Career Poll 2: Matching Ambitions and Realities

[ZapperZ]

PLEASE READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE FIRST POST BEFORE MAKING YOUR SELECTION IN THIS POLLA few years ago, I did a career poll of people in this forum to see if they end up where they think they end up. I think the poll was a bit confusing, because I was trying to tackle too many things at once. I also think that the responders may not have read the poll carefully enough and a few people even contacted me after the fact to indicate that they made the wrong selection.

So I'm redoing the poll, and hopefully, we can get a more accurate sampling of this question. Here is the motivation for this poll: I want to see how accurately did you envisioned what you would be when you grow up.. In particular, how accurate was your ambition when you were still in pre-university matches with what you have as a career right now?

Please note that this poll is restricted to those who are not in school and/or have completed their education.

Here are the choices, and detailed explanation for each of the choices. Please read through ALL of them before you make make your choice in the poll.1. I am in the exact field and the exact specialization that I aimed for when I was in high school/pre-university.

You wanted to be an astronaut working with NASA, and you are now an astronaut working with NASA. You wanted to do research in String theory, and you are now employed to do research in String theory. In other words, you end up EXACTLY the way you envisioned.2. I am in the exact field, but different specialization.

You wanted to be a condensed matter theorist working in superconductivity, but you are now a condensed matter theorist working on magnetic materials. You want to be a civil engineer designing buildings, but you are now a civil engineer involved in urban planning.3. I am in the same area of study, but different field.

You wanted to be a civil engineer, but you are now a mechanical engineer, i.e. you are still an engineer, but different engineering field than you envisioned. You wanted to be a theorist in String theory, but you are now a theorist in nuclear physics, i.e. you are still a physicist and a theorist, but in a different field of physics. You wanted to be a theorist in high energy physics, you are now an experimentalist in atomic/molecular physics.4. I am in a different area, but related to it.

You wanted to be an engineer, but you are now in a management position of an engineering company. You wanted to be a physicist, but you are now an administrator in a physics department or laboratory.5. I am in a completely different area than I envisioned.

You wanted to be a physicist, you are now a Wall Street trader. You wanted to be a biologist, you are now a chef. If you are currently unemployed, please choose this option as well.6. I did not have an exact area and specialization in mind when I was at that age.

Thanks for participating. Please let me know if you have questions on this poll.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Please note that if you are still in school and pursuing your degree, you SHOULD NOT participate in this poll.

Zz.

 

[Kholdstare]

ZZ, I have a question here. Say I had an initial career goal, but somewhere down the line it changed significantly OR became more specific. In that case what should be considered as my target career goal?

 

[lisab]

I chose 7. I was naive at that age - I wanted to work in "science".

 

[ZapperZ]

ZZ, I have a question here. Say I had an initial career goal, but somewhere down the line it changed significantly OR became more specific. In that case what should be considered as my target career goal?

You should use your initial career goal for this comparison.

I want to know how many of us actually got to where we thought we want to be when we were that young and that naive. :)

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Also another note. If you chose 1. I am in the exact field and the exact specialization, I'd like to hear from you. You may either identify yourself here, or you may do it privately via PM (in which case, your identity will never be revealed).

I want to make sure you made the correct selection (previous poll had people choosing this erroneously) and to hear how you were able to accomplish your goal.

Thanks.

Zz.

 

[jtbell]

During my last year of high school, I was still undecided about my career field. The top two were chemistry and physics: I took two years of each in HS, plus freshman chem at a nearby college one summer. I was also interested in urban planning.

During my first year in college, because of the way their general curriculum was set up, it would have been awkward for me to take both freshman (calculus-based) physics and an upper-level chemistry course that year. So I took physics. Maxwell's Equations blew me away and I never went back to chemistry!

 

[Kholdstare]

Hmm. My goal was analog, board, circuit design. I ended up in digital, IC, mask layout design. So no. 2.

