Career Opportunities

Physics provides an excellent background for a wide variety of careers in science, and in science-related and technological fields. A survey of the department's graduates has yielded the following information. About half of those responding are in science-related industrial jobs; half of these had received advanced degrees (M.S. or, more commonly, Ph.D.) before or during employment. About one-third of the respondents are currently in graduate school or in academic positions following graduate school. One-tenth of those surveyed are in the medical professions, and another one-tenth are employed in other fields. Graduates are in a wide variety of professions. Some examples include a chemical engineer, a supervisor in charge of inspection techniques for nuclear power plants, a systems engineer in ship design, and a graduate student in oceanography. Several graduates are M.D.s or medical students.

Industrial research and development is an appealing career opportunity; for this goal a highly laboratory-oriented physics curriculum is recommended.  For teaching at the secondary school level one needs also to complete the education courses necessary for certification. These courses can easily be fitted into a Physics major's program, especially the General Track. (UMass has an education school and teaching practucum courses may be done as part of the General track.) For teaching at the community college level a master's degree is usually the minimum requirement; at the college or university level (and for many research jobs in government or industrial laboratories) a Ph.D. is required.

Many students take courses in other sciences, in mathematics, or in engineering, in addition to their physics curriculum, to strengthen their industrial marketability; or to prepare for graduate school in programs such as biophysics, meteorology, geophysics, oceanography, computer science, polymer science, etc. The Applied track is particularly useful in this regard.

The undergraduate program of a physics major is frequently taken by individuals planning to apply to medical or dental school (e.g., following the Applied track). Some medical professions, such as nuclear medicine and health physics, are directly related to physics. Physics can also be a reasonable preparation for law school. Patent law, for example, requires a technical background.

Few individuals with bachelor's or advanced degrees in physics are unemployed or seriously underemployed. A physics education provides a broad background of fundamental principles and develops skills in solving complex problems, enabling effective contribution in many kinds of traditional and novel activities.

Infomation on careers and job opportunities in physics may be found at the American Physical Society website, www.aps.org, under "careers and employment".  More information may be found at the American Institute of Physics, www.aip.org.