How to succeed outside physics

Individuals with physics training enjoy a wide range of career possibilities. In fact, after surveying people who earned PhDs in physics in 2013 and 2014, the Statistical Research Center at the American Institute of Physics (AIP, which publishes Physics Today) found that a minority of those PhDs, 38%, worked in physics. The rest worked in other fields, the most common ones being engineering, computer software, and business or finance. As for the recipients of physics bachelor’s degrees, 54% of the classes of 2013 and 2014 went on to graduate school. Of those who entered the workforce, 65% found jobs in the private sector.

Curious about the range of possible careers outside physics, I reached out to my professional network through social media. The four former physicists profiled here kept their physics skills, learned new ones, and found varied, rewarding careers. Their stories not only complement surveys and statistics, but also point to how to prepare for the kinds of jobs that most people trained in physics hold: ones outside academia.

Four career paths

Lynn Yarmey (BS in geophysics, MS in library and information science) is the director of community development for the US region of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), an international organization that promotes infrastructure to make it easier to share and exchange data. A combination of experiences helped her get to her current position. She spent five years as a seagoing programmer and data analyst at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and five years at Scripps as a scientific programmer and data manager (splitting her time between data analysis and coding in oceanographic labs, and data management work). She then spent one year as a science data librarian at Stanford University, two years as a lead data curator at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and three years as a principal investigator (cyberinfrastructure, data, informatics, and science collaborations) at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. She assumed her current position at RDA in May 2016.

Karen Glocer (BS in physics, MS and PhD in computer science) is a Foreign Service officer with the US State Department. Says Glocer: “In the very last year of my PhD, I realized that I did not want to pursue an academic career. I wanted to see the world, live abroad, learn new languages, and meet new people. Above all, I wanted to be in public service. I believe that more people with scientific training should enter public service because a science education is a powerful problem-solving toolbox that can be applied in unexpected ways to make the world a better place. Given my interests, I chose to join the US Foreign Service, the corps of diplomats who staff US embassies and consulates around the world, representing US interests and protecting US citizens.”

Malin Sandström (MS in engineering physics, PhD in computer science) is the community engagement officer at the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility in Stockholm. INCF advances collaboration in brain research by developing programs that combine neuroscience with information sciences. This year, she also held a community engagement fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC. Sandström describes her career progression as follows: “During my PhD I happened to catch the first blogging wave with my (Swedish) science blog, and as a result I had dabbled quite a bit in science communication, including spending a summer as a science journalist and receiving a grant to write a popular science book. My PhD co-supervisor was involved with an international nonprofit organization [INCF] that had an unfilled science communication job, preferably for someone with computer science and neuroscience in their background. I innocently asked why they had no candidates for such an interesting job, and two weeks later I suddenly had a part-time position there while finishing my PhD. My role has gradually shifted since then, toward scientific community management rather than communications.”

Dave Rench McCauley (BS in physics, PhD in experimental condensed-matter physics) is employed by ManTech, a company that provides advanced technological services to the US government. He currently works for just one client, the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, also known as the SunShot Initiative . Says McCauley: “I started out in the federal government through the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowships program. The program places PhD-level scientists in various positions across the federal government so they can spend one to two years working on science policy issues and applying their skills in the public policy sector. My fellowship placement was with my current client, the SunShot Initiative. When one of my fellowship supervisors mentioned that a contract was open for work that I was already doing and pointed out that the additional tasks I wanted to take on could be included in that work scope, I decided to make the transition to be a contractor. The timing on this worked out very well, as this all occurred shortly before my fellowship ended.”

Skills inside and outside physics

Asked how their physics education has helped them in their careers, all four interviewees pointed to the critical-thinking skills they gained in school. Says McCauley: “As a physicist, I often had to take complex problems—experiments, devices—and break them into their constituent parts to solve the whole. Policy work is no different, except the ‘pieces’ you’re trying to solve individually may be people’s preconceptions, disparate analytical reports, or an ill-defined goal that needs more fleshing out.”

Says Glocer about her critical-thinking training: “It has helped me grasp the complexities of multilateral negotiations, untangle Arabic grammar, and analyze complex political and economic situations.”

Yarmey and Sandström also cite critical thinking as important for their current careers. “That is a skill that is useful anywhere,” notes Sandström.

Common themes also emerged when the interviewees reflected on what other skills physicists should acquire. Sandström recommends learning at least one programming language really well, preferably more than one. Also important, she says, is learning how open-science infrastructure works, such as GitHub, hackathons, and preprint services.

