Begin Planning Your Career
What Do Physicists Do?
Physics training provides students with a vast set of skills that make them highly employable in many fields of work. The first step is to learn as much as you can about the possibilities that are out there.
One way to explore your options is to look through common job titles held by physics bachelor’s recipients and see what interests you. This can help you to discover and narrow down your interests. Note that you can find physics majors in ALL kinds of professions—science writing, medicine, law, history of science, acting, music, healthcare, and on and on. This list is composed of common job titles identified by an AIP Statistical Research Center survey on physics bachelor’s degree graduates from the classes of 2021 to 2022. This list is not exhaustive or exclusive but is a guide to start the process.
Common areas where physics bachelor’s degree recipients find employment:
Engineering: Many physics bachelor’s recipients go directly into an engineering field because of the common educational training. There are many fields of engineering, so research them.
Computer Hardware and Software: The second most common area of work for physics bachelor’s recipients is in computer hardware and software, which includes programming, modeling, and simulation. “Analyst” also appears in this section because analysts often apply considerable mathematic and software skills to their work.
Research and Technical: Physics graduates often take jobs doing scientific research and working in a laboratory environment.
Education: Educators with bachelor’s degrees in physics tend to teach middle or high school science. About half of all high school physics teachers in the United States teach mostly or exclusively physics. The other half also teach related subjects such as chemistry and math. There are many other opportunities available in the broad field of education.
Learning Objective:
After completing today’s activity, you will be able to identify careers in physics that you could pursue with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
Identifying Job Titles of Interest
Read through the list of common job titles above and identify the titles that seem most interesting to you. To learn more and explore other options, use the web tools below to read feature profiles of physicists working in other areas, see job titles of other physics alumni from your school and review research conducted by the US Department of Labor on common job titles for physics bachelor’s degree holders. Strongly consider exploring some job titles that you may never have heard of or considered. You might find a field that fits your interests!
Exercise: Identify at least 4 job titles that seem most interesting to you.
Spend some time exploring what someone with that job does. Then review and answer as many of the questions as you can about career options of interest:
- Would I enjoy doing this job? Am I interested in the day-to-day work?
- Is the work team-based or collaborative? Do I prefer working alone or as part of a group?
- Do I like having guidance or do I like problem-solving on my own?
- Does the salary match my expectations? Do I want to buy a house or cover any large expenses in 2 years or 5 years or 10 years?
- Does the job offer work-life balance? How important is that to me?
- Would I have to move somewhere specific or are multiple locations feasible?
- Is there travel involved?
- Are there certain places I want to avoid, e.g. defense or finance sectors, due to my values?
For each job title you identified, write key words that describe the job and write why the job looks appealing to you. Do this process iteratively, exploring jobs and job titles until you find a few that seem very interesting to you. This can help you identify common areas or themes. It never hurts to look for a wide variety of positions.
Additional physics career information and resources:
Who’s Hiring Physics Bachelors: a state-by-state listing of only a portion of the employers who recently hired new physics bachelors to fill science and engineering positions. Click on a state to see the employers for that state.
Find even more data about physics employment here: https://ww2.aip.org/employment
Physics Education Research at UNG 