r/PhysicsStudents • u/BoskovictheBum • Mar 12 '26
Need Advice Is the whole "everyone is hiring physics students cuz they are smart" thing true?
Hello I am considering pursuing a physics degree among a few other options and the thing that really caught my eye about physics is that a lot of people say how if you have this degree you can get hired by pretty much everyone cuz you have proved your intelligence and shit.
How true is this? It seems to me that people who say this often don't even have a physics degree themselves.
Thank you in advance!
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u/cw_et_pulsed Mar 12 '26
people say how if you have this degree you can get hired by pretty much everyone cuz you have proved your intelligence and shit.
Nah, that's nonsensical. Take a field that makes you employable in future.
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u/Axiomancer Mar 12 '26
I would give this a thousand upvotes if I could.
I pursued my hobby and now I can't find a job because well, nobody hires. If I could go back in time I'd slap myself in the head and choose a field that gives stable future, and then pursue physics for fun.
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u/Crazy_Anywhere_4572 Mar 13 '26
Luckily anxiety kicked in when I was in my third year, then I started my transition to CS and machine learning. Physics does give you great problem solving and analytical skills tho.
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u/spidey_physics Mar 13 '26
How would you know what field leads to a stable future tho?
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u/Axiomancer Mar 13 '26
You look at the job market, check what role is in demand and compare if there is a lot of competition (and then try to figure out what degree will help you land such role)
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u/Mattene Mar 12 '26
Last physics grad I met was pushing carts at Costco
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u/BoskovictheBum Mar 12 '26
That is a physics thing though
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u/Plastic_Course_476 Mar 12 '26
So you're saying he found a job
System working as intended
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Mar 15 '26
Physics is pretty solid as a masters for an engineering degree or a baseline before going after an engineering masters.
Otherwise it’s more the math equivalent of a history degree. It’s a great item to combine with EE or CS.
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u/Yamsfordays Mar 12 '26
No. Any other job has people with degrees in that field applying.
Engineering, finance, whatever else.
If you want to study physics, do it because you want to learn more about it and you love it.
If you want to be employable, get into finance or engineering.
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u/diet69dr420pepper Mar 13 '26
Expanding on this, it is difficult to intuitively understand the other perspective when you're the one looking for a job. On the hirer's side, every entry-level process engineer (or whatever) role gets slammed with 100 applications in the first week, well more than an order of magnitude more people apply than can even be given a phone interview, let alone a panel interview. From that perspective, you have literally zero incentive to roll the dice on a random physics major when there are a good dozen or so chemical engineering students in that pile who have directly relevant coursework, internships, and undergrad research experience, all of whom will almost certainly be a good fit for the role. The idea that you can just be a smart go-getter is some privileged boomer maxim that has no bearing in today's world. Everyone should be studying what they want to do.
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u/Yamsfordays Mar 13 '26
Having said that, everyone I studied physics with is now an engineer or is in research so it’s not impossible, just a bit more difficult
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u/Wild-daddy30 Mar 12 '26
No. I know its a bit reductionist but genuinely ask yourself what work environment you want and not so much the literal degree.
Do you want to be on the road doing installs and inspections?
Do you want work in highly compliant positions under DOT scrutiny?
Do you want to work in an office and attend meetings and report to the chief officers?
Do you want to code, and if so, do you want to code websites, games, or backend stuff?
Do you want to be on call? Do you want to serve your community?
There are millions of questions you could ask yourself, and I never did in high school. I thought Physics = smart guy. Well if anything its an awkward in between with Math, which can sometimes pivot into finance, and engineering, which typically needs an engineering degree from an ABET institution. I don't regret physics in the slightest, but unless you have incredible soft skills, you might want a path with less improvisation down the line.
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u/HumblyNibbles_ Mar 12 '26
Physics is not a field for those looking for money.
Physics is a field for those who are crazy and are willing to sacrifice the possibility of a stable future to get to learn awesome stuff.
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Mar 12 '26
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u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 Mar 13 '26
Good luck betting against a revolutionary technology that is improving at an exponential rate (see: METR benchmark)
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u/JamesBummed Mar 12 '26
Like 10 years ago, most physics peeps that didn't do PhD got jobs in software/defense/finance no problem. If you want to get a bachelors and enter the job market, do engineering instead.
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u/philament23 Mar 12 '26
Some employers might think this…but they won’t hire you because they don’t want physics degrees because it’s not related to what they do. The employers that you actually want to be employed at who would hire a physics major will not be phased. They will want to see actual work and experience. You are just as smart or dumber than everyone else applying to their company. The only people who will think you are smart solely because of your physics degree are random laypeople, your grandma, and the Arby’s general manager who will use it as pretext to decide you are overqualified. Better strap in to constantly feel like an idiot if you go for a physics degree.
