Ugh. Someone help me. I’ll be graduating from Georgia Tech next spring (god willing) with a bachelors in Physics, and I have no idea what I can do with it. When they welcomed us into the physics program, they told us how Physics was wonderful because it prepares you for anything, but failed to mention any specifics beyond grad school. After working in a lab with grad students, I don’t think that life is for me. Am I screwed? Is a degree in Physics worthless without getting a Masters or PhD? Anyone else who did the same thing and can tell me it’s not hopeless?
The military likes folks with BS degrees in physics. Try Tyndall AFB and Eglin AFB and their contractors.
Just be glad you didnt get an Astronomy degree. For all practical purposes its the same as a Physics degree IMO, but try selling THAT to folks that dont understand.
I feel your pain.
I have a BS in Physics. I’ve worked as an Engineer (Semiconductors, Electronics, project management) since the day I graduated.
Get thee to a company that makes radars, satellites and/or other defense electronics. Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, etc. I’ve been gainfully employed designing airborne radar software for 24 years with a BS in physics. Physics took on a whole new meaning to me when they started paying me for taking on a smaller work load than I’d had in college.
I didn’t read the OP, just the title, but here’s my answer anyway: law school.
IT consulting firms (people who implement SAP, Oracle…) love physicists; audit firms love physicists (I’m talking ISO, not SOX); computer-hardware companies love physicists.
Isn’t there a trade journal you can use to get ideas? C&EN is a great source of ideas for “fields of employment” for chemists, there’s got to be one similar for physicists.
billfish678, I feel your pain. Under the Spanish educational system, you used to pick a “carrera” which had different “especialidades;” for example, you’d major in Physics and choose to specialize in Astronomy or Solid State Physics. One of the things they’re doing with the latest reform is split all those, so now students will have to choose what used to be the specialization from the start. And, knowing how registrars here work, trying to get your identical credits transferred from, say, Astronomy to Solid State, will be a female dog.
Yeah, because more lawyers are exactly what our country needs.
Well, you can make a hat. Or a brooch. Or a pterodactyl…
I’m surprised it took eight posts.
Physics and Georgia Tech in the same sentence make my stomach all queasy.
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You could enter the wonderful world of actuarial exams! I know several very good actuaries who started off as physics graduates.
Maybe you can talk to the professor in charge of the undergrad program and see what previous classes of physics majors have done with themselves. If they aren’t keeping these kinds of records, they should be.
In addition to the things mentioned, there’s always teaching high school. And law school isn’t a totally off the wall answer either - a handful of physics majors go on to do patent law.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out what astronomy phds do if they don’t go into academia…
Just randomly saw this link on Fark and remembered seeing this thread:
So, a quarter-century ago you could get that job with a B.S. (i.e., back when a B.S. was a lot less common). Do you know if that’s still true?
Yellow Cab is hiring.
Can you tell us a little more about what *does *interest you? What in particular didn’t you like about the idea of physics grad school? Would it apply to any grad degree, or just physics, or just that lab? Do you like people enough to teach HS? Or is that right out?
Also, did your physics studies take any particular direction?
Ditto. I’m going into my sophomore year as a physics major, and my advisor (and my old English advisor, back before I switched majors) has told me that it’s difficult to go much anywhere past cube farming, particularly in the sciences, with just a B.S.
What do you like to do? Once you figure that out, then do it.
A degree is not a jail sentence. It does not define you and, after about five years, it won’t even matter what you get your degree in.
Yeah, Georgia Tech isn’t very helpful in actually helping graduates get jobs. They actually have an office somewhere in the building next to the student center I think that will help you, and there’s the alumni association too, but neither are really all that helpful.
Ever think about teaching? Like, public middle or high school?
Energy and financial companies love quantitative analysts or ‘quants’. Need strength in statistics, but I worked at BP (a huge energy company) and they loved physics grads (although mostly PhDs) for that work.
They make HUGE money.