 

[turbo]

I thought chemical engineering would be a good fit, so I could stay in Maine and work in pulp and paper mills. I switched over to liberal arts, but after school I put in an application at the local pulp mill to work as a laborer in their wood-yard. I was invited to an interview with the technical director (why?) and was offered a job as a process chemist in the newest pulp mill in the state. I did that for 4 years, and transferred to the new paper mill as a machine tender (lead operator). Spent years and years consulting with the operators of pulp and paper mills, until fragrances (from flying in poorly-ventilated airplanes) forced me to find another job. I worked as an optician for a few years, and eventually wound up gathering, consigning, and auctioning (mostly) antique firearms, flags (Civil War was the big money) and other items. The last job was the most remunerative by far, but so far removed from my college studies... Life intervenes.

 

[Astronuc]

Also another note. If you chose 1. I am in the exact field and the exact specialization, I'd like to hear from you. You may either identify yourself here, or you may do it privately via PM (in which case, your identity will never be revealed).

I want to make sure you made the correct selection (previous poll had people choosing this erroneously) and to hear how you were able to accomplish your goal.

Thanks.

Zz.

Does this apply to those who responded to the last poll, which I did.

I'm kind of between 1 and 2. In that I'm more or less in the field and specialization I wanted to be, but not quite. I more or less determined the field and specialization by 6th grade, although I probably had the idea by the time I was in 5th grade, when I started learning about the elements and nuclear physics.

I had expected to major in physics (and perhaps math and chemistry) during university, but ended in nuclear engineering, which could be considered applied nuclear physics, or applied physics with some nuclear physics.

 

[EricVT]

Completely different from where I thought I would be when I was in high-school.

In high-school I thought I wanted to be a computer programmer or some sort of digital artist. That lasted all of one semester in college before I jumped ship to chemical engineering, and then to plain ole' physics.

Now I am a medical physicist working in radiation oncology and very happy that life did not turn out quite like I wanted

 

[Kholdstare]

Does this apply to those who responded to the last poll, which I did.

I'm kind of between 1 and 2. In that I'm more or less in the field and specialization I wanted to be, but not quite. I more or less determined the field and specialization by 6th grade, although I probably had the idea by the time I was in 5th grade, when I started learning about the elements and nuclear physics.

I had expected to major in physics (and perhaps math and chemistry) during university, but ended in nuclear engineering, which could be considered applied nuclear physics, or applied physics with some nuclear physics.

Um, Astro, so which one did you vote? Because, if you had voted 1 then I should also be in 1.

 

[ModusPwnd]

Before attending university I wanted to do research, or at least something engineering/technical/computer related. I didnt manage to get into any of that, so I choose "I am in a completely different area than I envisioned".

 

[ParticleGrl]

I've been interested in science since I was little, and always imagined I'd be doing scientific research for a living. After my phd in physics, I worked first as a bartender, then as a statistician at an insurance company and now I work for a consulting company specializing in data-mining/analytics. I chose "completely different area."

 

[2slowtogofast]

In HS wanted to be a Civil Eng. After 1 semester switched to Mech Eng. I am currently working as a Mech Engineer. So choice 3.

 

[Sankaku]

I wanted to understand everything about the entire universe. You could say that, after my degree, I did not end up where I envisioned myself at a younger age. However, I haven't participated in the poll because I chose to have a second go at being naive and idealistic...

 

[elkement]

I went for option 6. In high school I was not aware of the fact that there is specialization, not even that there is theoretical versus experimental physics.

I had believed naively that physics is the all encompassing discipline of natural sciences - including all kinds of engineering plus touching on mathematics and philosophy.

I am rather an engineer now, my correct job title is Consulting Engineer in Applied Physics (Yes, that's a legally valid version of my country's implementation of Professional Engineer).
Given the vague plans I had as a child I could still state I met my goals :-)

 

[Physics_UG]

I envisioned myself as a postdoc at my current stage in life working toward a professorship. In actuality I am an unemployed (recently fired) PhD dropout plagued with mental illness (depression/delusional thinking). I am trying to get disability right now.

:(

 

[ZapperZ]

Great response so far to this poll. Thanks everyone. Keep 'em coming.

