Employment after Physics BSc?

Smythe

Do you anyone who has graduated with a Physics BSc (or higher)?

If so, what line of employment did they go into?

eyescreamcone

Physics teacher???

dudara

8 people graduated in my class with B.Sc. Hons in Physics. (Another few had taken the general degree earlier).

5 went into PhD programs. Of those five, 4 have moved to industry and now work as a quantitative risk analyst, a management consultant, a secondary school teacher and a product development manager for a scientific instruments manufacturer. Only one remains in pure physics research.

1 went to a Masters course in Computers & Multimedia and now works with a software company who develop physics engines for computer games.

The other two went into HDip programs directly from the degree, so in total 3 people are now teachers.

Smythe

Thank you dudara

dudara wrote: »

8 people graduated in my class with B.Sc. Hons in Physics. (Another few had taken the general degree earlier).

5 went into PhD programs.

I hadn't really it's possible to go into a PhD program without a Masters course.
Was that a 3 or 4 year B.Sc.?

rebel.ranter

There are some Physicists that wentbon to work in the wireless telecommunications industry that I know of. Working in the mobile networks engineering departments in various roles from RF planning & optimization to operations, etc.

amen

Loads of Jobs for Physicists in various industries.

Approx 20 graduate from my class (1994) and 1 teachers, approx 10 MSc and now work in industry. Most as managers some still in engineering others in general business, several PhD, some lecturing/research, several working in the computing field (again most managers), several working in Finance.

Having a degree in Physics opens a wide range of jobs in a wide range of industries. It is often very easy to move around a company as you have a technical background allowing you to move between technical and non technical teams thus gaining technical and non technical knowledge.

It can very hard (or even not legally possible) for a non technical person to learn/understand the technical side of a business.

dudara

Smythe wrote: »

Thank you dudara

I hadn't really it's possible to go into a PhD program without a Masters course.
Was that a 3 or 4 year B.Sc.?

4 year B.Sc. It's not possible to do an honours degree in 3 yrs. All 5 of us had 1H degrees, which made it easier to progress directly to a PhD.

eyescreamcone

With a lot of science degrees you often have to go on and do further study before obtaining good jobs in industry that are related to your study.

I would suggest looking at engineering degrees if you want to be more employable after obtaining your primary degree.

Also, I would imagine starting salaries to be higher for the BE grads than the BSc grads - mostly!

Obviously discount BE civil eng. at the moment!

This is my opinion, which could be a little dated.

amen

I would suggest looking at engineering degrees if you want to be more employable after obtaining your primary degree

Disagree. If you want to be a Civil/Structural Engineer then yes but Electronic, Electrical etc then Physics basically the same.

The likes of Intel, Analog etc hire a lot of physics grads (after all its all physics)

srsly78

The most common qualification amongst quants in London is physics (*). No problems getting a job anywhere, don't need PhD either. Probably the most general and broadly applicable degree imo.

* Citation = some employment survey I read once. Most common name for quants was also Mohammed

Smythe

srsly78 wrote: »

Probably the most general and broadly applicable degree imo.

Even moreso than Mathematics?

Killer Pigeon

Well you could always switch to economics or finance after your degree in Physics.

Killer Pigeon

Smythe wrote: »

Even moreso than Mathematics?

You'd have more experience with raw data in a Physics degree than you would in a pure Mathematics degree.

Professor_Fink

eyescreamcone wrote: »

I would suggest looking at engineering degrees if you want to be more employable after obtaining your primary degree.

Also, I would imagine starting salaries to be higher for the BE grads than the BSc grads - mostly!

I disagree. Physics tends to be a very employable degree. Also, as regards starting salaries, you obviously haven't seen what (ex-)physicists get paid in the city, it's ridiculous. Granted, most have higher degrees, but some don't.

Killer Pigeon

Professor_Fink wrote: »

I disagree. Physics tends to be a very employable degree. Also, as regards starting salaries, you obviously haven't seen what (ex-)physicists get paid in the city, it's ridiculous. Granted, most have higher degrees, but some don't.

It depends on the person and his/her motivation, methinks, rather than the degree in this day and age.

OP, just do whatever interests you the most, don't just do something because of the purported employment or salaries afforded by those with such and such a degree.

If you choose a degree/career-path for those reasons you could end up hating your job and subject field and, as a consequence, live far below your expected employment/salaries outlook.