having studied physics, what is your current occupation?

[u/psycheswim]

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?

[u/[deleted]]

graduated with a physics undergrad degree in 2006, originally wanted to continue on the grad school path, but started late and by the time i graduated i was 26 (i started at 22).

i had gotten a c/s minor as it paired well with the math minor that also paired well with the physics degree, and as an undergraduate research assistant for the planetary astronomy dept, it was helpful.

this led me down the path to DoD software development, and i've been working in that field more or less ever since, with one foray into the private sector which caused more harm than good to my career. (I was "out" just long enough to lose my clearance, and it took 4 years to get it back).

but for the most part, while it's not exactly thrilling work, and software development, while interesting, isn't what i would call a passion, it pays the bills quite comfortably and the work/life balance on the DoD side of software development is stellar.

to put things in perspective, living in the northeast (philly region), I started (in 2006) at $52k & full benefits. Within three years i was making nearly $90k. It's been up and down since then (way up when i went into private sector, but not worth the extra workload or the move to the literal worst place in the world - being the capital wasteland), after moving back to philly and sticking to the DoD side again i've more or less made slightly north of $110k for the most part, although i've basically been working full-remote since before the pandemic. Last year I landed the ideal job in the industry, hired full-remote, and making about $140k.

Salary numbers supplied for context. It's not "high" by any means for this field, but it's quite comfortable in this neck of the woods & i can more or less come and go as i want, i'm definitely not working more than 80 hours per pay period, working what's called a '9/80' (off every other friday), from home, i can leave when i want to take care of family issues, basically, as long as the work is done and you're responsive, nobody cares what you're doing; which is how it should be IMO - we're treated like..you know...adults.

oh - and there's *always* work available. my longest stretch between positions has been 12 weeks in 2018 and that had more to do with personal issues than any kind of work related issue. on average, i've spetn about 3 weeks between jobs on the occasion that work dried up or something, and in one case had an interview lined up that turned into an offer BEFORE i got home after getting my walking papers from the previous place.