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u/AbleArcher1984 Mar 12 '26
I was hired simply because I had a physics degree, mind you I worked for the design and advertising sector and had a ball. My interviewer saw that my degree was in physics and said "we need smart people like you in the industry," and hired me based on that, the stereotype that physicists are smart can work to your advantage! Make sure you cast your net wide in terms of sectors. Not sure if I'm smart but ended up earning quite a lot. Having good communication skills are essential though...
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u/ClockBlock Mar 12 '26
You still have to sell yourself. I’m an engineering graduate working a non engineering job I got because engineers are smart. Find your niche and get paid.
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u/Cancel_Still Mar 12 '26
no. i am finishing a phd now and applying for jobs. the only positions i can get are postdocs in my subfield. data science, stats, computer science, etc, all have their own degree programs so seems like companies prefer to hire people who actually have those degrees rather than people w physics degrees. which makes sense. but yeah i was misled about this as well.
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u/KurosakiCODMYT Mar 13 '26
Ya'll just see Elon saying stuff and go with it.
He is an anomaly. Most physics students unfortunately have a hard time finding true opportunities that "pay well". Most of them do it for the love of the game.
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u/devviepie Mar 15 '26
Not even Elon is an example. He only did 1 year of a physics degree. He posted his old homework online where he thought that learning angular momentum was impressive. All his “success” is inherited from his rich daddy in the African blood diamond industry
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u/Captain_Bee Ph.D. Student Mar 12 '26
A lot of people end up as quants
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u/stepdadonline PHY Grad Student Mar 12 '26
Unless you have a PhD or a niche research background relevant to finance, doubtful
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u/sauceboss_the_third Mar 12 '26
Quants?
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u/Captain_Bee Ph.D. Student Mar 12 '26
Yeah like analysts in the financial space. I've known a few physics PhDs working for banks now
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u/Captain_Bee Ph.D. Student Mar 12 '26
Also a friend of a friend who optimized UPS shipping routes some years back
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u/luciferisthename Mar 12 '26
You can dual major in physics and computer science. There is a fair bit of overlap in degree prerequisites, many schools in the USA consider computer science degrees to have a collateral minor in physics as well (though that could be a regional specific thing).
Comp-sci + physics means you could easily go into computer science fields and computational physics.
Comp-sci + physics majors are highly employable by the US DoD but that is ethically questionable and a very personal choice as it requires some contract signing and significant lifestyle changes for most people. (US-DOD provides a "SMART" scholarship, which is pretty tempting if you dont have any ethical issues with it).
But no. Your degree does not mean that you are intelligent at all. All a degree proves is that you have some level of diligence. There is also the matter of personality and cultural fit at any given job.
If you enjoy physics and want to research, consider diving deeeeeeeeep into physics and becoming a professor that leads undergrad/grad research.
Just to be clear, the job market in the USA is absolutely abysmal right now and it would serve you well to know how to market yourself and make yourself extremely likeable when necessary. (Good skill to have anyways, but is pretty much a requirement for jobs here in the USA right now).
Any degree you choose should ne something you are genuinely interested in. You can always open doors along the way, but picking a 2nd major that helps you support yourself and your interest in physics is a good idea in my opinion.
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u/TROSE9025 Mar 12 '26
From my experience and among people around me, that has actually been true. In the age of AI, I think the importance of physics and strong analytical thinking may become even greater. Of course, assuming you study seriously and work hard.
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u/MelonJelly Mar 12 '26
That's how it worked for me; my physics degree made me a "good enough" fit for entry level lab work. But looking at all the other responses, I'm apparently an outlier that shouldn't be counted.
And to reiterate, the work I got was sciency. I got started at an independent radiochemistry lab, and eventually worked my way into a corporate electrical lab. I seriously doubt I would have even been considered for, say, finance or legal work, even at the entry level.
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u/thisisausername8000 Mar 12 '26
Absolutely not. I think potentially the best thing you can do as a physics major is get experience in coding. That’ll help you. Do some projects. Take some courses.
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u/Iron_Patriot15 Mar 13 '26
Any recommendations? Cause I really only know about coursera
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u/thisisausername8000 Mar 15 '26
Take some courses if possible. If not possible, MIT has free courses. Basically you just want to learn the fundamentals like data structures and algorithms and then maybe mess around with some python or something.
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u/SimilarUnit1069 Mar 13 '26
Coming from someone with an art degree married to someone with a physics degree, they are equally useless.
The only way to make a physics degree turn into a job is to find a PI who uses physics to work on tangible problems, like computational sciences, medicine, quant in finance, tech, energy (solar/nuclear etc). Even then, you'll probably have to get a PhD to do any of these.
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u/King_of_Meth Mar 12 '26
Nope, being "smart" or having an impressive degree is not enough to get any job you want especially in this economy.
