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all right so back in 2022 I graduated
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with a degree in astrophysics and this
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left me with a question what am I going
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to do next now fortunately physics
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students are some of the most employable
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graduates of all disciplines because of
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the skills that we learn throughout the
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degree but the specific industry or role
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that you end up in will largely depend
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on three factors those factors are what
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you're good at what you're passionate
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about and what your career prospects are
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now not to toot the horn of physics
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grads in general but we are pretty good
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at quite a few employable skills
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specifically these are skills to do with
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data or algorithms or just anything to
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do with maths in general these are
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skills that you'll find are very
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valuable in a wide range of Industries
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which we're going to go into in more
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detail later on in the video but
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specifically these skills allow us to
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explore a wider range of career
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prospects so physics grads have a lot
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more career prospects
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or career Pathways than other
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disciplines so the specific role that
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you actually end up in will largely
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depend on your passion now the thing
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that you're passionate about will fall
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somewhere on the scale of three
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different industries that you can
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explore these industries are further
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education industries that are related to
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physics and industries that are
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unrelated to physics so what do I mean
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when I talk about these three different
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Industries well further education can
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include something like a master's degree
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or a PhD related Industries those are
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typically sort of research Industries or
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perhaps defense or another one is
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engineering unrelated Industries are
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stuff like Tech or Finance the reason
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I've laid it out like this is because
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it's not black and white exactly which
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different industry you're going to fit
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into because some of them overlap we've
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got these three bubbles in this sort of
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vend diagram kind of layout and what
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this shows is that sure you could go
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into further education or you can go
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into some jobs in an unrelated field
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some jobs in a related field straight
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out of your degree but there's going to
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be some overlap with further education
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and the different industry so for
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example if you want to go into sort of
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engineering it might be worth getting a
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further education in some engineering
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field or if you want to go into an
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unrelated field perhaps you want to get
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a master's degree in finance or
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accounting or computer science something
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like that so there are different
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Pathways into the these three Fields
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both direct and through further
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education but the specific pathway that
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you choose will largely depend on the
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specific industry that you're looking at
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so now let's look at those three
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Industries in a bit more detail and
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we'll start with further education
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because this is what I've got most
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experience with because this is what I
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did now as I said with a physics
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undergrad you'll probably do one of two
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different types of further education
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degrees you've got a master's degree or
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a PhD so a master's depending on the
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country that you're you're in will
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typically be 1 to 2 years long and you
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can broadly split this into two
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different parts of your degree so one
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part of the degree will be a Tau
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component and another part will be a
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research component now the talk
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component is pretty similar to your
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undergrad you get set modules and
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optional modules that you get to choose
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from and it's those modules that you get
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examined on so you typically have exams
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for those modules some of them are
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coursework modules most of them will be
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examed particularly if you're going into
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a science or an engineering uh Masters
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they're typically quite heavily examed
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so the talk component is typically the
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largest part of the degree so you'll
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also have a research component to the
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degree and this is mostly done
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throughout the summer throughout the
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last sort of two three four months of
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the degree but you'll actually start it
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right at the beginning and you'll slowly
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work through it alongside the T degree
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this isn't the same for all countries
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but in the UK in particular this is how
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it works I know in other countries where
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perhaps you have a master's degree that
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is 2 years long the first year is all
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taught and the second year is all
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research so depending on the country
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you're looking at those are the
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different formats of having this taught
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and research components now the research
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usually tries to prepare you for a PhD
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uh but broadly speaking a masters is the
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tool that allows you to push your career
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in a different trajectory than your
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physics perhaps uh degree Narrows you
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down into that is the main benefit that
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I found from doing a master's degree but
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it also allows you to explore physics
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more specifically as well if that's what
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you're into so you can do a master's in
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perhaps astrophysics and then that can
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lead to a PhD in astrophysics and you
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can in a lot of universities continue
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your research from a master's to a PhD
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so what do we do with PhD then what is
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the the value of a PhD well a PhD in the
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UK is about 3 to four years long but uh
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in other countries it can be a lot
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longer and a PhD is pretty much solely
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research um it's where you develop your
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own unique uh research that's never been
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done before and you've got a lot of
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control over the type of work that you
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actually do in uh the PHD now why would
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you go in and do a PhD well I think
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there's broadly two main reasons why
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you'd want to do a PhD the first is that
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you've got a real interest in the field
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and you want to continue it further so
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you want a career in Academia now this
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could be perhaps if you wanted to go and
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be a postdoc and then a lecturer and a
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professor the PHD is pretty much
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required to do that um you need to have
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that experience of doing your own uh
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unique and individual research the
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second reason you'd want to do a PhD is
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because you are deeply passionate about
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the specific topic but perhaps you just
