Thursday 29 September 2016

Rough-as-guts first pass at notes from ACSME discipline day

General comments
Should we regard physics as the “liberal arts”of science? Would that help or hinder our students’s employability?


Who Employs your physics graduates?

Existing surveys:
Australian graduate destination survey; incomplete, self-selection bias
UK IoP survey- excellent, very complete.
University Alumni associations, particularly Go8
Need to use Networking
ADFA@UNSW knows where all their graduates go b/c military. (Most ADFA go into engineering.)
Safety
Sensing/Sensor networks
Big Data
Marketing (Loreal example-numbers specialist on marketing team)
Scientific instrument sales
Consulting
Business Analyst in local government
UNSW open day pamphlet- “Our graduates get jobs in the following industries….”
Animation/game design
Big Data (e.g. traffic analysis)

2008 UQ Graduate destination survey
Complete cohorts more useful than all cohorts
Use linkedIn/social media to stalk
BoM/ABS, Teaching


What do you tell parents at open Day?

“I’m not aware of any unemployed graduates in physics. Blinkers may apply”

Would you ‘Let”your children do physics?


Anything modelling- especuially ability to switch between different models e.g. at different elngthscales.
Knowing that there may be more than one contributing factor- so not thinking the problem will be solved by just one thing.


Doomsday scenario- you’re sacked. How get a job?

Do a gred cert in editingà publishing job

Management consulting X2 (BCG)

Go off-grid and live on savings

Train Driver

Safety (Radiation, Laser)
 Start a business in the secondary school sector (particularly regional) consulting/ontracting to schools, e.g. professional development, motivation. (X3)


Write textbooks (although poor royalties)
Write worksheets (Teachers Pay Teachers)
Create web presence: Physics Girl, Venitsium

Masters of Actuaryship

Secondary school teaching X2
TAFE teaching


Editing/rewriting thesis/research articles


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David Hoxley
Lecturer
Department of Chemistry and Physics
La Trobe University