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worried physics student,

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  • 06-09-2016 12:37pm
    #1
    Cowshaped789
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭


    I am about to go into second year science (maths, physics, chem) and if I complete the degree I will come out with a degree in either physics or chemistry. I enjoy the subjects (sometimes) but have become extremely anxious about job prospects afterwards. I entered the course because 1. I became more and more drawn to studying chem and physics as my leaving cert approached over my other subjects. 2. Hearing so many talks and advice of the abundance of jobs and opportunities available to science graduates. 3. Physics seemed to be a degree which was advertised as extremely broad, and my indecisiveness made me think a broad degree would be best suited to me.
    Now however, I am starting to believe this 'broad qualification' is more saying that those who don't make the cut for a PHD in physics have trouble finding work in their field, and are employed in other sectors 'despite' of their physics degree, rather than thanks to it. That, to work in industry I would have been better off doing engineering.
    My question is, should I drop out, reapply to engineering, or is a masters in engineering (probably electrical) open to physics grads and how long does it take, what are the job prospects like afterwards?
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Victoria.
    Registered Users Posts: 656 ✭✭✭Victoria.


    People that were in my year went 5 ways:

    - Teaching (getting a Hdip afterwards for secondary teaching)

    - PhD

    - Graduate courses ( a lot of grad med, biotech and business masters over in the Conway etc.)

    - Job in something totally unrelated

    - Entry level job in field - such as quality control in chemistry.


    It's difficult to say what you should do but you're by no means in too deep to make a break for it and go the engineering route. It's orientation week this week, head to ucd and talk to a few people before the madness of the semester starts next week and they'll be busier. They'll have more time for you this week. You need to see if you could change course to engineering, have your fears sorted out to stick with science or to take this year out and reapply for eng next year.


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    #3
    El Siglo
    Registered Users Posts: 3,803 ✭✭✭El Siglo


    Having a degree in physics or chemistry is incredibly beneficial and you'll cake walk into a number of postgrad courses and I'm sure a number of jobs as well. Also, you're going into second year, probably not the time to start thinking about jobs but I see where you're coming from. If you don't like the course and you're not doing well in it then fair enough, maybe reapplying to something else might be better. But if you like the course, might be worth sticking with it and getting a good degree and then see from there. In terms of jobs I would probably start thinking about courses that deal with data analytics, e.g., like this one, or biotechnology. There are endless options, keep an eye out on the graduate career fairs when they come to UCD or the RDS. ESB, AECOM, Deloitte etc... have recruitment drives for graduates, so see what they're looking for (check out their websites, contact them etc...). As Victoria has said it's difficult to say what you should do.


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