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What is a typical day in the life of a Physicist?
Is there any tasks/quotas that have to be met by the end of the day? If you have any answers/advice for me, Anything is welcome. Thank you for your time and have a good day.
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4 answers
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Andrew’s Answer
It should be appreciated that a physicist is just another human being except he/she is engaging in work that is physics related.
All my degrees (BS, MS, and PhD) are in physics. Before my return to academia, in my two-decade tenure as physicist/geophysics (Principal Scientist) of Raytheon working on site at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, my typical day was just like anybody else. I devoted my day to performing pure and applied research with focused energy. On the other hand, any worker would have to be devoted to his/her work with focused energy and dedication to be successful.
Therefore, do not worry about the future life style if you are planning to be a physicist. You will live a normal life.
All my degrees (BS, MS, and PhD) are in physics. Before my return to academia, in my two-decade tenure as physicist/geophysics (Principal Scientist) of Raytheon working on site at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, my typical day was just like anybody else. I devoted my day to performing pure and applied research with focused energy. On the other hand, any worker would have to be devoted to his/her work with focused energy and dedication to be successful.
Therefore, do not worry about the future life style if you are planning to be a physicist. You will live a normal life.
I am really grateful you took the time to answer this question.
Brandon
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
This is a difficult one to give a single answer to, as there's lots of different areas where you'll find physicists working, and daily tasks will vary massively between different subfields of physics, different kinds of role (especially academic research vs industry physics), and even different people's preferred ways of working. In fact, for many physics roles, there's enough variety of work that it's hard to even decide what a "typical" day is - each day can be so different to the last one.
In terms of daily quotas, that's not really something we often deal with. In some physics roles, the goal is purely research output - beyond publishing a paper every so often, the exact tasks you do each day are largely up to you without anyone specifically tracking any sort of quota measurement. In other more operational physics roles, there are often various performance targets that you're expected to meet, but they're usually over longer timescales (eg months, a year) - and they're often not absolute requirements either. If there's a target that absolutely must be met, the deadline usually builds in masses of contingency time, and is really just there to say "this task is important - don't get too distracted by other projects". Otherwise, a lot of targets are more "we'd like you to try to achieve X by Y date, but we understand if it takes longer other more important things take priority". One of the other answers pointed out that a lot of physics work is more concerned with getting things right than done quickly - there are a few exceptions, but that's very much true in 99% of cases.
The exact tasks you'll be doing vary massively between roles, but I'll try to generally summarise them under a few categories below. Some roles might have much stronger focus on one area, others can be almost evenly split across them all, but the daily life of a physicist is likely to include tasks like:
1. Researching by reading prior work
2. Conducting practical measurements, experiments or tests in the lab or in the field to gather data
3. Data analysis, often using software tools (which might require some coding or scripting of your own)
4. Troubleshooting, diagnosing or concluding (often a lot of headscratching - either "why isn't X working as expected" or "what physics can explain these results")
5. Writing documentation - everything from scientific papers and test reports through to operational manuals, procedures and work instructions,
6. Presenting and explaining your work (including colleagues, managers, other departments in your organisation, the public, etc)
7. Peer reviewing and checking the work of your colleagues and others
8. Administration and project management tasks like budget planning, booking facilities, schedule planning etc
Take a look at the "what do you actually do at work" section on my own profile here: https://www.careervillage.org/users/95566/joseph/?selected_tab=about
Read the answers on https://www.careervillage.org/questions/492999/what-is-a-normal-day-at-work-for-a-research-scientist
For astrophysics, have a look at https://www.careervillage.org/questions/351770/what-is-an-average-weeks-workload-in-the-field-of-astronomy and https://www.careervillage.org/questions/301358/im-interested-in-learning-about-what-a-day-in-the-life-is-like-for-an-astrophysicist-so-far-i-have-learned-about-the-more-hardware-design-aspect-of-it-but-i-would-also-like-to-know-how-it-is-for-the-ones-that-mainly-focus-on-space-itself
In terms of daily quotas, that's not really something we often deal with. In some physics roles, the goal is purely research output - beyond publishing a paper every so often, the exact tasks you do each day are largely up to you without anyone specifically tracking any sort of quota measurement. In other more operational physics roles, there are often various performance targets that you're expected to meet, but they're usually over longer timescales (eg months, a year) - and they're often not absolute requirements either. If there's a target that absolutely must be met, the deadline usually builds in masses of contingency time, and is really just there to say "this task is important - don't get too distracted by other projects". Otherwise, a lot of targets are more "we'd like you to try to achieve X by Y date, but we understand if it takes longer other more important things take priority". One of the other answers pointed out that a lot of physics work is more concerned with getting things right than done quickly - there are a few exceptions, but that's very much true in 99% of cases.