I still would like to hear from people who chose Option 1

I am in the exact field and the exact specialization

So, please contact me, via PM if you wish, if you chose this option (other than Astro who already had explained himself).

Thanks again!

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Again, if you chose Option 1 "I am in the exact field and the exact specialization" from the list above, I would like to hear from you. So far, the couple of people who have contacted me appear to have selected the wrong option. So I need to make sure that if you did selection Option 1, you made the correct choice.

I also want to hear about how you managed to achieve your goal if you correctly selected Option 1.

Zz.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I am torn between Options 1 and 2. I entered grad school ~25 years ago intending to be an experimenter studying weak interactions. And today I am an experimenter studying weak interactions. But for 20 of those years, I was working on strong interactions. That's where I made my name in the field.

So which is it? Got an option 1.5?

 

[ZapperZ]

But what did you think you would do pre-university, when you were in high school?

That's the comparison that is involved here.

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

For those of you paying attention to the poll, you would have noticed that the number for Option 1 has been reduced by one. This is to correct a wrongly-cast selection.

Again, if you chose Option 1, or if you think you made a wrong selection, please contact me, via PM if you wish. I still haven't heard from 2 members who chose Option 1.

Thanks.

Zz.

 

[carlgrace]

I started undergrad in physics and CS, ended up in EE, so a bit of a change.

However, I'm one of the very few people I know who works on EXACTLY that same thing that I did my PhD on.

 

[ZapperZ]

However, I'm one of the very few people I know who works on EXACTLY that same thing that I did my PhD on.

Ah, that will be an option on an upcoming poll that I have planned! :)

Zz.

 

[ZapperZ]

Reminder that if you are already working (i.e. no longer in school), please take this poll. And if you are one of the two people who chose Option 1 and have not yet contacted me, I would appreciate it if you do so.

Thank you.

Zz.

 

[f95toli]

I picked alternative 1.

Not that I would have been able to tell you before I started university exactly what I wanted to do (one reason I chose engineering physics), but I have been lucky in that whenever I've had to make a choice I have been able to choose what I thought was the most interesting subject.
Moreover, I am still working in the field I decided to specialize in during my MSc, and the courses I picked for my 4th year taught me things I now use on a daily basis: low temperature physics, quantum devices, vacuum technologies, thin-film fab etc.

How I did it? Luck mostly. It all comes down to being at the right place at the right time and knowing the right people.

I enjoyed my thin-film course and the lecturer offered me chance to do my MSc project with him (working on superconducting detectors). This in turn lead to a PhD in the same group (d-wave effects in HTS junctions/SQUIDs). One of the researchers in the group I belonged to in Sweden was offered a job in the UK and left, and when I finshed my PhD he asked if I wanted to do a post-doc with him. I moved to London and worked as a post-doc for a few years (at the same place, but in collaboration with different UK universities) and in the end they were forced to hire me.

I am now a senior research scientist. 13 years and a few thousand helium transfers later., and I am still working in more or less exactly the same field as I did my MSc project in(although nowadays I mostly work with low-Tc devices, and mainly with high-frequency measurements). I still collaborate with the group where I did my PhD.

 

[ZapperZ]

Based on your response, I don't think you should have picked Option 1. This poll specifically is asking on whether, before you start college/university, you have a clear idea on what you wanted to do, and how close you end up with that goal. Based on what you stated, you didn't have a clear, specific idea on what you want to do, other than a general area of study that you wanted to go into.

Zz.

 

[PKDfan]

^I'm not participating in this poll, because I'm still in school. But I'm curious about something - if f95toli's response isn't an example of "Option 1", then what would be? I mean, I doubt any high schoolers (save a few prodigies, of course) are familiar enough with the details of a given field to decide on a specific specialization at that age, or to even be aware of what the different specializations are.

Unless, of course, I'm misunderstanding your use of the term "specialization". You gave the example of doing research in string theory for option 1, but then for option 2 you gave an example of two different sub-specialties within a given area (condensed matter). I admit to not knowing a lot about physics, aren't string theory and condensed matter both fairly broad areas? Or at least around the same level of "broadness" (if that makes any sense).

