Ask HN: What to Do with a Physics Degree? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What to Do with a Physics Degree?

5 pointsdasmithii14 comments

A friend of mine recently graduated with a degree in physics. After finishing school, he realized that he was not interested in academia and did not want to go to graduate school.

He is interested in getting into engineering (SW or mech, most likely), or perhaps data analysis/science. He has some but not tons of programming experience. Decent amount of stats experience.

I'm wondering if anyone here has navigated a similar situation and/or has ideas for possible paths forward.

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What do you call a physicist a few years after they get their degree?

A data scientist!

I got my undergrad degree in physics and transitioned into tech after hitting a similar wall after graduation. I went for the regular software route (started with frontend via FreeCodeCamp and went from there), and in my experience it’s common to see physics students in tech, especially in data science where the statistics background can be really helpful.

For me, it was about building up the programming experience and exposure to get the first tech job, and it has been much simpler after that. I’d recommend looking at startups in particular, as they tend to have a lower barrier of entry (as opposed to the large tech companies). I’d also recommend taking traditional CS classes in addition to any job-focused learning, but that can always wait until after the first paychecks are coming in.

I am an intern currently and there is another one where I work who is double majoring in Physics and CS. He wants to do acadameia but is using CS as leverage in case he needs to transition to a data analyst role.

There are a lot of industrial physicist jobs out there which are fairly unknown. After my fusion startup went under, I had a lot of trouble finding a position. I had engineering experience, but no engineering degree, and I didn't have the academic credentials to get a decent position in academia.

After months of searching, I ended up working for a medical physics company by complete chance. I was getting a haircut for a job interview at a defense contractor, and I mentioned to my hairstylist that it was really tough to find a job as a physicist. She said, "Oh, I know a guy who's looking for physicists". It turned out she also cut the hair of another physicist who had started a small company. She gave me his number, and I got hired.

It may be helpful to look at industries which hire physics undergrad degrees. These include anything which uses radiation or high vacuum. Math-heavy industries do as well.

It's a bit out of date, but here are some articles from the old Industrial Physicist magazine (check the careers and hidden physicist sections) which may provide some ideas: https://web.archive.org/web/20071017063629/http://aip.org/ti...

Try one of the big consulting firms. They will only care about the degree and your friend can learn a lot of stuff, make a little money, and use that time to figure out where in the industry they really want to go. The job will probably suck, but they'll learn a lot.

Good physics education is the best.

Because it gives you widest world perspective possible (if you paid attention to all disciplines like philosophy and math, not just learning single narrow field).

It also gives you a great skill of learning what you don’t know yet, and solving problems you don’t really know how to solve yet.

And path forward is clear - learn something in the area, build some portfolio, find some interns programs, finish good bootcamp, apply for jobs.

Some of the smartest people I knew in university were physics majors, and they can (and have gone on to) work in any industry they want. I'm sure it's part of the perspective, but I also just think that the kind of person who can get a pure physics degree is the kind of person who can problem solve well.

Right. If you’re not very smart, but managed to get through by persistence and grit, this is someone you can trust hard problems.

Because other things equal you know it was harder than most other kinds of degrees.

They should choose something that actually interests them! If they don't have the skills, get an MBA, or take a lowever paid job. Then excel. I have a friend who did a PhD in absolute flatness: how pointless is that? But highly relevant to astronomical mirrors and telescopes.

You can do anything with a physics degree. That's what they told us at Uni at least...

PS: I went into product management / consulting after my Physics PhD.

> You can do anything with a physics degree. That's what they told us at Uni at least...

I became nihilist after physics degree.

There you go! You just need to believe in yourself and things will happen magically.

Go to finance, obviously.

I went into embedded systems.

i know a lot of people that work in quantitative finance with physics degrees

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