Hello all,
I’m a physics major and this is my junior year. So far, I like what I’m learning, and the grades are good.
However, as I’m approaching graduation, problems and confusions arise.
Just like most of you guys, I would like a career that generates decent amount of income that feeds a family. After chatting with my grad physics friends in UCLA about future careers, I find that they are just as clueless as I’m.
Grad school is my first choice, but I really don’t see what’s after PhD. What can I do?
Physics majors can get jobs in lots of fields after a B.S. Just take a look at the [American Institute of Physics](Latest employment data for physicists, astronomers and related scientists | American Institute of Physics) site on employment. With a B.S. you will most likely be working in a company doing engineering work or as a programmer or data analyst. If you want to do research a Ph.D. or at least a M.S. will be needed.
After a Ph.D. you can go for a post-doc and then a job in academia, national lab or industry. All of these will have the possibility of doing research or at least R&D. It is also possible, after a Ph.D. to move into a non physics technical position as you can see at the AIP site.
It depends what you want to do. Academic PhD researcher jobs are very competitive and the field is very saturated. Working in industry generally pays better than academia, but is often more applied than theoretical. Medical physics is also something to consider, it probably pays the best of all and has a lot of demand right now.
If you don’t want to be an academic researcher, a PhD is almost redundant. You’d be better off with a Master’s.
Medical physics has changed a lot since 2012. In order to sit for the board exams, one now has to graduate from an accredited graduate program and then do a residency like an MD. Radiation Health Physics, on the other hand has a Masters as a typical degree and leads to well paying professional jobs.