium 50 said:Also, for those who complained that I don't know what it's like, I was starting out in the early 80's, when unemployment was even higher than it was today. And my first job definitely did not use all of my skills. I took it anyway, learned a lot, did a lot, and went on to graduate school after a year and a half. I didn't complain that I wasn't able to find a job that I was entitled to.
Vanadium 50 said:If college is supposed to be a trade school, why not an actual trade school.
Vanadium 50 said:The fact that I have been posting it for years doesn't make it less true.
And the argument "But I worked so hard! I'm entitled!" is not very convincing. The person doing the hiring is not impressed by how entitled you feel your degree has made you.
Since I am writing, I should also try and correct one other misperception. The title of this thread is "Work opportunities for physicists". If you have a BS in physics, you're someone who has studied physics. You are not yet a physicist.
The fact that I have been posting it for years doesn't make it less true. And the argument "But I worked so hard! I'm entitled!" is not very convincing. The person doing the hiring is not impressed by how entitled you feel your degree has made you. She's interested in how you can make her money.
Locrian said:I wonder what everyone would think about having a stickied thread that linked to other threads, and that could be a single place for the conversation to take place. The goal would be for that specific discussion to take up less bandwidth, not more.
atyy said:What was that job? Did you have to go grad school to improve your job prospects, or did you go to grad school because your job prospects were poor?
Also, what about considerations of paying off college loans? Was that different then and now?
Lavabug said:I also agree that making a grossly distorted caricature of people's situation is not fair, in fact it is quite sinister. Let's try to provide a solution for the people who worked hard to get into college, often working at the same time to defray the costs, finish, try to find an entry level job etc. instead of turning our back on them or attacking some straw-man argument about entitlement issues. How about some benefit of the doubt?
ModusPwnd said:In my experience the ones that did very well with their degree did what you did - they went to graduate school for medical physics. I think that is a thing most here can agree on. Physics is a degree best complimented with a graduate degree. By coupling it with the right graduate degree one can get specific marketable skills.
Often these types of threads are by students trying to get a career with only a BS. In that case I think the best advice is to go to graduate school, or consider engineering if you don't want graduate school.
StatGuy2000 said:computer science, engineering, architecture, nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, law, accounting, statistics (to a lesser extent)
jesse73 said:Exactly. If you do risk mitigation after getting a physics BS you can turn out fine but you are going to need to get another degree whether it be a PhD in Physics, a masters in something else like medical physics or engineering. The simplest way to think of it is that a physics bachelors is like an engineering associates degree when you think about how far from employable you are when you get the degree.
Also nobody has said a "physics degree is useless" so there is no point in building that strawman.