For example, if someone decided they wanted to do research in a certain area of string theory in high school, but ended up in a slightly different area of string theory, would they answer option 1 or 2?

 

[ZapperZ]

^I'm not participating in this poll, because I'm still in school. But I'm curious about something - if f95toli's response isn't an example of "Option 1", then what would be? I mean, I doubt any high schoolers (save a few prodigies, of course) are familiar enough with the details of a given field to decide on a specific specialization at that age, or to even be aware of what the different specializations are.

Unless, of course, I'm misunderstanding your use of the term "specialization". You gave the example of doing research in string theory for option 1, but then for option 2 you gave an example of two different sub-specialties within a given area (condensed matter). I admit to not knowing a lot about physics, aren't string theory and condensed matter both fairly broad areas? Or at least around the same level of "broadness" (if that makes any sense).

For example, if someone decided they wanted to do research in a certain area of string theory in high school, but ended up in a slightly different area of string theory, would they answer option 1 or 2?

Within condensed matter, there is a broad area of specialization. Someone could be specializing in superconductivity, another person in magnetism, another in superfluid/BE condensate, etc.. etc. So yes, I am asking for something VERY specific for Option 1, which to me is the most extreme case. And yes, it is hard for me to comprehend someone pre-college knowing THAT much about the field of physics to actually (i) know the exact specialization that he/she wants to go into and (ii) actually made it! I expect the phase space for this to occur is almost zero. That is why I would like to hear from those who actually chose Option 1 and to make sure this unusual event actually happened!

Most people, such as me, kinda know roughly that we want to go into physics, but really didn't have a clear idea of (i) what's out there and (ii) what we really want to be at that age. For many of us, this only becomes clearer when we were approaching the end of our undergraduate years, or even when we entered graduate school (me).

I have a reason for setting up this poll, and I'll clarify my intention when I have enough data and end this poll.

Zz.

 

[eri]

I picked option #1. Before starting college, I had envisioned myself in a job, probably affiliated with a college, and doing research in astronomy. I earned a PhD in physics and am currently an assistant professor of physics at a small university, doing research in astrophysics. I didn't have any particular specialty in mind when I started college (other than generic astronomy) and changed fields a few times in that area before settling on my current area(s) of research. But mostly still doing observational (and some computational) work, which is what I had imaged before starting college.

 

[ZapperZ]

Again, did you have a specialization in Astronomy that you had in mind before you started college? And is that the same specialization that you are in now?

I have a feeling that Option 1 isn't as clear as I thought I had written it. Remember, the emphasis is on exact field, exact specialization.

Zz.

 

[f95toli]

Then I missunderstood what option 1 meant. I doubt anyone could meet that criteria.

The exact field I am working in didn't even exist(!) before I started univeristy (the first experimental demonstrations were done in 1999), so I could obviously no have known back in 1995 that this is what I wanted so specialize in.

 

[ZapperZ]

Please contact me here, or via PM, if you would like your vote to change. I can modify the count. From what I understood, it looks like Option 2 or 3 might work for you.

And this applies to everyone else who took this poll. If you think that you selected the wrong option, please contact me. I will only change the poll count for a particular option upon your consent.

Zz.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

I started off in a related field of practice to what I studied (Electrical Engineering), and then I slowly drifted away (toward Control System Engineering) even though I still work for the same company all these years.

Also note that what we studied 25 and 30 years ago isn't really what we do today anyway. Computers were very different back then, as were the methods we used to design systems. We rely on computer modeling far more today than we did back then. We were much stronger on prototyping and measurement than we are today.

One last note: I did get to do many of the things I envisioned myself doing, but as an amateur, not as a professional. And that isn't always a bad thing either. I did get into aviation, but as a private pilot, not as a commercial pilot. I did get into RF design, but mostly as an amateur radio enthusiast, not as an electrical engineer.

Yes, I still have many of the same technical itches that I liked to scratch when I was in high school --but often enough I'll do those on my own instead of asking someone to pay me to do them. And honestly, it is more fun that way.