You’ve completed your PhD or Masters in Physics. You’ve studied stars, earth systems, or quantum mechanics; but now you’ve had your fill of academic life, and you’re looking for a professional alternative. Or perhaps you’ve just finished an undergraduate degree in a scientific field, and you’re wondering what the career prospects of a graduate with a Physics degree might be?
Here at MastersAvenue, we’ve got you covered. We conducted an extensive research project, tracing the career destinations of 7.5 million graduates of all different disciplines – including Physics. Our findings show which careers are most popular amongst students who have completed a master’s in each discipline. Below, you’ll find the six most popular options chosen by Physics graduates.
The top destination for Physics graduates was Engineering. 16.4% of the master’s graduates in Physics included in our survey chose to enter Engineering after completing their degree. Engineering is, in many respects, an applied branch of Physics, and so Physicists possess many of the competencies – such as high levels of numeracy, a gift with computer modelling, and a familiarity with physical systems – that are required in Engineering fields.
As with Engineering, Physics also relates very well to Research and Development in the commercial sector. A round 14.0% of Physics master’s graduates decided to pursue a career in Research, using their knowledge of the discipline to develop new technologies and find new applications for existing processes; providing the market with new and innovative products and services.
As with the other more academic subjects of masters study, many graduates in Physics chose to continue on into academia, or move elsewhere within the Education sector - 13.3% to be exact. Given the importance of STEM education, many countries now incentivise Physics graduates to train as teachers. Academia is an well-funded option for many Physicists, as highly prestigious fields like Cosmology and Theoretical Physics attract large donations, while Nuclear Physics and Ballistics attract a significant amount of government funding.
A very popular choice with almost every subject area we surveyed, Business Development scored highly amongst Physicists, with 12.3% deciding upon BD roles after leaving university. BD involves being able to solve problems based on the observation of long-term trends; something Physicists are adept at doing.
Given the extensive use of computing within Physics, it isn’t surprising that 6.8% of Physics masters chose to move into IT after graduating. Most Physicists are required to learn some level of programming to process the empirical data upon which their discipline is based – a skill that comes in useful in the domain of IT.
5.4% of Physicists choose to enter the field of operations; perhaps drawing on their extensive skill at tracking statistical trends to improve the performance of operations on behalf of their employers
If these destinations sound attractive, and you’re contemplating doing a graduate degree in Physics, why not check out the Physics master’s listed on MastersAvenue, and see if there’s one that looks interesting?
Study in Australia
Study in Canada
Study in Germany
Study in United Kingdom
Study in USA
Study in Switzerland