/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15421658
What do you want to do your physics PhD in? It's a very broad field. With your plans I'd say you want to do something very applied and experimental (and if not then you're entirely off course).

I work in a physics field where optics/engineering knowledge is used on a daily basis. Most physicists are pretty bad at this, myself included, and you end up with some very retarded contraptions. So there's usually room for someone who actually knows best practice in groups focused on developing advanced setups. Very many such setups incorporate custom optics and electronics, and there's a lot of fun you can have with that skillset.

The flip side is that you'd have to be very careful about what you expect to get out of a physics PhD. Engineering/optics is employable by itself, and the physics PhD might not add too much value there. If you want to be in academia, you're very much shooting yourself in the foot by pursuing a PhD in a field that you don't have much formal training or background in. And physics research has a rather large amount of background. You'd be at serious risk of being basically an underpaid lab tech with little hope of figuring out physics projects of your own. Being pigeonholed into a role/skillset distinct from those around you is also pretty bad for developing skills, ideally you'd like to be surrounded by and learn from people around you with more experience rather than being designated as the one guy who should know how this works from day 1.

I'm a bit bad at articulating this, but I guess the gist of it is that a physics PhD might not make you a better engineer or much of a physicist, so tread carefully.

Incidentally, I think you might enjoy this book.