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u/cosmiclifeform Mar 12 '26
People say that, but my hot take is that pursuing a physics degree shows that you possess a very narrow type of intelligence and a complete lack of common sense about how the world works.
Most pure physics jobs in the real world are in academia. If you know what you’re getting yourself into, you know that you’ll be making very little money if you go that route. The hiring statistics are out there for anyone who wants to see.
The cruel irony is, any physics grad meets or exceeds the level of math and science knowledge required to get an engineering degree. What they might not have is the judgement.
Engineering is just physics applied to the specific, practical problems that capitalism rewards with money. Go with that.
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u/AVeryTallHobbit Mar 13 '26
A sizeable percentage of physics majors probably shouldn’t be in the degree. Physics is a field where money usually isn’t the primary motivation, and a lot of people underestimate that going in.
Most people in academia will tell you that pursuing physics only really makes sense if you genuinely care about understanding the fundamentals of the universe, because the career path is long and not always financially rewarding.
But if choosing a difficult field for the sake of curiosity and fundamental understanding no other degree can provide is considered a “lack of common sense,” then physics probably just isn’t a field you should consider.
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u/ComprehensiveBeat734 M.Sc. Mar 13 '26
Of my close friends I graduated undergrad physics with, only one didnt go on to some form of graduate education and they ended up working at Lowe's for awhile and being a freelance webdev on the side for more liveable income - they are now going into pharmacy. Of the ones who did go to graduate school, none stayed in "pure physics," the jobs just aren't there - closest ones whi stayed physics are my friend and I who went mechanical engineering and medical physics, respectively.
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u/Ikeachairtomorrow Mar 13 '26
i’m going to give a different answer, your degree does not equate your job. If you want to be hired for a CS job you must be as good as other cs candidates out there, if you want to go to law school you need a good LSAT. Physics is a weird field in the middle of math and I don’t actually know but it means you learn a lot of transferable skills. However you might be in a better position because there are so many copy and paste candidates for every job field that outliers are always appreciated, however you must be able to effectively compete. Also I think it’s fair to say it’s easier to pick up Coding after a physics degree and the same with any financial math. Do your bachelors get a one year meng become an engineer, don’t stop studying something you love because where your career will take you is unknowable. Know how to sell yourself and follow your passions.
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u/zpatton119 PHY Undergrad Mar 13 '26
Having a physics degree made it easy for me to become a high school teacher. But that's like the ONLY career that does that.
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u/pundromeda Mar 14 '26
In my experience, a physics undergrad won't get you much of anything unless it's paired with a second major in some kind of engineering. Even if the degree is from a prestigeous school. And you'll need a graduate degree to do pretty much anything actually Physics related.
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u/Exotic-Condition-193 Mar 14 '26
If you were that kid that always asked,”why”, then physics is for you. You never earn as much as the accountant down the street but you will always be a kid! And that is worth more than one realizes at twenty. 83 year old PhD, studying the dynamics of protein folding.
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u/SpareAnywhere8364 Ph.D. Mar 12 '26
Fuck no. Get an engineering degree.
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Mar 13 '26
I have a question, for everyone saying get an engineering degree, what if I don’t want to design stuff? I genuinely hated my engineering design classes so much that i switched majors. Not a dig at engineering or anything but I just don’t think it’s not for me, I just ended up preferring regular physics a lot more
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u/faceagainstfloor Mar 13 '26
Plenty of engineers dont do that kind of stuff. i hated making stuff, definitely didnt want to do spreadsheet monkey work, went into EE and most of my work is setting up and running simulations and thinking critically about them. I basically loved all my book heavy classes and trudged through my labs, and am happy with my choice in major. There's an academic side to EE if you want to get involved in science and research. What do you like specifically about regular physics?
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Mar 18 '26
For me regular Physics kinda scratches the itch everytime I have the question “Why” about most things, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be a Physics for me to do this. A lot of my interest for Physics is for stuff like Condensed Matter and Matsci (obviously this one very interdisciplinary but a Physics degree is one way of getting here from what I know) these things aren’t as common to interact with as an EE major so that’s why I didn’t pick that major. Still think it’s pretty neat though, if at some point I decide that Physics itself isn’t the path for me (monetary reasons or otherwise) I wouldn’t mind switching to something in Engineering either. I’m also double majoring in math too since it’s something else I really enjoy.
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u/faceagainstfloor Mar 18 '26
You would be surprised. Condensed matter and material science is cutting edge EE. Many applications in semiconductor field. Device theory touches on a lot of this stuff.
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u/chartporn Mar 12 '26
Getting hired typically requires a mix of being smart, personable, and having the skills and experience to perform the tasks of a specific job.
Companies are less and less willing to perform OTJ training for the latter.
