Supporting Early Career Physicists by Building Connections with Industry

By Crystal Bailey, Careers Program Manager, APS

Contrary to what many early career physicists (and their faculty mentors) may believe, the majority of physics graduates of all degree stages will find permanent careers in the private sector. According to the AIP Statistical Research Center (SRC) Focus reports on employment of physics graduates, 64% of the potentially permanent initial hires of PhDs are in the private sector1; the NSF Survey of Doctoral Recipients has put the total percentage of PhDs working in the private sector at between 40% and 55% over the past three decades.2 Even many of those graduates at the Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree levels, will go straight into the workforce after receiving their degrees; including over half participating in the private sector3,4.

Many physics students emerge from their degree programs with myriad technical and scientific training; however, we know that they often lack familiarity with basic workforce-relevant concepts (e.g. intellectual property, project management, and communicating to audience), as well as a robust non-academic network to help them discover new opportunities. In addition, while there are many well-intentioned faculty mentors who are interested in supporting their students’ future careers outside of academia; most do not have any private sector experience themselves, nor do they have many colleagues with industry experience. Thus to help bridge this gap, APS has been working with FIAP’s executive committee and the APS Industrial Fellow, on developing resources and experiences for early career physicists which are explicitly centered on careers in the private sector.

At every March Meeting since 2013, a special session has been held in which a panel of industry speakers speak about their careers and answer questions from the audience. In 2015, this event (called “Meet Your Future: Industrial Careers for Physicists”) attracted an estimated 280 undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs. This event continues to be one of the most popular events for early career physicists at the Meeting. FIAP also sponsored several new tables at the Graduate Student Lunch with the Experts at this year’s Meeting, and hosted a panel discussion with six technical entrepreneurs in conjunction with its regular Prize Session. 

APS has also supported an increased presence of industrial careers at Section and Division Meetings, such as the Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, which frequently holds career panels involving representatives from industry. In 2014, Paul Grant, winner of the APS Distinguished Lectureship on the Applications of Physics (DLAP), spoke about his lifelong career at IBM at four APS Section meetings last year. The current award recipient, James Wynne (also of IBM) has already made plans to speak at several APS Section Meetings beginning this fall. By encouraging more industrial speakers at APS Division and Section meetings, we are able to reach thousands more students than by focusing on the Annual Meetings alone. To learn more about the Distinguished Lectureship Award, or to nominate a colleague, please visit the Distinguished Lectureship Award page.

APS has created a number of resources on our Careers website explicitly targeting non- academic careers for physicists. Our Online Professional Guidebook provides information on how to successfully apply for jobs outside of academia, such as self-assessment and planning, building a network, resume writing, interviewing and negotiation, and more (Professional Guidebook). APS has also hosted a number of webinars focused on industrial careers, which are archived and freely available to physics students (Webinars Archive).

APS recognizes the need to more effectively disseminate information on the broad spectrum of career paths in physics to our membership, and that the industry-focused resources, programs, and experiences which APS and FIAP leadership have been building over the past several years have an important role to play in preparing our students for future success. We plan to continue supporting existing activities over the coming years, as well as expanding programs such as the already-successful APS Local Links, and promoting the Industry Mentoring for Physicists which is expected to launch in Fall 2015.

For more information about any of the activities described here, or other APS Careers programs, contact Crystal Bailey (bailey@aps.org).

1 AIP Statistical Research Center, Focus on Physics Doctorates Initial Employment, December 2014.
2 NSF Survey of Doctoral Recipients and Integrated Survey Data, 1971 – 2010.
3 AIP Statistical Research Center, Focus on Physics Bachelor’s Initial Employment, September 2012.
4 AIP Statistical Research Center, Focus on Physics and Astronomy Master’s Initial Employment, April 2011.

Opinions expressed represent the views of the individual authors and not the American Physical Society or authors’ employers.