Physicists: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Physicists conduct research into physical phenomena, develop theories on the basis of observation and experiments, and devise methods to apply physical laws and theories.

• Perform complex calculations as part of the analysis and evaluation of data, using computers.
• Direct testing and monitoring of contamination of radioactive equipment, and recording of personnel and plant area radiation exposure data.
• Describe and express observations and conclusions in mathematical terms.
• Analyze data from research conducted to detect and measure physical phenomena.

Featured Schools

Salary

Physicists with little to no experience tend to make between $59300 and $85090 while the more experienced ones can earn over $158350 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Physicist is to move to a higher paying state like OK. Right now, the highest paying states for Physicists are OK, MN, WI, MA and NM.

However, a higher pay at OK doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at OK might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Physicist is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Physicists what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Post-Doctoral Training followed by a PhD.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Physicist.

What is the job like

77% of Physicists said they were satisfied with their job and 79% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

---

Ferdinando Randisi

Source: Quora

To me being a physicist is pretty easy: you get in your office when you feel like, leave when you feel like, think about interesting problems with very smart and friendly people around you, and get paid for that. It’s a really lovely deal, at this point of my career. The job is intellectually challenging and you know that you are in a position to push forward the boundary of human knowledge.

However, BECOMING a physicist was much harder: I had to study a lot and took many stressful exams, but it was worth it as I was learning a lot about how the world works at a fundamental level, and now I have a basic understanding of everything I see around me.

If you want to know more about how a physicist looks at the world, you should totally read “surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman”, it’s an incredibly funny biography of one of the best physicists of the 20th century.

Read more

Show less

---

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally..

They also like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They like working with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery.

Explore other careers