r/Physics • u/RoundElephant5876 • 6d ago

employed physicist

Those of you who have completed research physics and are currently working, how is it, what exactly do you do, are you satisfied, do you work inside your country (and if yes, which one) or abroad, online, how difficult was it for you to get your current job?

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u/slopoSpeshalK 5d ago

Not sure if an UNemployed physicist has the right to chime in here but the job market has been quite tough of late. I graduated with a PhD in computational Quantum Physics, and I am trying to enter the job market in Quantum startups as a scientific software dev. I'm hoping to be the guy that has cleaner code than the physicists but knows more physics than the softwware devs, kind of working at that interface, but it has been quite tough to get past the CV sending stage. I know these roles exist but jobs are typically curated for one or the other. It seems to be a lot about who you know these days, getting a referal fro different people you met throughout your PhD.

In the mean-time I got hired for a part time job as an AI expert promt engineer. Basically you go through your PhD or research paper hisotry and try to generate the meanest most contrived cutting edge problems from your very specific neiche and hope that whatver AI company is funding your project has an LLM that never seen anything like it before and gets stumped. It can be a quick buck but I have found the industry to be very fast paced, and sometimes quite exploitative. Not to mention that you are selling your knowledge to the highest bidder, but I can't choose too much in this economy.

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u/Minovskyy Condensed matter physics 4d ago

I am trying to enter the job market in Quantum startups as a scientific software dev. I'm hoping to be the guy that has cleaner code than the physicists but knows more physics than the softwware devs

From watching this field for a few years, my impression is that you need to pick a lane. Many of these quantum start ups are big enough that they have dedicated teams doing specialized tasks, but small enough that most everyone still talks to most everyone else, so having a single SWE who can "bridge the communities" isn't really needed. They have teams of SWEs that can code better than you and teams of physicists who know quantum computing better than you. They don't need someone who's comparatively mediocre at both. These companies are well beyond the "handful of guys in a garage" phase.

Unless you're at the managerial level, merely being a "translator" isn't going to be a marketable skill to them. Sell yourself as the best SWE as you can, with your physics background as more of an added bonus rather than your core selling point. If they're hiring for a SWE, they want a SWE, not a physicist who can sort of code better than other physicists.

Another option to consider is going the quantum route, with a focus on quantum algorithms, error correction, etc. Hiring managers for a few companies have told me that they don't necessarily require a full PhD specialized in this area, but a quantum-something PhD with self taught quantum programming skills is often still good enough.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Cry-909 4d ago

the need to be disrespectful like that is crazy ...