Possible to become a physicist these days?

[Corpuscule]

What do you consider unskilled labor? What category do the giant boatload of physicists that have gone into Finance/Data Science/Consulting/Insurance fall under?

By unskilled labour I mean jobs that require very little training, i.e. waiters, shop assistants etc.

I know a lot of physicists who transitioned to Programming/Finance/Engineering, but they all either made a transition a few years ago or (in case of recent transitions) had some corporate experience before starting a PhD.

I understand that there are Physics PhDs without corporate experience who manage to get good non-academic jobs these days, but I personally don't know such people. I guess my sample it too limited.

 

[jesse73]

By unskilled labour I mean jobs that require very little training, i.e. waiters, shop assistants etc.

I know a lot of physicists who transitioned to Programming/Finance/Engineering, but they all either made a transition a few years ago or (in case of recent transitions) had some corporate experience before starting a PhD.

I understand that there are Physics PhDs without corporate experience who manage to get good non-academic jobs these days, but I personally don't know such people. I guess my sample it too limited.

Unless they immediately got those jobs without needing to retrain themselves what they did is better described as "retooling" yourself. If you take a year after graduating or even before graduating to learn a different set of skills than those used directly in your research than what you are doing is "retooling" yourself. Anyone can retool themselves to do better in the job market.

Same goes for getting a masters in engineering.

 

[atyy]

Not in physics, but in biology, an example is Douglas Prasher.

In other times there are stories like those of Schwarzschild and Gentzen. In an interview, Jocelyn Bell said that Rosalyn Yalow taught high school because she couldn't get a faculty position. (Edit: a quick search indicates my memory may be faulty about Yalow.)

Yes, my memory about Yalow was wrong in all details. The right information I meant to refer to is given by Dresselhaus in an interview with Jenni Murray of the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012bp6b (10:00 - 13:00).

 

[HPagelsfan]

The great inequality

In the end, work is nothing but a trade off - trading a little infinitesimal piece of your time for an infinitesimal bit of money - sum up all the intervals of time, it becomes years, decades of your life. sum up all the money you earned, and in the end it becomes a number not too far away from zero!

So my advice - Study physics because you love it. Most companies love people who are trained thinkers and know how to break down a problem & solve it (whatever it may be). If your money making gig happens to be something different, so be it.