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Asked by kaurprincess to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 19 Mar 2012.
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Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 19 Mar 2012:
Well, you really can do a lot with physics. I studied materials and quantum mechanics, then I worked as a medical physicist treating illness, and now I work in a department looking at big data and human society! Physics is thought of as a hard subject, so getting a good physics degree means that people assume I’m clever! Which is great for getting interesting jobs. Anything which involves science, mathematics, programming or an analytical approach to things can benefit from having studied physics. (Of course, if you know you want to do art or computer science or be a vet or whatever, you should focus on that – physics can’t open *every* door!)
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Suzanne McEndoo answered on 19 Mar 2012:
You can do lots of things. Quantum physics, particle physics, nanophysics…
Just kidding. Aside from physics research careers, you can do other research in other areas. “Interdisciplinary” is a big word in research at the moment, and just means people from different areas of research working on a problem together.
Then there’s teaching, meteorology, science writing, science communication, actuarial and other finance based jobs, anything that involves doing something with maths. Having a degree in physics shows a certain level of maths, which is enough for a lot of maths based jobs. I think showing you can work with equations is the biggest bonus that physics can offer to your CV.
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Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 20 Mar 2012:
I guess it depends on your definition of rewarding really. I’m not a physicist though so I can’t really help with this one.
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Robert Thompson answered on 20 Mar 2012:
Physics leaves so many doors open to y ou. I have friends in media, in banking, in teaching, in nuclear power, I have a friend who pretty much does the job of Q in james bond, I have friends who research, I have friends in journalism and I have friends who’s job it is to find other people jobs. All of them seem to find their jobs rewarding. Physics tends to leave many doors open rather than directing you through one specific route.
Comments
kaurprincess commented on :
thanks =)
also, is it easy to go from a physics degree to a sort of ‘saving the world from global warming, diminishing resources, food shortages etc’ sort of thing?