ITT: a bunch of people with engineering physics or masters’ of physics who are either doing really well or not so well and ascribing that to their degree. I’m a loser because I have anxiety and don’t know how to sell myself, not because I have an MS. I keep going for shitty IT/programming jobs and they ask me “why aren’t you doing physics.” I say “I don’t think I’m smart enough.” Which is honest but I could just as easily bullshit them and use it to talk myself up. I don’t think many recruiters would last a month in those courses anyway.
A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
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Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#72Its just a strange thing to hear people say a physics masters is useful because it demonstrates your capacity to learn the same material as a computer science undergrad.
I certainly respect a physics degree for the same reason I respect a math degree: it shows me that this person can work really, really hard for a long a time.
If you're in physics or math you may know exactly what I mean, but if you're outside: it is bonkers how hard they have to work.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
So you think a CS chitty is automatically the best possible career in development no wonder you used a throwaway handle. I would have said having a good grounding in physics or engineering can be a plus having to work from first principals rather than using memorised algo's for w=example.
"So you think a CS chitty is automatically the best possible career in development no wonder you used a throwaway handle. I would have said having a good grounding in physics or engineering can be a plus having to work from first principals rather than using memorised algo's for w=example." Then you should have said that rather than whatever it is that you just typed. I make a new throwaway every month so I don't get…
So I am dyslexic sue me.
And your excuse for a throwaway account is "not readily believable"
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#74A myriad careers... including unemployment.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#75If one is thinking about trying to become H1-B, one should be extremely wary:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/16/h-1b-more-advanced-de...
obviously this could change from Presidential administration to administration but they no longer permit those with physics/E.E./math advanced degrees to have H1-B for software work.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#76I have an MS in physics and I disagree with this. If you want opened doors, go for software engineering. You have so many things you can do with software, seriously. I have finished my master's in November, and I have been looking for a job. I have not been very lucky so far. I am looking for data-science related stuff. If you have any suggestions, please, I am all ears. (I am in Europe) There was a time when, if you…
why data science and not something where physics degrees confer more of a comparative advantage? Something like telecommunications engineering or something of that sort?
Data science is one of the few fields where a physics degree does have at least some comparative advantage. In any engineering field, a hiring manager with a choice between an engineering graduate and a physics graduate is always going to choose the engineering graduate because they have specific training in the field. Part of the myth propagated by physics departments is that learning to solve a bunch of general problems will somehow make you qualified to solve very specific problems.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
It isn't overconfidence. The academic material these individuals study is directly and specifically related to the work of a data scientist. Statistical analysis is built in to any reasonably good physics curriculum starting with undergrad lab courses and proceeding through statistical mechanics, quantum physics and beyond.
In your mind, do you think a physics degree or a statistics degree is better suited to doing data analysis, and why?
> do you think a physics degree or a statistics degree is better suited to doing data analysis, and why?
For finance, physics 100%. (The more experimental, the better.) When you're forced to map your theories to reality, and deal with the divergence, you develop an intuition for a certain set of problems. Those problems recur in commercial data science.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#78Not my experience and I have a Engineering-Physics degree, which is essentially a full physics degree with additionaly courses gears towards training us as systems engineers and luckily that's how I landed a job afterwards. I tell all prospective physics majors to dual major in CS or EE or some other engineering useful discipline if you truly want to do something good. You have a much better chance of landing a job a…
I will say I do believe this is a much smaller issue in the bay area (and possibly a few other places), provided you can code okay. If you are looking for a job, say, in Phoenix, St. Louis, Dallas or similar, the HR hurdles are much harder to overcome. Those places want CS or EE, maybe ME.
I have a BS in Applied Physics.
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#79I have an MS in physics and I disagree with this. If you want opened doors, go for software engineering. You have so many things you can do with software, seriously. I have finished my master's in November, and I have been looking for a job. I have not been very lucky so far. I am looking for data-science related stuff. If you have any suggestions, please, I am all ears. (I am in Europe) There was a time when, if you…
Hi,
I don't know the situation in Europe. In the US, there are a number of data science boot camps geared more towards PhDs who decide that they want to do something else. I've had friends go into that and find jobs afterwards. I think that what helped them was not the material per se (if you've done physics, most of the math in data science is not terribly challenging), but 1) having space to work on the subject (some people might not have had experience with say coding or thought about coding interviews) and 2) Network The American physical society just launched a topical group on data science in physics. We're planning to offer training to help students who want to either apply data science to physics or want to transition out. We're also hoping to have some webinars from people who started off doing physics and went into industry to let students learn their stories. I hope that's helpful...
Re: A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers
#80I've also heard the opposite, that it leads to absolutely nothing and you are kind of treated like a PhD dropout, at least in the US. Just be careful, I guess, and get plenty of advice from real people who took that path (successfully or not). Oh, and a bachelor's in engineering physics seems to lead to nothing as well. Have had quite a few friends go to career fairs and every company rep lost interest as soon as the…
Is Engineering Physics considered lesser than a Physics degree, or are you saying that both an Engineering Physics and a Physics degree seem to lead to nothing? What's the difference?