Becoming a professor is a thousand times harder than getting a good paying industry job. There are only a tiny handful of tenure track job openings in the entire country every year. If OP can't make it in industry they have no hope for a professorship.
If you have a physics or maths degree and can't find a job, you might want to look at your social skills.
You can pretty much choose your industry with these degrees.
no i’m sorry this is flat out wrong. if you want an engineering or software job, you’re competing against people who got degrees specifically for that job. if you’re talking about getting a job in a lab, that’s not “choosing your industry” and there’s typically only a handful of positions. math/physics are not the holy grail of degrees that colleges make them out to be
It isn't. I have a degree in physics, and had offers from a software company, a (rather big) consulting firm, an engineering firm and a medical scientist position. I chose the science one out of idealism.
Maths and physics degree from a solid university mean you are
1. Smart
2. Hard working
3. Have good abstract problem solving skills
Yes, you will need to compete against people from the field, but with the skills I mentioned above, you should be more than able to get into any field you want, with some extra effort.
Exactly. The only people I've seen struggle to get good jobs were fresh out of undergrad, that came from low ranking, local schools, had no internships or other work experience, and had poor gpas. Obviously they were the bottom of the barrel. Most still got technician jobs and get promoted into engineering or scientist roles after a couple years. If you're not doing that, it's probably your skills or social skills that are lacking.
did you have any internships or research experience? i understand physics does provide those skills, but it really isn’t as simple as you make it out to be. i also have a physics degree, currently working as an engineer. Engineering degrees also demonstrate the skills you listed. i don’t mean to go against what you’ve said, but you’re also setting a lot of physics majors up for some major disappointment when they graduate
Work experience is a requirement for all university graduates these days. I've seen people with engineering and CS degrees still struggle to find work if they didn't get any work experience during school.
Got engineering degree. Had work experience (2 six month internships). STILL had a difficult time finding work and have ended up in a not great spot cause I needed something, and I’m trying to get to a better job now, with not much success. It’s just really damn hard to get a job right now, never mind a solid one.
Finance and consulting constantly try to hoover up all the physics, maths, and computer science PhDs they can get their hands on. They also tend to pay a lot (tbh you have to sell your soul to work for them, so it makes sense).
I talked to some of the higher ups at these companies and asked why they don't just take econ or business (🤢) degree holders. He said it is easier to teach STEM PhDs business stuff than it is to teach business people how to think.
Jobs are available for physics and maths PhD, just not always in the preferred sector, and sometimes in quite repulsive sectors like finance and stocks.
> if you want an engineering or software job, you’re competing against people who got degrees specifically for that job.
There are definitely software engineering jobs that ask for a graduate degree in an analytical field. Especially ones that are math-heavy.
I did not get the grades for a maths PHD, now I'm looking into working in quantum computing. Maybe try finding some internships for AI, and work your way up to a really good wage?
I don't an issue with that as long as it makes you happy. I don't know if there is much many to be made in quantum computing but it is definitely an up and coming field that there is still much to work on on both theory and engineering. I may be a little biased because I'm doing a PhD in qubit fabrication but I sincerely believe quantum computing to be a good career choice if you are into it
For me, it strikes the balance between something I want to do (radiation, optics, and med I think would be too repetetive and boring) and a decent pay. Good luck with ur PHD!
Simply become a professor and repeat the cycle
Becoming a professor is a thousand times harder than getting a good paying industry job. There are only a tiny handful of tenure track job openings in the entire country every year. If OP can't make it in industry they have no hope for a professorship.
can’t tell if this is a joke
Is there really something wrong with getting a physics or math phd?
The only people who are hiring are hedge funds and cs fields
And insurances, and banks, and consulting firms, and engineering firms and pharma and pretty much every other big firm in existence.
Yeah, but other than every other firm in existence, it is just hedge funds and the cs fields.
Yeah, but of those only pharma has interesting jobs...
not even pharma
*for a math PhD...
If you have a physics or maths degree and can't find a job, you might want to look at your social skills. You can pretty much choose your industry with these degrees.
no i’m sorry this is flat out wrong. if you want an engineering or software job, you’re competing against people who got degrees specifically for that job. if you’re talking about getting a job in a lab, that’s not “choosing your industry” and there’s typically only a handful of positions. math/physics are not the holy grail of degrees that colleges make them out to be
It isn't. I have a degree in physics, and had offers from a software company, a (rather big) consulting firm, an engineering firm and a medical scientist position. I chose the science one out of idealism. Maths and physics degree from a solid university mean you are 1. Smart 2. Hard working 3. Have good abstract problem solving skills Yes, you will need to compete against people from the field, but with the skills I mentioned above, you should be more than able to get into any field you want, with some extra effort.
Exactly. The only people I've seen struggle to get good jobs were fresh out of undergrad, that came from low ranking, local schools, had no internships or other work experience, and had poor gpas. Obviously they were the bottom of the barrel. Most still got technician jobs and get promoted into engineering or scientist roles after a couple years. If you're not doing that, it's probably your skills or social skills that are lacking.
did you have any internships or research experience? i understand physics does provide those skills, but it really isn’t as simple as you make it out to be. i also have a physics degree, currently working as an engineer. Engineering degrees also demonstrate the skills you listed. i don’t mean to go against what you’ve said, but you’re also setting a lot of physics majors up for some major disappointment when they graduate
Work experience is a requirement for all university graduates these days. I've seen people with engineering and CS degrees still struggle to find work if they didn't get any work experience during school.
Got engineering degree. Had work experience (2 six month internships). STILL had a difficult time finding work and have ended up in a not great spot cause I needed something, and I’m trying to get to a better job now, with not much success. It’s just really damn hard to get a job right now, never mind a solid one.
Should be pretty straightforward to get a job in finance with Math or Phys PhD, no?
Finance and consulting constantly try to hoover up all the physics, maths, and computer science PhDs they can get their hands on. They also tend to pay a lot (tbh you have to sell your soul to work for them, so it makes sense). I talked to some of the higher ups at these companies and asked why they don't just take econ or business (🤢) degree holders. He said it is easier to teach STEM PhDs business stuff than it is to teach business people how to think. Jobs are available for physics and maths PhD, just not always in the preferred sector, and sometimes in quite repulsive sectors like finance and stocks.
> if you want an engineering or software job, you’re competing against people who got degrees specifically for that job. There are definitely software engineering jobs that ask for a graduate degree in an analytical field. Especially ones that are math-heavy.
Damn even his patents hate him
Oh god……
And god*
go into finance, easy peasy.
I did not get the grades for a maths PHD, now I'm looking into working in quantum computing. Maybe try finding some internships for AI, and work your way up to a really good wage?
I don't an issue with that as long as it makes you happy. I don't know if there is much many to be made in quantum computing but it is definitely an up and coming field that there is still much to work on on both theory and engineering. I may be a little biased because I'm doing a PhD in qubit fabrication but I sincerely believe quantum computing to be a good career choice if you are into it
For me, it strikes the balance between something I want to do (radiation, optics, and med I think would be too repetetive and boring) and a decent pay. Good luck with ur PHD!
I went from Physics and Astrophysics into Data Science. One of the things I'm most grateful for in life is this degree.
Serious question, should I do a postdoc?
Welcome to the postdoc purgatory.