I'm Screwed!

[Seeker]

Employment wise, there's no point in doing a physics degree unless one wants to become a physicist. For engineering, you take an engineering degree, for computing you take a CS degree etc. You may still be able to get on a good graduate program with a good company or the government but those are very competitive.

If you plan on teaching abroad, become a licensed teacher in America first.

[Cornfed]

Employment wise, there's no point in doing a physics degree unless one wants to become a physicist. For engineering, you take an engineering degree, for computing you take a CS degree etc.

Yes, you need to stay on the tram lines. No one is going to recruit you just because you have shown yourself to be a generally bright and talented person. That is the stuff of legend. If you find at some point that the tram has been derailed then bad luck, you are indeed screwed. The fact that the OP doesn't already know where he is going after he completes his degree would tend to suggest that he is in this position.

[Jester]

Any thought of bringing new generations of young men forward to expand the boundaries of human knowledge and take us to the stars etc. is long since out the window. As for most employers, you are at best just a machine to them to be used until it breaks down and then replaced with another machine. But really though, most of physics is now just a welfare project benefiting incumbent physicists.

Profound stuff.

[Jester]

I've heard those teaching jobs in the Gulf are actually low-paying with a high turnover rate.

Ignore what you've heard, and apply for the good jobs.

Only Oman and (maybe) Bahrain would be tolerable. Also, from what you know, would knowing Arabic command a premium?

About Arabic, and about Oman, you should PM our member here Ladislav. He has taught in Oman and is in Saudi now.

I dont know why you would write off Sharjah or Dubai, though. I saw a 5 grand a month opening for a math teacher in Sharjah when looking casually a few years ago.

I've thought about the computer languages approach. I know some Python and Matlab, but most job listings demand C#, Javascript, Php, and several others. It seems like 3 or 4 languages would be the minimum to know. And it seems like starting from year 0 to pick up that many.

Oh come on. You can learn a computer language in a two months, easily.

Not trying to shoot down your suggestions, but I have built a lot of resentment and pessimism from attending college

Well no shit.

At least you are AWARE, and have someone to TALK to about it... which many of us didnt have when we were coming up.

FIRST THING -- follow PublicDuende's advice about having some fun. Ideally in a country where you can use the language you've been learning. Show off a bit, get laid, have some experiences, make a few friends.

Things will start to look better.

Then do what I said.

[publicduende]

It might be a very partial view, but in times like these advanced knowledge in physics, with a good grounding in maths and perhaps in one specialised area (say, climate modeling) is one of the most sought after skillset around. Cornfed is right in encouraging you, but I believe he's wrong in thinking that a graduate in physics is ultra-specialised. Physics and maths are some of the most general skills a young person can possess, and they make for an excellent foundation for any profession in virtually any industry, from finance and economics to management consulting, engineering to research and teaching.

As does (or would) writing well, good grammar, historical knowledge, moral insight etc. The trouble is that there is virtually no interest in hiring men with such a grounding these days. In fact, it is exactly the opposite.

Assuming there is a difference between non-numerate generalist skills, like spelling and cooking, and numerate ones, the key our OP need to understand is that no employee expects a fresh graduate to hit the ground running, in any profession and industry. It always takes many years of practice to learn a craft, a trade, a profession, and hopefully make a career out of it.

When hired, all graduates start more or less at the same level: with very little or no knowledge of the job at hand and a bag full of credit, or trust. The latter heavily depend on how much they can prove the quality of the reasoning skills, the speed and effectiveness with which they can learn. To this extent, very few things give mental flexibility and ability to learn than a good maths and physics foundation.

[xiongmao]

My 0.5 cents (based on a BSc in biotech and PhD in biochem) is that the main skills you develop in college are analytical skills and critical thinking. Pretty much all the biotech techniques I learnt are obsolete now, but the more general skills I learnt there came in useful in my subsequent IT career. Also of course the teaching practice I did while I was a postgrad are helping now on my CELTA course.

You'll have a good solid educational foundation if you study math/physics. I had a reasonably good career, but if I'd had studied math I'd easily have been able to double my salary by working in the finance sector.

But back to soft skills - the best IT guy I ever worked with had a degree in English. What made him stand out were his extraordinary social skills.

[Cornfed]

When hired, all graduates start more or less at the same level: with very little or no knowledge of the job at hand and a bag full of credit, or trust. The latter heavily depend on how much they can prove the quality of the reasoning skills, the speed and effectiveness with which they can learn. To this extent, very few things give mental flexibility and ability to learn than a good maths and physics foundation.

Yes, and the problem is that in most places they are simply not hiring graduates in science. We talked about this in relation to programming. It is tragically the same in the hard sciences.

[droid]

I think the few private places that would hire an outright 'generic' physicist would be companies like DSSolidWorks, AutoDesk etc
Incidentally i found this ad, just interesting
https://simscale.com/_en/?gclid=CKfg15n ... gQodGDAAAQ

[momopi]

Currently a senior in college. Starting to realize that I'm basically screwed in the real world. Major is physics, it's a ton of work, and it gave me no marketable skill set. I have 4 lab reports plus a final I have to ace due next week. All that work for nothing and probably no better job at graduation than at a fast food place.

I switched from a private school to a public school with 40,000 plus people, thinking there would be more opportunities there. Going to double major for a language there but I didn't realize how crappy the program was. And nope, no real social contact, everything is completely temporary.

I remember talking to someone occasionally in one class for weeks, thinking that we were starting to become friends. I ask him if he wants to study for a test together outside of class, and the guy just walks away, saying nothing. That was the most blatant social rejection but there are lots of subtle things that happen. Take one step towards somebody, they'll take a step back or none at all.

