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I have a Ph.D. in physics and now I'm a full stack web developer. :p While I would not recommend my path to anyone, for me it happened to work out. I am not cla

I have a Ph.D. in physics and now I'm a full stack web developer. :p While I would not recommend my path to anyone, for me it happened to work out. I am not claiming that it couldn't have worked out going a different route but I was really challenged throughout graduate school and it help me to realize some of my potential. I gained a good bit of confidence with regards to my ability to learning complex things, solving extremely tedious and difficult problems and generating my own interesting ideas. All that said, I think pretty poorly of physics academia now. In retrospect, it seems like a small, incestuous group of people consistently reminding themselves that they are the smartest people in the world and are working on only the most noble and difficult pursuits.

selimthegrim 13y ago
I dropped out of a PhD program in chemistry taking a masters and have been working as a full stack web developer and team lead. I've now been offered admission to a physics PhD program and am at a quandary - I have publishable research that would almost certainly get me a first author PRL (my presumptive co-author is one of the editors of PRB) but I don't even know if I want to throw away another 3-4 years of my life earning-potential wise.
- aaren 13y ago
  It depends what motivates you and where you want to be in 4 years. There are far easier ways to earn money in the long term than doing a PhD. A PhD gives you 4 years* of relative freedom to build yourself intellectually within some rough bounds (these bounds are dependent on your program and can be quite tight though). You also get to hang out on campus with other PhDs (ymmv!). But, you could get similar freedom with even less bounds by working and saving hard for the next 4 years and then doing what you want. It depends what motivates you. *depends where you are though. I'm UK.

selimthegrim 13y ago

I dropped out of a PhD program in chemistry taking a masters and have been working as a full stack web developer and team lead. I've now been offered admission to a physics PhD program and am at a quandary - I have publishable research that would almost certainly get me a first author PRL (my presumptive co-author is one of the editors of PRB) but I don't even know if I want to throw away another 3-4 years of my life earning-potential wise.

aaren 13y ago
It depends what motivates you and where you want to be in 4 years. There are far easier ways to earn money in the long term than doing a PhD. A PhD gives you 4 years* of relative freedom to build yourself intellectually within some rough bounds (these bounds are dependent on your program and can be quite tight though). You also get to hang out on campus with other PhDs (ymmv!). But, you could get similar freedom with even less bounds by working and saving hard for the next 4 years and then doing what you want. It depends what motivates you. *depends where you are though. I'm UK.