[Watch Key Phone]

I'm just interested in the kinds of careers people can get with a degree in physics. What kinds of things are you hoping or expecting to go on to after your degree? What is the most common thing for people to end up doing? Did you choose your degree because you wanted to do a job which happened to require it, or are you now deciding what jobs you can do with the subject you chose for enjoyment?

[heyimbored]

I have no idea

I'll answer some questions though.

A huge proportion of physics graduates go into the finance sector - employers value the skills learnt in the degree, a lot of big financial figures have physics/engineering degrees or similar

Physics also has a higher proportion of people going on for postgrad study than most other disciplines. PhDs and the like, from which you can go down the researchers path as most of your lecturers at uni will do.

Alternatively, most other things

[pepeeglesfield]

most people end up in reseach either at universities or government labs..however as said above many go in to the financial sectors as physicists are good with figures and graph interpretations. Other example areas are, education, transport (i.e pilots), space industry, energy, communications and medicines. Thats the great thing about a physics degree it can be broad yet so specific too.

[theandyguthrie]

Investment Banking.....everyone i seem to meet.

"yeah i finished my physics degree, then i did investment banking for a few years, then i did my Phd."


They must be offering a lot of money if they manage to steer so many people off.

[DynamicSyngery]

IB jobs are hard to get, so I'm not sure I believe that. Of course working in an investment bank (presumably IT or operations) is a lot different to working in investment banking.

[Tackla]

My mates cousin got a Physics degree, now he works part time at Shoe Zone.

[heyimbored]

(Original post by DynamicSyngery)
IB jobs are hard to get, so I'm not sure I believe that. Of course working in an investment bank (presumably IT or operations) is a lot different to working in investment banking.

Investment banking is a common aim for physics grads, whether or not they make it is another thing. However, a pretty significant proportion of the high flying maths/science grads from the likes of Imperial in particular (being London based as well) don't have too much of an issue getting into it, you just need to be clever while doing undergrad (with work experience and contacts etc...). I think Imperial produce far more finance workers from science/engineering degrees than most other unis.

[DynamicSyngery]

(Original post by heyimbored)
Investment banking is a common aim for physics grads, whether or not they make it is another thing. However, a pretty significant proportion of the high flying maths/science grads from the likes of Imperial in particular (being London based as well) don't have too much of an issue getting into it, you just need to be clever while doing undergrad (with work experience and contacts etc...). I think Imperial produce far more finance workers from science/engineering degrees than most other unis.

There are only about a half dozen universities that produce any large number of finance workers, and one of them doesn't offer physics. So I don't think a claim that "A huge proportion of physics graduates go into the finance sector" can possibly be justified, unless you mean to include the support jobs that are not really finance.

[heyimbored]

(Original post by DynamicSyngery)
There are only about a half dozen universities that produce any large number of finance workers, and one of them doesn't offer physics. So I don't think a claim that "A huge proportion of physics graduates go into the finance sector" can possibly be justified, unless you mean to include the support jobs that are not really finance.

When I say huge, I mean proportionally to what other physics graduates do, and yes, there are probably a number of rubbish jobs that aren't entirely finance, but are at least classified under the financial or business sector.

About a third of physics graduates go on to further study, and that's the biggest set going into one area, the rest seek employment, and this is where my 'huge' statement, which may be exaggerated if you want to be pedantic, comes from. If you look at the areas that they go in to, you have in the region of 7-10% going into areas like engineering, managerial positions, secretarial positions, other scientific research (non PhD based), and then the odd person going into healthcare etc...but about 20% go in to the 'financial and business' sector.

No, they wont all set the financial world alight with their abilities, there are obviously also people coming from economics/maths/chemistry and finance based degrees also going into it, and physics graduates only make up a small proportion of the finance sector. Saying that though, from those who go into work, there are double the number of physics graduates going into finance/business based jobs compared to anything else. A number of people will do a physics degree with the intention of going into finance or business, and a number of people go to Imperial college for the London location, and a number of the top students their will go into big finance jobs after graduation.

This has some information on it - http://www.iop.org/careers/workingli...age_50784.html

[DynamicSyngery]

Fair enough, I don't mean to nitpick, but there are people here who might interpret "huge proportion" as "I have a really high chance of doing this". And it at least warrants being said that it's always uncertain, and far more uncertain if you don't go to a top 5 university, and you have to follow the easter placement -> summer internship work experience path and do it well to have a really high chance.

It is also very likely (well, practically certain) that the "financial and business sector" as defined by the IOP includes every job at a bank, in an accountancy firm, and every generic business-related job at any other firm. Only a small proportion of those people are "investment bankers" with the £80k first year income.

Also, if I am reading this correctly, it's 16% of physics graduates who are in employment, which is 33% of all physics graduates. That is to say, about 5% of physics graduates work in nebulously defined business and finance.

What I think is more shocking is that >10% of physics graduates in employment apparently work in "retail, catering and waiting", and more are unemployed than general graduates. Although that is probably people who failed to get a 2.1 - so prospective and current students be careful.

edit: also, it says 33% are studying for "a higher degree", not necessarily a PhD, or even in the same subject.