Here's my story. I earned a BS in Physics and Mathematics in 2012. My grades were good and my academic advisers suggested I apply to PhD programs, however I kne

Here's my story. I earned a BS in Physics and Mathematics in 2012. My grades were good and my academic advisers suggested I apply to PhD programs, however I knew that a PhD wasn't for me. Instead I went into an MS in applied physics and got an internship at a laser and semicon equipment company that paid me more than the cost of my MS. The company was going through a cycle of poor business results while I was an intern there, so after graduation in 2013 things didn't work out and I left to find other work. I ended up as an applications engineer at a synthetic diamond company. When I started at the synthetic diamond company I had some really interesting projects to work on. In the 5 years since, the dynamics of the business have ended up with me in a product management / business development role, which is OK but I'm not especially passionate about it. Also, the compensation, skill development, and future prospects of my role leave a lot to be desired. Because of this I'm looking to make my next career move soon. I've spent a lot of time over the past year thinking about what my next move should be. In this time I've also become hooked on coding, mostly python. My current plan is to pivot into (you guessed it) data science. I expect that this will lead to better pay, vastly more potential employers, and allow me to get back to working on interesting projects. In hindsight, if I could do everything over I'm not sure I would go into physics. What I've seen is that physics is mostly a field of niches that are filled by specialists. To go far in physics you need to become a specialist, however this can really limit your options later. I think this is why many physicists eventually find themselves going into other fields like data-science.