<p>Is it possible to get a job in academia after a bachelors in physics or mathematics?</p>
<p>Sure for $10 hour completely dead end. Go back a few pages we had a thread on this.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1131454-what-chemistry-grads-do-academia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1131454-what-chemistry-grads-do-academia.html</a></p>
<p>Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
Admin - Laboratory and Research
04/19/2011
05/09/2011
Full Time
$10 to $11 USD Per Hour</p>
<p>Job Summary:</p>
<p>Under direct supervision, prepares and assists with standard research procedures following detailed research protocols. Responsibilities may include performing a variety of laboratory and research tasks for the PCOS Team.</p>
<p>Specific Responsibilities:</p>
<p>Retrieve samples from the freezer/laboratories, item track and organize them.</p>
<p>Performs research related duties as required or assigned.</p>
<p>Minimum Qualifications:</p>
<p>Bachelor degree in chemistry and/or biology, or equivalent combination of education, training and experience from which comparable skills can be acquired;</p>
<p>Adaptability;
Attention to detail;
Strong communication skills, oral and written;
Efficiency/dependability;
Energy/drive;
Initiative;
Highly organized.</p>
<p>PC Skills:</p>
<p>Proficient in Microsoft Office suite</p>
<p>How to Apply:</p>
<p>For consideration, please send your resume and cover letter to tempcenternorthwestern.edu For all resumes received, if there is interest in your candidacy, the temporary center will contact you.</p>
<p>“As per Northwestern University policy, this position requires a criminal background check. Successful applicants will need to submit to a criminal background check prior to employment.”</p>
<p>Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity Employer</p>
<p>Chemistry is much worse than physics or math in terms of job and career prospects.</p>
<p>However, bachelor’s level academic jobs are mainly teaching assistantships or research assistantships for graduate students. Jobs like finance and computer software tend to be what takes in the “surplus” physics and math graduates. These pay much better than the lab technician jobs that chemistry graduates compete against a flood of pre-meds (who did not get into medical school) and biology graduates for.</p>
<p>But given that likelihood, it would make sense for a physics or math major to include some economics, finance, computer science, and statistics courses in his/her elective space.</p>
<p>You may want to check the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html</a> .</p>
<p>Since I have one son who just finished his sophomore year as a Geology major/Physics minor at California State University Sacramento and another son who just graduated from high school and plans to major in Physics at either CSU Sacramento, where he has been accepted, or community college with the hope of transferring to UC Berkeley in two to three years (We still can not decide which would be best given the California state budget situation; with SAT scores of CR 660 and M 720 he could probably do well at a UC but the CCCs are so overcrowded I don’t know when he would be able to transfer ) I have taken a keen interest in employment prospects for college graduates with degrees in science and have done some research.</p>
<p>I have found that Chemistry and Biology majors face by far the bleakest prospects. As UCBALUMNUS has mentioned, a very large number of students enter college each year with the hope of going to medical school and they usually choose Biology or Chemistry as their majors. However, the reality is that only a small percentage of these students will actually be accepted at any medical school in the U.S. which results in a large number of Biology and Chemistry degree holders looking for any job they can get.</p>
<p>There is no mechanism comparable to planning to go to medical school for Math, Physics or Geology majors that draws far more students into these majors than can be accommodated. As a result, the number of Math, Physics and Geology majors is small compared to Chemistry and Biology majors and there are generally enough good entry level jobs with prospects for career advancement in these fields that prospects for graduates with degrees in Math, Physics and Geology have much better prospects than students who majored in Chemistry or Biology.</p>
<p>Yes for physics, no in math. Science department sometimes hire college graduates as lab assistants. There’s no labs in math and hence no need for cheap labor. </p>
<p>In addition, after an undergraduate math major, you are still two years of full-time study away from being able to participate in research. In other words, you’d be useless to a math professor even if you offered to work for free. </p>
<p>But why wouldn’t you go to graduate school if you want to have an academic career? Science students are paid to go to graduate school and your stipend might even be higher than your salary as a full-time lab assistant.</p>
<p>Saul Kripke had a successful academic career with basically only a bachelor’s in math.</p>
<p>But if you have to ask, you’re probably no Saul Kripke.</p>