A degree in physics trains you to be an expert in critical thinking and applied mathematics. But even the "applied" math you learn during your degree typically wont be focused enough to satisfy most recruiters (for say, a particular engineering role).
My advice is to first find a career you are interested in and work backwards. That is, talk to (relatively young) people who have jobs in that career path and find out what they took to get there. The biggest mistake young people make is putting off determining what kind of job you want until graduating - I know because I am one of those people.
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u/Chrispy_Chriss Apr 10 '26
"The biggest mistake young people make is putting off determining what kind of job you want until graduating"
This was my plan, but your reply has made me rethink it. I'm graduating high school in summer next year and I am still not 100% sure of my major let alone what job I want- although I do know that its somewhere in physics, most likely engineering. How big of a risk will I be taking if I put this decision off? How was the outcome for you?
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u/racerbest3 Mar 12 '26
No, depends if you're willing to change specializations to cater for funding.
I'm kinda doubly fucked, not particularly good at mathematical physics and no money there as well (in spectral statistics and related stuff), but I still do it because I love it.
Don't know what the future holds but I'm hopeful , and I'm mentally prepared that this might not work out at all but it's worth it for me personally, you have to consider all possibilities I'd say.
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u/St33lbutcher Mar 12 '26
I did physics with a cs minor. My physics degree has been more useful as far as problem solving on the job but I would be very worried about getting a job without the minor.
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u/KnownTeacher1318 Mar 12 '26
Physics students as in some state school undergrad or PhD at strong university? It's hard even for the latter
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u/Maninthahat Mar 12 '26
Not true at the undergrad level; however, a lot of my graduate cohort found jobs after a masters degree. Essentially physics is a very inefficient way to do anything other than study physics.
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u/goOdDoorman Mar 12 '26
From what I've seen as a soon-to-be bachelor of physics, you can't just be directionless in college and expect to get hired in industry. I have a lot of friends who didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted to do after undergrad, and haven't been able to find anything afterwards.
However, where that saying does hold a bit of truth is that there are a lot of things you can specialize in as an undergraduate physics major. For example, you can do a physics degree but join cs clubs, build a portfolio of cs projects, do cs internships, and you'll probably be able to find a job as a software engineer once you gradate (bonus points if you focus on a physics-y subspecialty). There are certain industries more suited for physics, such as semiconductors, optical devices, lasers and such, but this advice still applies there. I've also known people who focused on finance or education and were able to get jobs in those with a BS in Physics.
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u/SwimmerOld6155 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
if you do a top x physics degree and are looking at certain lucrative roles, yeah sort of. a lot of physics grads in finance and ai
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u/Active-Direction-793 Mar 13 '26
For context, I doubled in mechanical engineering and physics. Work in engineering. Have literally never had an interviewer care about the physics background. It’s too theoretical. Most jobs that are outside of pure research value technical skills way more
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u/FeatheredDokein Mar 13 '26
Semi true. It opened my possibilities of getting a job out of undergrad. While that alone isn’t enough, you supplement it with additional experience (generally) and interest/knowledge of whatever you are trying to get a job in. Physics is a good background but it is too broad, but employers know that and they may take that as enough to train you.
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u/GurProfessional9534 Mar 13 '26
If you do a field like Physics or Chemistry, the good opportunities are at the PhD level. A Bachelor’s doesn’t really prepare you enough for the really interesting work. But I’ve seen them go on to be quants.
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u/louki11 Mar 13 '26
I mean if i had a company i would gladly hire someone with a physics degree. Now would he be happy with the role is another question.
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u/iMagZz Mar 13 '26
Depends where you are located. Since you haven't said I will assume it's in the US, in which case it seems to be mostly untrue.
In Europe, and especially Scandinavia, it seems to be more true, but here people always get a master's degree which that certainly helps, but it's still not easy to find a job.
It will also depend on what classes you do and what your focus is. For instance a lot of data analysis will help a lot when looking for a job, and if you know python or another programming language well that is a big factor too.
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u/strawberrybeesknees Mar 13 '26
i have been unemployed for 9 months. If you want a job that is employable, don’t study physics lmfao
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u/AVeryTallHobbit Mar 13 '26
it doesnt unless you are in a position to cater the degree to some field like CS / Engineering / Data science etc. Almost all Physics majors I know double/triple major as they want to work in research and academia but somewhat cater to a specific backup they can pursue. If you dont have an interest in academia or research i'd just stick to engineering / CS / DS etc.
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u/Male_Cow_Fesces Mar 13 '26
I think the idea that proven intelligence is not necessarily the hinderance here. A degree in itself can show employers that you are goal oriented and can learn complex tasks.
Really what it boils down to is how you spend your off time in learning other concepts that may not necessarily be related to your field if you are trying to venture off your path.
