Choosing a Physics Career - Self Assessment
People who are skilled in physics are valuable in a wide variety of fields and may be capable of taking on numerous roles within those fields. Students who complete undergraduate degrees in physics can be hired immediately as engineers, software designers, educators, technical writers, and just about anything else that requires facility with numbers and scientific or technical concepts. Undergraduate physics majors are well positioned to enter professional schools to earn their law degree, an MBA, or a medical degree. Of course, an undergraduate degree in physics is also a prerequisite for pursuing a graduate degree in physics. And once you have received your graduate degree, your job opportunities just keep expanding. So how do you decide whether you would like to be a faculty member at a university, a writer for the New York Times science pages, a computer game designer for Electronic Arts, or a Wall Street quant? One time-tested way to get started is self-assessment.
Career counselors define self assessment as the process of discovering what kind of job you would most enjoy doing. As the name suggests, you can do a lot of self-assessment on your own. The Internet has a wealth of personality tests such as the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. However, online tools tend to provide a very general picture and may not give you enough information to pursue any particular career. A classic book on the subject of self-assessment (as well as many other valuable career planning techniques) is "What Color is Your Parachute?" by Richard N. Bolles. This book provides numerous exercises that can help you to narrow down the kinds of skills you most enjoy using and the environments in which you would most like to use these skills. And if you would like to hear about self-assessment from the perspective of a scientist, you may consider reading “Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists” by Peter Fiske and Aaron Louie.
Professional career counselors can also assist you in the process of self-assessment. Career counselors typically ask you to take a number of formal self-assessment tests, such as the Strong Interest Inventory, the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, and the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. Your counselor will then help you to interpret the tests and provide suggestions for how you can take the information from your self-assessment and apply it to your job search or career planning. If you are already an undergraduate or graduate student in physics, your school almost certainly has a career counselor on staff that you may be able to consult free of charge.