The exact tasks you'll be doing vary massively between roles, but I'll try to generally summarise them under a few categories below. Some roles might have much stronger focus on one area, others can be almost evenly split across them all, but the daily life of a physicist is likely to include tasks like:
1. Researching by reading prior work
2. Conducting practical measurements, experiments or tests in the lab or in the field to gather data
3. Data analysis, often using software tools (which might require some coding or scripting of your own)
4. Troubleshooting, diagnosing or concluding (often a lot of headscratching - either "why isn't X working as expected" or "what physics can explain these results")
5. Writing documentation - everything from scientific papers and test reports through to operational manuals, procedures and work instructions,
6. Presenting and explaining your work (including colleagues, managers, other departments in your organisation, the public, etc)
7. Peer reviewing and checking the work of your colleagues and others
8. Administration and project management tasks like budget planning, booking facilities, schedule planning etc
Joseph recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Francis’s Answer
It really depends on where you work. Most places would rather have you be good than to be quick. Ounce you know your field you can join company's that goes by peace rate. Remember Union jobs think every one is the same and that your work doesn't matter as much as your seniority. I made sure I got a non -union job . I was so much faster than my co workers and came to work and worked not talk my phone . I was getting $2.00 a raise to most others only getting 50 cents.
Go to college or trade school.
You need to stay at one place for at least a year but more like 3 years if you want tomake real money.
Francis recommends the following next steps:
Thank you so much!
Brandon
I'm sure that's good advice for technical manual trades like welding, but I'm not convinced it's very applicable to the world of physics - nearly all physicists are salaried roles, and piece rate wouldn't really make sense in physics. I also don't really think union vs non-union is something to be concerned about in physics either, although maybe the situation is different your side of the Atlantic compared to over here in Europe.
I do agree there's lots to be said about being good at your work and getting recognised for it, although in physics that's usually a slow-burner more in terms of eventual promotions rather than incremental payrises.
Joseph Neilson
Updated
Tara T’s Answer
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PHYSICIST
Physicists handle everything related to matter and energy. They work on everything from exploring fundamental laws of nature to creating practical devices and tools. This means they must be committed to finishing college and then applying that dedication to their careers. Balancing college, career, and life is tough for them, just like it is for many professionals in science, medicine, and law. That's why they often refer to their projects or caseloads as their life's work.
They typically eat, sleep, and dream about their work. Being a physicist requires responsibility, determination, organization, focus, motivation, communication, listening, problem-solving, and lots of commitment. I hope this information is helpful. Good luck!
Best wishes, Tara
Physicists handle everything related to matter and energy. They work on everything from exploring fundamental laws of nature to creating practical devices and tools. This means they must be committed to finishing college and then applying that dedication to their careers. Balancing college, career, and life is tough for them, just like it is for many professionals in science, medicine, and law. That's why they often refer to their projects or caseloads as their life's work.
They typically eat, sleep, and dream about their work. Being a physicist requires responsibility, determination, organization, focus, motivation, communication, listening, problem-solving, and lots of commitment. I hope this information is helpful. Good luck!
Best wishes, Tara
Thank you so much for your answer, I appreciate it very much.
Brandon
You are welcome.
Tara T Cortez