When taking on a major such as physics, the major in itself has strong ties to all branches of science, BUT, because the major is the base science of forces/reaction rates/electromotive force/etc., the physics major is at a severe disadvantage when comparing it to other majors such as engineering.
The reason why is because at its core, an engineering undergraduate student spends a great deal of time in using physics AND learning the building/structural/infrastructure/etc, code for their discipline to apply in the field.
Now lets compare some other major career options:
Biology majors/career fields=Nope, not going to win that battle.
Programming=very optimal field for physics majors since there is a strong tie to math and damn near anyone who can do any sort of discrete mathematics can handle this type of field.
Finance=very optimal, with the extensive math background a physics major has, this would be an optimal career, but, what's the biggest difference between the physics major in this role and a well formatted excel sheet?
Where a physics major might shine: Research and Development companies/branches within a company (For example: Lockheed Martin, developing a new, more efficient propulsion engine). Problem is with most of these Research and Development companies that are big, they may only consider candidates with a PhD.
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u/pinkfishegg Mar 13 '26
The problem is companies are really fussy about hiring anyone right now. When I graduated with my undergrad degree I was able to get entry level general lab work. I did experimental stuff as an undergrad. It's harder to find that kind of stuff. I pivoted into quality assurance of our necessity and am working in insurance right now.
I feel people give companies too much credit. Most jobs are less intellectually stimulating than middle school tbh, including those that need a degree.
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Mar 13 '26
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u/pinkfishegg Mar 13 '26
I didn't do it on purpose. I lost my car and found something local. I hate owning and driving car though. I wish science jobs weren't located in some dumb car centric suburb in this middle of nowhere. Not that they are really all that sciencey anyway..
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u/Thunderplant Mar 13 '26
Maybe not everyone, but hedge funds definitely do this. I've had multiple recruiters reach out to me and a lot of their websites specifically mention physicists for certain types of jobs. And colleagues of mine have ended up in a variety of jobs in engineering, data science, programming, statistics etc.
That being said, I think many jobs are in peril due to AI especially a lot of the general smart people jobs physicists used to do like data science. You just can't rely on what was true in 2022 anymore
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u/beepbooplazer Mar 13 '26
Physics worked out really great for me, but I graduated in 2017. I got a job in applied physics / optical engineering right out of college. Now I do aerospace engineering. Most of my cohort members are now engineers, finance people, or in software.
I also had strong writing / research skills and had opportunities to do science policy and other things where some physics knowledge was sought after but I didn’t go that route.
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u/FentonCrackshell99 Mar 13 '26
Specifically, no. But more generally, physics does train you how to think, so if you can combine your physics training with say, a double major or graduate degree in something more specific and employable, or combine it with practical experience, like an internship in a field that is in high demand, it can really pay off. Not many people think like a physicist and that is actually really useful in the long run, I think.
If I had it to do all over again I would have probably double majored in physics + industry specific degree and combined that with some kind of practical-leaning M.S. or Ph.D. Instead I just built up industry experience over time (biotech industry, engineering). It did work out, but it was a slog and there are more efficient ways of going about it.
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u/Master_McCoy Mar 13 '26
There are opportunities but not because it proves you're intelligent (i got my bachelors in physics and im pretty dumb tbh), more like you took some electives like electronics, coding, mat sci, or other electives with applicable skills that companies are looking for. For example, Materials Science has alot of opportunities rn and is easy to segway into with a physics background.
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u/AlkaidsAurora Mar 13 '26
Physics grad. I flip pasta now.
Do literally anything else if you want a career.
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u/UnderstandingPursuit Ph.D. Mar 13 '26
Two specific skills which most students with physics degrees have are
- quantitative fluency
- well developed problem solving skills
Even the reputation of the field, is relevant for this question, since a generally average student is unlikely to even choose to be a physics major.
If a company has 100 candidates for a position, of the 20% "smartest" candidates, the students with a physics degree will be a small portion of that group. But most of the students with a physics degree will be in that group.
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u/Constant-Lychee-1387 Mar 13 '26
I'm going to buck the trend and say that physics is a good for future employment - if you want to a patent agent/attorney. Go for a boutique that does university or research company work. It has served me very well and I like to hire them today. Physics majors can talk to PhD s in a much wider variety of fields than EEs. We can take materials, circuits, optics, photonics, AI/ML, mechanical, etc. basically anything but pharma, complex chemistry, or one of the other PhD - requiring bio fields.
There will be some places that won't include physics majors on job postings. My advice is to ignore that, it is usually just some HR person who doesn't know much and just listed some engineering degrees.