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don't really want to go into that field
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uh long term you're just very curious
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very interested in a specific uh part of
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physics for example and so a lot of
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people do phds just out of of passion
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and that's also completely fine but
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there are different reasons why you'd
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want to do a PhD compared to a masters
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and the time commitment is something
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that is worth acknowledging so on the
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topic of careers outside of physics and
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outside of a PhD let's look at the
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industries that are related to physics
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now it's very hard to Define What
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specifically is related to physics and
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what's not related to physics but I've
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broadly broken it down into two main
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industries the first is defense and you
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see a lot of uh a lot of grads going
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into defense and the second is
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engineering now there is of course a lot
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of crossover between defense and
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Engineering because a lot of the time
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when you're working in defense you're
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actually working on some form of
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engineering um but as I said there are
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different types of engineering that is
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that falls without defense so we can
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sort of add this hard border between the
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the two different Industries so most of
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the physics grads that end up working in
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defense will typically fall into two
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different categories of careers one in
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engineering and one in research and you
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can think of this like uh the
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researchers find out what the problems
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are and the engineers find a way to
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solve them now falling into the
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engineering sector this is where we'll
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find something like
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Aerospace or mechanical
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engineers or electrical engineers
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physics does lend it itself very well to
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engineering because essentially
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engineering is just applied physics now
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in my case I went through this route I
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did a masters in Space Engineering after
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doing my astrophysics degree and ended
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up in uh an engineering role in the
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space sector and that just shows that
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you don't need to know everything before
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applying for these jobs it's more a case
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of showing that you are able to pick up
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these skills and pick up the knowledge
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quickly and efficiently which is
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something that you are taught through a
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Physics degree now these are just two
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industries that fall with in The Wider
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related Industries group that I
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mentioned earlier and of course there's
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going to be others that I haven't
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mentioned like Nuclear Physics or
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medical physics but what I'm really
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trying to show here is that it's not so
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much about the specific industry
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knowledge that you have that counts it's
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more about the skills that you're able
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to demonstrate that you can apply to
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these industries now of course doing
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further education and doing a master's
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in the specific industry that you're
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looking to go to will help you to change
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the trajectory to that industry but if
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you have a broad set of very strong
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skills that you learn through a Physics
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degree you can usually apply these to
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related Industries very easily so
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defense and engineering and medical
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physics and nuclear physics all lend
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themselves to the same group of skills
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problem solving data analysis data
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visualization uh algorithms and just
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general maths all of these skills will
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broadly be contained within these
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industries as a whole so if you've got a
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Physics degree you can pretty easily
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fall into the these related Industries
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now the final group of Industries are
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those that are unrelated to physics and
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similarly to the related degrees they
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use a lot of the skills that we pick up
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in a Physics degree but what's different
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and what sets them apart is that you
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never really end up using any of the
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physics knowledge that you pick up in
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your degree so The Theory of physics
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isn't really used it's more the skills
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and the competencies that we develop
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throughout the degree now these
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industries may include Finance Tech
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accountancy or even law and patent law
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now what you can tell is that there is
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some sort of connection between all of
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these industries you know they're not
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completely separate and there is
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something connecting them all and really
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what it is is the skills that we pick up
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in a Physics degree so for example all
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of these what they have in common is
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problem solving and this is something
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that is really important when it comes
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to understanding your value as a physics
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grad is that you're able to solve
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complex problems and find solutions to
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complex problems really efficiently and
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that is a highly employable and highly
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monetizable skill now the specific
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skills that you pick up in a Physics
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degree will lend themselves better to
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some Industries compared to others so
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for example your programming and ability
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to make algorithms will lend itself
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really well to Tech whereas your ability
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to analyze complex data will lend itself
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well to accountancy or to finance the
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important thing is that you develop
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these broad range of skills and you
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develop them well so that you're able to
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apply them to a wide range of Industries
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and if you know exactly which industry
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you want to go into make sure that you
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really focus in on the skills that are
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valuable to that industry so those are
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the main three options for Pathways that
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you have as a physics graduate now of
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course it's not as simple as fitting
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into one of those three categories there
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are plenty of opportunities that you'll
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have to switch between them all and you
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should never feel really cornered into
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one of those Industries if you're not
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enjoying it you can always switch up
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with a Physics degree because again
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you've got plenty of skills that are
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employable across a wide range of
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Industries and if you want to switch up
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really heavily you can always go back
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into Academia and do a master's and
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switch your career trajectory from there
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and I hope that if you're a student or
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graduate in physics that you found this
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video useful and it's given you some
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insight into the options you have
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available as a physics graduate and if
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you did enjoy this video please leave a
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like and I'll see you in the next one
