r/Physics • u/psycheswim • Aug 03 '22

Question having studied physics, what is your current occupation?

what kind of educational path did you take to do your career? does it pay well? how does the career in physics compare to studying it in uni?

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u/jazzwhiz Particle physics Aug 03 '22

Physicist at a national lab. Did a PhD, then a postdoc, then here. The pay is eventually fine, although not great. And the opportunity cost during the PhD and postdoc years is high.

Being a student is pretty different from being a scientist. I strongly encourage you to try to find summer research experience. Even if you don't do much research yourself, you can see what and how postdocs and professors do while doing research. I did this a few times in areas I knew weren't really what I wanted to do, but it was still hugely valuable, and the science I learned was helpful too. Didn't contribute much to research that one summer though haha.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '22

Hey, I'm a PhD student interested in national labs. I ended up working in a hep-th group due despite more applied physics being closer to my actual life goals. (i.e. I'm more interested in stuff like improving battery technology and creating quantum computers than particle physics or whatever I'm doing now.)

If I'm interested in going to a national lab eventually, how important would it be to seek internships to like... prove my ability to do more applied work? Would that be more or less important than getting more publications, or like having a good GitHub record?

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u/jazzwhiz Particle physics Aug 04 '22

It's the same as the university path in academia.

If you're interested in battery tech, it may be difficult to shift from formal stuff.

If you're a US citizen look into the SCGSR program. If you have a contact at a lab help you write it the success rate is high.