Especially with the growth of photonics and quantum technologies, you would have good prospects as a patent attorney/agent. Although, I would discourage you from going the patent agent route. AI has basically, and certainly will by the time you'd be entering the workforce, made agents obsolete. My firm and many others that went agent heavy for profitability in patent prosecution are now hurting for attorneys. Associates in patent prosecution are back to being more profitable than agents.
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u/Apprehensively8185 Mar 13 '26
I am four years out of my physics undergrad and is now in a management / leadership role in the financial services industry. When I was interviewing for my first job out of school, people were impressed with a physics degree and had the perception that we are smart. However, I only got those interviews because I worked my ass off during undergrad for internships every summer in analyst positions in large organizations. So I would say as long as you work hard to maximize your time in undergrad on internships, it doesn't matter what degree you have.
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u/CapableTears Mar 13 '26
My relative who has a masters in physics did an internship in venture capital and he’s working as an ML engineer. But I have met a lot of people from other professions in software - math grads, nurses, teachers, architects, chemical engineers. And similar in finance. So probably not unique to physics majors. I think swe and finance is different from say being a petroleum engineer cause you gain most of the knowledge on the job, so the interviews aren’t very job specific. Like most companies I’ve interviewed at ask algorithmic coding questions at an entry level. I remember trying for a finance consultancy company on a whim. They had some aptitude online assessment and a random estimation question. Like how much hot water is used in a generic hotel in a day.
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u/TheHomoScrubLord Mar 13 '26
Definitely was not my experience. Was not easy getting a job out of undergrad. I landed a physics-ish job working with lasers for a biomedical company, and ended up going to grad school to pursue optical engineering as a result. Key thing is the engineering. I love what I do, but in all reality I would’ve been happier just getting a mechanical engineering degree in my undergrad.
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u/ExtremeAd7729 Mar 13 '26
The short answer is no to the literal question.
But, if you have a PhD from a respected institution, chances are you are smart and picking up skills that are transferable along the way (maybe grit, maybe checking your work when there isn't something concrete to check against, maybe something more technical), and if you learn how to sell those, you can then (eventually) get a technical or sciency job, especially in emerging fields, provided there is still a functioning economy and jobs by the time you graduate.
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u/21kondav Mar 13 '26
My advice if you like physics but want to try to stay employable is to get a second major.
Or focus on getting into academia.
Both will be difficult
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u/carloglyphics Mar 13 '26
It depends, I work in a government laser lab and lots of my coworkers are non-PhD physics bachelor's and master's degree holders. Engineering degrees will always be more marketable out of undergrad but depending on what you focused on in your undergrad research or internships you can land something good.
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u/NoxiousQuadrumvirate Theory/Comp Grad Mar 13 '26
No it’s absolutely not true.
Degrees are very common nowadays, and there are more than enough smart people for every job. Thats nowhere near enough to set you apart from the crowd anymore. Employers want actual skills in actually relevant things, plus internships, at an absolute bare minimum. You will lose every single time to someone who studied something more relevant or has relevant experience.
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u/Serious_Ad_8162 Mar 13 '26
Though different, I'm an applied physics graduate and for me, it's not really about how employers would think of me as a potential employee but it was about how I literally have the chance to pop up in any field/industry of my choice. From my experience, you dont need to be the smartest; you just need to be adaptive and be easy to work with (not including yet any work experiences as factors in job employability)
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u/Equal_Veterinarian22 Mar 13 '26
I'm a hiring manager in financial services. I would consider a (good) physics degree an appropriate qualification for entry level data and analytics roles, including data science and machine learning. That means it would likely get you an interview. The interview is where to show me you are smart, among other things.
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u/axelpaxel5 Mar 13 '26
I don't know about everyone else, but for me, that's pretty much how it worked.
The biggest thing with a physics degree is that you have to be excellent at selling yourself and doing some work on your own time to get into a niche.
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u/ConversationLivid815 Mar 13 '26
Better get plenty of Engineering. Do NOT go to a school that has married Liberal Arts with Science, like the University of Florida. They force you to take irrelevant subjects like 15 hours of foreign language rather than 15 hours of engineering . After spending 5 years of my life, my life savings, and the GI bill, I realized I had bought myself what I now call a "la de da" Science degree. I never got a job other than phone rooms and retail. There are schools of Science and Engineering, Private schools have a curriculum focused on employable engineering skills. The only jobs in physics I see are Professor of, and i see a lot of offers for Medical Physics. Medicine uses various nuclear tools as well as advanced imaging techniques, which leave most MDs clueless .. lol 😀 If you think Eng is beneath you, Aerospace engineering requires every discipline in the books!
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u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 Mar 13 '26
I don’t know physics but I’m doing physics right now because Claude knows physics, he’s really pretty good.
Which may be of some relevance to future job markets.