I don't think it's me either; at my other school I had no problem making friends, people were more approachable. And here I have to compete for a job to be student busboy, and I struggle to even get a rejection letter for student employment. That's just for student employment, applications for real jobs and internships I now figure are just a waste of time. At my other school, I had a good job too, and my supervisor really liked me.

Starting to make neurotic, and I've become nasty in the last two weeks towards my parents and family.My behavior disgusts me now, but I have been dramatically reducing dependency on my family--my parents earn more in tax credits than they spend on my food and utilities. But a year and a half of no real social contact is driving me crazy, and I think I'm permanently anti-social now.

Schooling is a tremendous waste if you can't name a valuable skill you're going to learn and explain from beginning to end how your program will impart that skill to you.

What was your passion that lead you to the study of physics?

I have an active interest in water reclamation technologies, but back when I was in college there was very little interest in "toilet to tap" in California. However I think this is going to change with the drought situation, and water reclamation is very competitive to desalination. Sometimes you find yourself at the wrong time and wrong place, you have to either look elsewhere or open more paths for yourself locally

Opportunities are constantly changing. When I was in college we were taught COBOL and FORTRAN on Univac/Sperry. For COBOL programmers there was one last hurrah during Y2K. With introduction of iPhone in 2007 it opened an opportunity for the independent programmer or small team to develop apps and games to make money. But that window of opportunity is also changing with bigger players entering the market.

[jrd.ffer]

Employment wise, there's no point in doing a physics degree unless one wants to become a physicist. For engineering, you take an engineering degree, for computing you take a CS degree etc. You may still be able to get on a good graduate program with a good company or the government but those are very competitive.

Exactly. It's a very awkward degree, the art history of the hard sciences.

[jrd.ffer]

Yes, you need to stay on the tram lines. No one is going to recruit you just because you have shown yourself to be a generally bright and talented person.

When I talk to people about physics and say its not marketable, they usually respond with something like 'But it shows you are smart.'

You gave a pretty disturbing metaphor there, but it's true. And realizing that I'm not on the tram lines is driving me crazy.

[jrd.ffer]

>
About Arabic, and about Oman, you should PM our member here Ladislav. He has taught in Oman and is in Saudi now.

I dont know why you would write off Sharjah or Dubai, though. I saw a 5 grand a month opening for a math teacher in Sharjah when looking casually a few years ago.


>>
Oh come on. You can learn a computer language in a two months, easily.

>I've had some interactions with Gulf Arabs (~12, Saudi and Qatar) and I don't think they were positive. At least a third were openly genocidal and supported really nasty groups and honestly believed the world would be a better place without Alawites in Syria. Most others were extremely rude. That's why I'm somewhat hesitant about most of the Gulf countries.

>>You can 'learn' a programming language in two months; when job descriptions say 'knowledge of C++' they only mean familiarity?

[jrd.ffer]

What was your passion that lead you to the study of physics?

The idea that studying it would yield interesting and surreal facts about the universe, inspire me to pursue science, develop good study habits etc. Nothing specific though, and I only spent a limited reading science journals in my spare time.

[Jester]

>
About Arabic, and about Oman, you should PM our member here Ladislav. He has taught in Oman and is in Saudi now.

I dont know why you would write off Sharjah or Dubai, though. I saw a 5 grand a month opening for a math teacher in Sharjah when looking casually a few years ago.


>>
Oh come on. You can learn a computer language in a two months, easily.

>I've had some interactions with Gulf Arabs (~12, Saudi and Qatar) and I don't think they were positive. At least a third were openly genocidal and supported really nasty groups and honestly believed the world would be a better place without Alawites in Syria. Most others were extremely rude. That's why I'm somewhat hesitant about most of the Gulf countries.

>>You can 'learn' a programming language in two months; when job descriptions say 'knowledge of C++' they only mean familiarity?

OK, then lets write off teaching.

(I opted against Gulf teaching for reasons not unlike yours.)

Now on C++, I have no knowledge or experience. But its a high-level language, how hard can it be? And anything is going to be less annoying than COBOL.

There must be someone who will give you a damn certificate in that or another language.

Then you're golden.

Nothing wrong with the physics major based on the reasons you stated. Just time to now get a certified trade. No big deal. LOL if you can do physics, you can sure as hell write a program.

[Boxman]

America (and more to the point the American job market) doesn't respect scientists, mathematicians, physicists and anyone else that chooses a research-based career. These are the best and brightest of our society, the people that advance knowledge and human progress, and we, as a society, collectively sh*t on them.

People who work in the financial services sector (ie: leeches on society that contribute nothing to society) get paid many times over what a scientist or mathematician gets paid. Hell cops get paid more. It's ridiculous; there are so many worthless professions that get paid far more than those who've chosen the hard path of dedicating their life to advancing humanity. Where I work, most of the secretaries get paid more than the post-doctoral fellows doing medical research! These ladies spend most of their day shopping on the internet and cruising facebook, and they get paid more than the guys and gals in the white lab coats.

I'm amazed that anyone even goes into the sciences anymore. Actually, they increasingly don't. I've watched our post-docs and low-level faculty (the ones that don't have tenure) get burned out and give up, one after another. Most of them went to work as lab technicians for pharma companies, or went to pharmacy school and became pharmacists. I kept up with a lot of these folks and found that in every case, they made more money in their new careers but were always a bit sad about having been forced to abandon their dream of a career in science. And sad for all the years they wasted in academia.

Part of the problem is there's a never-ending of supply of scientists from places like China, India, Russia who will happily work for $25k or less. These are highly educated people who find little opportunity in their home countries and are thus willing to be scientists here in America for what amounts to poverty wages. This drives down the wages for everyone in the sciences.