Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 178 posts

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#11

Post by tmoot »

I'm a physics phd student, but I did my undergrad in cs+physics at well known school in the midwest.

I really regret going to grad school for physics, I gave up a lot of earning potential, time to develop new skills and I've forgotten a lot of my CS background. Most methods in my area have already been developed and the pressure to publish (pushy advisor, several projects not producing the intended results, and proposal writing) has always been hampering away at my free time to think. I really dislike this system. At the same time, I'm sure exists in industry too (never had a real job). I'm not going lie, I feel a bit trapped, but I'm still a fairly positive person.

In the sciences, grad school is sold as a necessity but I'm starting to think this is a way of fueling the ivory tower.

I realize that this is a bit incoherent/ranty, but whatever. :)

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#12

Post by circlefavshape »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #8

Physicists have been taking jobs as software engineers since the 90s. Career-wise, physics is the comparative literature of the exact sciences.

/me raises hand

Degree in physics, working software for 20 years and still feel like an impostor ... not that I remember any physics at this stage

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#13

Post by mac01021 »

thesz wrote: post #9

Physicists are one hell of science and engineering badasses. I know many physicists who became hardware engineers and even software engineers when they needed it. I know no software/hardware engineer who became physicist.

For some, that's because they're not badass enough.

For many, it's because they never needed it.

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#14

Post by ythn »

circlefavshape wrote: post #12
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #8

Physicists have been taking jobs as software engineers since the 90s. Career-wise, physics is the comparative literature of the exact sciences.

/me raises hand Degree in physics, working software for 20 years and still feel like an impostor ... not that I remember any physics at this stage

Impostor syndrome seems bogus but only because I've never experienced it and therefore can't understand it. Why do you feel like an impostor? The world is analog, not digital. There's no rite of passage that will suddenly switch you from being an "impostor" to being "legitimate". I've met EE majors who turned out to be better software developers than CS majors and vice versa.

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#15

Post by kps »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #8

Physicists have been taking jobs as software engineers since the 90s. Career-wise, physics is the comparative literature of the exact sciences.

Since the '40s, as the article notes. Early on, science/engineering/math problems were one of the driving forces of computing, typically with a distinct separation from commercial/administrative side — for instance, scientific machines had floating point while commercial machines had decimal arithmetic. It wasn't until the First Dotcom Bubble that the commercial culture decisively ‘won’.

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#16

Post by ddavis »

tmoot wrote: post #11

I'm a physics phd student, but I did my undergrad in cs+physics at well known school in the midwest. I really regret going to grad school for physics, I gave up a lot of earning potential, time to develop new skills and I've forgotten a lot of my CS background. Most methods in my area have already been developed and the pressure to publish (pushy advisor, several projects not producing the intended results, and propo…

Also a physics PhD student. I never touched CS as un undergrad, but I got very interested in writing software as an undergrad when I started in an experimental HEP group (I've never taken any formal programming courses). I don't completely regret going to grad school even though I often think about the likelihood that I leave physics when I graduate to get a job in software development. I also dislike the academic system - and that's the biggest contributor to that likelihood to leave for the software industry being high. The physics itself is no longer _incredibly_ interesting to me, but I can't shake the data analysis itch ;)

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#17

Post by adrianN »

thesz wrote: post #9

Physicists are one hell of science and engineering badasses. I know many physicists who became hardware engineers and even software engineers when they needed it. I know no software/hardware engineer who became physicist.

I'd become a physicist if there were jobs for physicists doing actual physics.

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#18

Post by thesz »

adrianN wrote: post #17
thesz wrote: post #9

Physicists are one hell of science and engineering badasses. I know many physicists who became hardware engineers and even software engineers when they needed it. I know no software/hardware engineer who became physicist.

I'd become a physicist if there were jobs for physicists doing actual physics.

Me (and you) can do theoretical work.

Even nanomanipulators are DIY: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2011-07/you-built-what-sca... or http://hackaday.com/2015/01/13/cheap-diy-microscope-sees-ind...

(ESM can be used to manipulate atoms)

Yet I haven't had time or courage. Or badassness.

Re: Physicists taking jobs as Silicon Valley software engineers

#20

Post by randlet »

This is a pretty common career path I think once people realize that finding a well paying physics gig is much much tougher than just becoming a developer. Every physicist has at least some programming experience and are generally adept at problem solving. Coding was always way more fun than doing 4th year/grad school level physics for me too. Also, it is especially tough to get a job if you're a mediocre physicist (like me) whereas there are very many jobs available for fair to middling programmers (like me).

Don't want to guess at numbers but my gut instinct & experience tells me that very few physicists end up doing physics and most end up in finance, software, and hardware.

Post reply on HN