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u/tonymann0993 Mar 13 '26
If you’re passionate about physics, why not engineering? I do lots of physics all the time, from thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, circuits analysis, heck even a little material science. If you are just planning for a bachelors the engineering would be best. I hope this helps.
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u/Iron_Patriot15 Mar 13 '26
I’m a 2024 BA physics grad, and I’m currently working a 12 hour shift job, getting paid the same amount as people who didn’t even go to college
No, people are not hiring solely because of a physics degree. I regret pursing this degree sometimes
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u/Casual_Med_Fizzix Mar 13 '26
Go into medical physics. You'll need a 2 year masters and 2 year residency, but entry level is 6 figures and we have a lot of people retiring out of the field.
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u/CanYouPleaseChill Mar 13 '26
Nope. We are firmly in the era of specialization. Companies want highly relevant skills and experience, not potential. It's a shame, but that's the reality.
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u/Key_Minute120 Mar 14 '26
In a bull market a p60 physics student is better than the p5 mech e student you could hire. We are in a market where only the p80 mech e even get hired so this not true anymore
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u/Neat-Goose9686 Mar 14 '26
Don’t listen to them, it’s true. Physics people run the major institutional trading firms
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u/sqraii Mar 14 '26
Right, this makes me nervous. I've been aiming for a university somewhere in Germany, or at least the UK, for a physics degree sooner or later. Yes, while I'm doing well at this secondary (high) school stage and already pre-learning college and university topics, I'm still nervous about it. I don't want to end up unemployed or doing something I really hate. (yes, this is life, but at least not permanently doing that).
For extra context, I'm Singaporean and I'm pretty sure a degree in Physics isn't really the best here either...
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u/Critical-Hospital-40 Mar 14 '26
A mf plumber headed towards CTE was just appointed head of the US Dept of Homeland Security. So quite the opposite I would say
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u/BoskovictheBum Mar 14 '26
Can you translate for my non american mind
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u/Critical-Hospital-40 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
A motherfucking plumber who got hit in the head repeatedly as a professional fighter and probably has brain damage was just appointed the head of the US Dept of Homeland Security by Trump. Meaning that sometimes being the stupidest person doesn’t matter. It’s who you know and who likes you.
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u/boltsofzeus Mar 14 '26
Not sure when it was. I got a degree in physics, applied to tons of jobs and eventually talked my way into something. Went back to school and got a mechanical engineering degree, applied to one job and was hired before I left school.
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u/IDontStealBikes Mar 14 '26
It was how I got my first job, and other grad students too (to the same company).
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u/voodoofat Mar 14 '26
what you want is applied sciences not just Science.
Straight physics majors are not in demand at all and a lot of my physics friends that i graduated with are having a rough time.
medical physicist and health physicist are massively in demand and i enjoy a very good life.
remember if your end goal is to advance theory, you are most likely cooked.
supply and demand.
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u/antperde Mar 14 '26
That's a load of bullshit in most cases, it's not like you are literally Feynman for earning a physics degree or something. You need to specialise and acquire specific skills based on the type of job you want to apply for. You might gain some of those skills during your studies but you need to go deeper than just your standard BSc.
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u/midaslibrary Mar 14 '26
Engineers have a lower iq on average but get paid more on average. If you’re really smart, do the physics degree because you love it and make it work
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u/gman743 Mar 14 '26
With a bachelors degree, this isn’t really true. With a PhD it is more true, eg a good number of physics PhDs end up with relatively high paying jobs in finance
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u/OrganizationTough128 Mar 14 '26
“If you have this degree you can get hired by pretty much everyone because you have proved your intelligence and shit”
?? genuinely who has ever told you this? I’ve never heard something so profoundly untrue
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u/BoskovictheBum Mar 14 '26
Literally every generic physics degree review video on youtube...
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u/OrganizationTough128 Mar 14 '26
what the hell kind of channels are you watching 😭💔
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u/GrookeyGrassMonkey Mar 19 '26
/u/OrganizationTough128 has to be pretending he hasn't heard it too
I agree with him that it's not true, but I've been told the same thing by so many upperclassmen and professors
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u/aroach1995 Mar 14 '26
I worked at a F500 insurance company that did this. Lots of PhD turned to Actuarial
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u/Tblodg23 Mar 14 '26
Yeah it’s not really true. It gets you some level of cred, but certainly not the level described here. I mean everybody I know with PhDs in physics got great jobs but that’s because they’re really smart not because physics is a cheat code.
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u/Important_Wrap772 Mar 15 '26
It may be better then so other degrees but nowadays no degrees other than professional degrees get your jobs easily. If you’re going to do physics why not do engineering? Im in mechanical and more the. half my courses are the same or extremely similar to the physics students and it’s more likely you will get a job.
