Hi all,

I'm currently an Honours Physics major from NUS. Let me share a little bit about majoring in Physics, and what do Physics majors end up doing.

First off, Physics degree, unlike engineering has less focus on one particular field or subject but rather place more emphasis a more comprehensive and in-depth study of the fundamental physics that has been around since Newton. The engineering subject that perhaps has the closest relation to Physics could be electrical engineering or material science engineering. Then again, the way a Physics major is trained differs much from the way of an engineer or computer scientist.

Although everybody is taught in different ways, the ultimate goal of the education is to teach you to be a competent person in this global economy and impart you with a strong problem solving skill. So what specifically is problem solving? For instance, we foresee the possible realization of a quantum computer, which is less prone to intrusion and has massive fast speed computational ability. However, there are some practical and theoretical constraints to which how we can build the computer today. This is where problem solving comes in, whether its in theory or application, Phycisists try to solve the problems by maybe, developing a better framework of theory in order to understand the issue better. That is part of research and development.

Today, like many other fields, Physicists adopt theoretical, computational and experimental method to solve problems or try to understand certain issue better. Some research such as astronomy, string theory and so on are still very remote from our daily lives. However, most of the research are at the frontier of science and technology, be it developing more efficient electronic chips or realization of invisible cloaking device, so on and so forth.

So, what do you learn as a Physics major? Tons of mathematics and physics theories, and some industrial knowledge in semiconductor if you choose to specialize in more applied fields. Unlike engineers, Physics majors are trained to solve problems from the most fundamental approach, by modeling the nature in mathematical terms. It starts by trying to understand the nature by describing them in mathematics, and then try to understand and solve the mathematics. If the problem is fully understood, you have achieved a lot in Physics!! There is actually a handful of very complete theories in Physics, most of what you learn at advanced levels are mostly theories to solve theories!

Although learning Physics is seemingly fun at elementary level, you do need to be very resilient and mathematically inclined. The physical picture of nature is always very simple and elegant, its just writing down the mathematics complicates the whole picture.

For career wise, undoubtedly Physics majors are less attractive in job market mainly because that they lack a specialization. However, the type of rigorous thinking process you go through really does help you to become a better decision maker. But at the same time, what led Physics major to study Physics sometimes also make them suffer because their love of subject blinded them from what other skills they need to pick up. I suggest that if you wish to study Physics, you must expose yourself more to business or other subjects because what you learn in Physics can hardly connect you with what's happening in this world.

With that being said, different people like different things. Personally I'm only interested in condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics. I never really want to learn general relativity, or string theory or so on. Its my personal preference. Although being a physics lover, I have taken many courses in economics and computer science.

In general, physics majors go into either of the three main industries; Education, Research , Finance. For education, its teaching or other administrative roles. Research wise, a bachelor degree can land you some entry job but 95% of the jobs require Master or PhD. There are some attributes of Physics majors that are sought after by financial companies but note that normally only if you are highly intelligent and top of your cohort. But i never believe in confining yourself to certain jobs just because you are a Physics majors.

1) Research engineer
2) Semiconductor engineer
3) Investment bank analyst
4) Quantitative finance analyst
5) Teacher
6) Researcher/Professor
7) Weather forecast scientist

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Added on September 11, 2011, 3:47 amI would like to clarify the concern with the difficulty of Quantum Physics, or Quantum Mechanics.

What is Quantum Mechanics?

You heard of F=ma right? Classical Mechanics describes what happens at macroscopic level, meaning big stuff. However when the size shrinks, the physical law appears to be different and thus follows a different framework called Quantum Mechanics. That is just how the nature works.

There are two distinct characteristics of Quantum Mechanics which I would like to point out when people talk about how difficult it is to "understand" quantum mechanics. I prefer to use the word "interpret" of quantum mechanics is difficult but understanding the framework is not impossible.

Part A)
Dynamics/Theoretical Framework/Mathematics

This part mainly has to do with the construction of the quantum mechanics theory. What are the ways you use to describe quantum mechanics? The language of Quantum Mechanics is linear algebra and everyone who has gone thru 4 years of physics can understand them fairly well. THis part is universally understood.

Part B)
Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

This part is about how people deduce the logic of Quantum Mechanics, why are things random in nature and who the act of measurement actually determines the outcome of measurement and so on so fort. This is still largely in debate and different people have different ways of viewing Quantum Mechanics.

Most of the people who have not learnt QM will be confused by the interpretation of QM, often thinking how the heck do people do research in QM. This is normal. We too are confused but there many interesting problems in QM you can solve or apply. We just put the interpretation part aside sometimes.

This post has been edited by songhan89: Sep 11 2011, 03:50 AM