McCauley concurs: “I recommend learning at least one language―and no, LabView is not sufficient. At the very least, I recommend learning Python, as it is widely used in both scientific and business circles for analytical work. However, if you want to create products and tools that people can use easily, other languages are better for that―for example, Java, Javascript, and Ruby. You should also train up on Excel. It’s the data tool of choice in the federal government.”

Boosting your statistics skills is also important, says McCauley. And Yarmey’s suggestion is to learn to understand and manage data.

All those responses are consistent with the report Physics Doctorates: Skills Used & Satisfaction with Employment Data from AIP’s Statistical Research Center. In particular, the report states: “New physics PhDs in postdocs and potentially permanent positions in the private sector heavily rely on programming, technical problem-solving skills, and advanced math.”

The importance of developing interpersonal skills was another common theme. Being an effective collaborator is essential, says Yarmey. Sandström notes that communication was a skill she had to pick up outside her graduate program. From AIP’s Skills Used report: “Both PhDs who accepted a postdoc and [those] who held potentially permanent employment in the private sector were very similar in how often they used interpersonal and management skills. An exception to this similarity was that PhDs working in potentially permanent positions in the private sector were considerably more likely to indicate that they ‘work with clients’ than their postdoctoral counterparts.”

What can you do?

In their article for this month’s Physics Today, Laurie McNeil and Paula Heron summarize the findings and recommendations of the Joint Task Force on Undergraduate Physics Programs. Established by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society, J-TUPP analyzed the skills that physics majors need to acquire to prepare for the jobs they will likely get. Those skills are the same as the ones my four interviewees cited. To ensure the skills are taught, J-TUPP recommends structural changes at the institutional level, an approach that asks, What can physics programs do? But there are complementary questions to explore as well: What can you do? If you want to pursue a nontraditional career, where do you start?

First, consider fellowship programs. If you’re interested in teaching, look into the teaching fellowships offered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. For federal service, investigate the Presidential Management Fellows Program of the US Office of Personnel Management. For policy, consider the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program , which is run by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships .

New fellowship programs to meet the changing career landscape are on the rise. Sandström and I belong to the inaugural class of the AAAS Community Engagement Fellows Program . Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the program has a mission to improve community-building and collaboration in scientific organizations and research by providing a year of training and support to a cohort of scientific community managers. We both recommend it.

For programming skills, you can take advantage of several courses, both free and paid, that are available online. Some massive open online courses (MOOCs) on platforms like Coursera and Udacity specifically offer this kind of training with different types of certifications. Another option is a coding boot camp, for developing skills in creating web applications, software engineering, or data analysis. There is a wide variety of these programs across the country at different price points, including some that are nonresidential, part-time, and aimed at women .

Some scientific conferences also offer training opportunities. In a recent article for APS News, American Physical Society careers program manager Crystal Bailey notes : “Career and professional development events at APS meetings are an invaluable resource for students who may otherwise have difficulty learning about paths outside of what is (incorrectly) considered to be the ‘traditional’ academic route.” Universities also provide skills-based training outside traditional programs. For example, I attended training on resilience and critical conversations through Michigan State University’s Executive Leadership Academy (ELA) Seminar Series .

For some students, the mentorship picture can be bleak. Says Bailey: “Even though many well-intentioned mentors would like to prepare their students for eventual careers outside of academia, many do not have networks or experience to do so, especially for careers in the private sector.” But don’t let this deter you from seeking mentors. There are many resources for finding mentorship for a nonacademic career. The APS Forum on Graduate Student Affairs website offers examples of alternative career paths , as does the “Profiles in Versatility ” series from APS News. You can also use your university’s alumni listings, LinkedIn, or Versatile PhD. Slack, a messaging tool used by many companies and projects, has communities dedicated to a wide variety of career paths. As of May 2017, there were 1000 channels on Slack . Trellis , the new AAAS online platform, also offers forums where you can network, discuss skills and interest areas, and receive resources from fellow community members.

Yarmey leaves us with this reminder about the breadth of personalities with physics backgrounds: “If you are a broad thinker, a connector, a data person, a people person, you are still needed and valuable to the community!”

Stephanie Vasko is the managing director of the Center for Interdisciplinarity at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing. The opinions and views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the opinion, views, or policy of MSU, the Center for Interdisciplinarity at MSU, the MSU department of philosophy, or the university’s Toolbox Dialogue Initiative.