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Worried Undergrad

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  • 16-06-2016 5:30pm
    #1
    Fiona G
    Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭


    Thought I'd share my thoughts on this forum, maybe someone can share their experience.

    I've just finished first year of physics in UCD. Love the course and can't wait for second year. However I'm becoming increasingly of the opinion that I should have done Engineering purely for job prospects.

    I'm worried I won't be employable with a degree in physics and I really would like to stay in the science sector, whether it be in industry or academia. I've already pretty much accepted I'll have to do a masters to get anywhere in this sector. I just hate the thought of spending so much money living in Dublin for 4 years with no job offers afterwards.

    I'm willing to work hard and I know I'm capable of a 2:1 but will it be enough? This course doesn't include work experience or anything so I will try and look for some summer internships but I really don't have a lot of information on how to go about that or where to look, or even if it would make me more employable at the end of it all.


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    #2
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,247 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    If you enjoy your course, enjoy your course. There's no guarantee of employment from any discipline.


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    #3
    Morbert
    Registered Users Posts: 3,457 ✭✭✭Morbert


    It's true that an undergrad engineering degree will better prepare you for tech industry work than an undergrad physics degree. Though if you are interested in research and development, a masters or PhD is effectively a necessary requirement. Lots of physics graduates go on to do engineering postgraduates, as there are plenty of fields where physics and engineering overlap (micro/nanoelectronics, device physics, material sciences, TCAD development etc.).

    As for employability: It's true that there are relatively few "physics/science sector" jobs for graduates, but a lot of graduates get jobs as analysts, software engineers, actuaries etc. I.e. They get jobs in fields that aren't directly related to physics, but require analytical/mathematical/computational processes.


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    #4
    thecornflake
    Registered Users Posts: 784 ✭✭✭thecornflake


    Fiona G wrote: »
    Thought I'd share my thoughts on this forum, maybe someone can share their experience.

    I've just finished first year of physics in UCD. Love the course and can't wait for second year. However I'm becoming increasingly of the opinion that I should have done Engineering purely for job prospects.

    I'm worried I won't be employable with a degree in physics and I really would like to stay in the science sector, whether it be in industry or academia. I've already pretty much accepted I'll have to do a masters to get anywhere in this sector. I just hate the thought of spending so much money living in Dublin for 4 years with no job offers afterwards.

    I'm willing to work hard and I know I'm capable of a 2:1 but will it be enough? This course doesn't include work experience or anything so I will try and look for some summer internships but I really don't have a lot of information on how to go about that or where to look, or even if it would make me more employable at the end of it all.

    Hey Fiona, i just wanted to say that if you know you are capable of a 2.1, then you are capable of a 1.1, why sell yourself short of something you are clearly capable of? From my experience there are a lot of undergrad students who wouldn't have the insight you have shown to ask the questions you have so you seem to be clued in IMO.

    You are employable with a degree in physics, however I will admit its not great for jobs out there. Semiconductor industry in Ireland is good so if you have an interest in that field then check it out (unfortunately as a previous poster stated a lot of physics students would have postgrad qualifications so you will have to compete with them). If you are looking for work experience why not ask within UCD if you can join a research team for the summer? If you're lucky they might have cash to pay you and from my experience a good team would allow you to have training and access to a lot of research equipment and techniques which would usually only be introduced to physics students at postgrad level. I've seen undergraduates in research teams over the summer (I wasnt in UCD so I cant speak for there) and they have been trained on a variety of characterisation equipment and have been coauthors on papers. Obviously this is great in terms of standing out for any future job prospects.


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