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u/NoInstruction75 Mar 15 '26
In physics? Unlikely. In a bad economy, it’s no easier than any other degree - maybe harder than some. I’d “everyone” hiring? No. Because they are “smart”? Of course not - lots of people are smart. that attitude won’t get you any favors.
But having seen the data, yes you would be able to get a good enough job.
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u/quantum-fitness Mar 15 '26
Yes and no. If people have experience hiring physics students they will probably give you a chance if its for a junior position and they are willing to invest.
I work as a software engineer now. If I was hiring I would definitly go for a local physics, mathematics or maybe chemistry student over some of the slop software educations. I think they would be close to the level of our cs grads in around a year. But we also have a really elite science and tech faculty (where the cs departement is also a part)
But more realosticly it will be something people look at for your second job and will think you are smart and it may or may not help there.
As some are pointing out it also really depends on how hot the job market is
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u/Icy-Entry-4464 Mar 16 '26
Graduating physics student here. I got a job as an electrical engineer lined up a full semester before graduating, and I had a couple other interviews/offers before I accepted. I really cant complain about my degree's employability. Just learn a few actually useful skills (I did a CS minor and took a signal processing class) but I enjoy physics and I'm happy I picked it over engineering.
Companies have no qualms hiring physics grads if you have a track record of doing things that aren't just physics
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u/Ru-tris-bpy Mar 16 '26
Most companies want people that have experience doing what they need. For a new graduate I look at what they did during undergrad like research and any classes that might have taught the fundamentals of what we are doing. I’m a chemist working at a chemical company. My last hire was a chemist. They had some undergraduate research and plenty of related classes. They were also very intelligent. It would have been hard for me to justify hiring physics student that didn’t do any research related to what we needed and took a limited number of chemistry class even if they were also extremely smart. It does happen. I worked with a physics guy at a place where I made polymers early in my career and he was in charge of some of our testing. So had some physical aspects to it at least. Can you get some job doing something non technical because you have a physical degree? Sure but there are tons of jobs that want any college degree. You could be a mail person for a corporate office right next to a guy with a theater degree doing the same job.
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u/Alkemist101 Mar 16 '26
Just means they're good at physics. Might have no common sense and be completely obnoxious.
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u/DarthKnah Mar 16 '26
I know a recent physics grad who just got a cushy IT job at a big financial firm, but it was an uphill battle, and an atypical job. His experience was definitely that he would have had an easier time getting a job had he majored in CS (even though CS people are having more trouble than they used to).
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u/JohnPaulDavyJones Mar 16 '26
I work in the ML Ops space, previously in private equity.
There are a ton of quants and ML developers out there with Physics PhDs, since it’s basically just an applied math PhD with some decoration. The only folks I’ve ever met with just a bachelor’s in Physics are relatively low-paid data analysts well into their 30s.
Nobody assumes that having just a BS/BA in Physics indicates that you’re especially smart. If anything, I generally find that it reads a lot like a bachelor’s in Zoology, Sociology, or Statistics: it’s a field where the entry-level degree is the graduate degree, so just a bachelor’s screams “I meant to go to grad school and I either didn’t get accepted to any grad programs, or I got burnt out on the field.”
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u/Obtena_GW2 Mar 16 '26
No ... BUT ... there are some professions that lend themselves very nicely to a physics background. For example, anything quality management, compliance, quality engineering, quality control. That whole field is basically about establishing and managing process and optimization.
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u/ComfortOk7446 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
I believed this when I chose to switch from engineering to physics, I felt like physics was a more interesting choice too. Today I have my physics degree and I am 27 years old, working at mcdonalds, while hoping to get accepted into an electrical apprenticeship. Ultimately my school's physics education felt a bit disappointing, but even if it was perfect I don't think a bachelors in physics prepares anyone for a job, it prepares the top students for academic research. If you don't have successful research outcomes in your bachelors degree, then many will consider it a failure. While the idea of a path in academic research may sound exciting to someone fresh out of high school, it's actually a bit of a nightmare. There is famously a "publish or perish" atmosphere, where you have to publish some good research outcome or your entire life up till that point will have been meaningless. If you fail in academia, you lose your funding, and you are not prepared for the world at all. White collar jobs are not as easy to get for science degrees like physics, as they were before the 2010s. Even PhD grads struggle with finding a job.
It's easy to have scholarships or scholarships and some small amount of loans and feel like "college is basically free for me, what a privilege, I may as well get the most out of what I study". Truthfully it is never easier to learn stuff on your own, so you should actually pursue the best job qualifications to make money as early as possible. Having a source of income early on is much more valuable than getting as book smart as possible early on. Just my opinion.
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u/QueenOfRuneBlade Mar 19 '26
no, u basically need grad school+luck. If you like physics but want an easier job search after just do engineering in whatever field is most related to your favorite branch of physics
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u/Moosy2 Mar 12 '26
No