“Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome”
Those of you with a connection to the United States Marine Corps will recognize the above words as one of their favorite mantras. A recent visit to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton started me thinking about those words and how they are an excellent slogan for physicists as well, especially those in industry (which is the majority). The great strength of an education in physics is its flexibility. As is often trumpeted in discussions of physics career prospects, physics department recruiting materials, etc., “Physical scientists can do anything.” However, the potential to do anything, the ability to convince others of that fact, and following through are all separate matters. Let us look at each in turn:
Why a Physicist Can Do Anything
One could argue that a lot of people can “do anything.” What makes physicists and other physical scientists special? I claim that it comes down to three qualities:
- High Intelligence – People know how hard it is to get a bachelor’s degree, let alone an advanced degree, in physics or its related hard sciences. Therefore, membership in the physics “club” is often taken as a marker of high intelligence. More on the limitations of that assumption a little later.
- Fundamental Rigor – Physics is about discovering the fundamental nature of things. Our training emphasizes the understanding of every aspect of a problem down to its roots. That eagerness to go beyond the superficial is not especially common and is key to tackling novel problems.
- Problem Solving – Most of what physicists do, whether in the lab, on the computer, or doing their homework, is solving complex problems. There is a lot of improvisation, adaptation, and overcoming involved. Importantly, a core part of a PhD program in the physical sciences is “original research,” which is code for defining and addressing a brand new problem. Most people spend their educations learning to solve defined problems, not venturing into the unknown.
This combination of core abilities and attitudes is an excellent foundation for a long and prosperous career, even if you decide to stray far from technical work. Just look at what Angela Merkel has done with her doctorate in physical chemistry. While training as a physical scientist puts you in a strong strategic career position, it can leave you with some tactical challenges.
Pitfalls to Avoid When Marketing Your Flexibility
The ability to do anything in principle is one thing, and the ability to accomplish something in practice is another. When you go looking for a job in industry, the people you are trying to persuade to hire you will be thinking a lot about practice. Their main goal is to divine whether you will be an asset or a liability in the business they run. How could someone with the wonderful qualities listed above be a liability?
- Technical Intelligence without Emotional Intelligence – Strong technical skills, even superlative ones, will often not outweigh serious issues working with other individuals or on teams. Since there are lots of negative stereotypes about the social abilities of scientist in general and physicist in particular (e.g. The Big Bang Theory), it is always best to address this head on. Be sure you are personable during interviews, both on the phone and in person. Mock interviews can help if you have doubts in this regard. Also, you should have a handful of short anecdotes you can tell on interviews about how you successfully worked in a team to achieve some goal, resolved an interpersonal dispute, etc. If you are comfortable with your extemporaneous speaking skills, then just identifying appropriate examples in advance may be enough. Otherwise, you might find it useful to write brief synopses and memorize them.
- Excessive Perfectionism – The dark side of fundamental rigor is the tendency to get lost in the forest while studying the trees. Virtually no business can afford to wait for perfect solutions. Instead, the typical aim is to create solutions that are sufficiently good to solve the problem. It is important to convey that you understand this to allay fears on the part of potential employers that you might study their problems indefinitely without converging on anything useful. Again, it is wise to have a story or two to tell about times you stopped working on interesting tangents because they were leading you too far away from your core project.
- Short Term Liability – Your long-term strategic strengths cannot come at the price of significant short-term liability, or you will be an unattractive hire. For example, it may be difficult for a physicist to compete with computer scientists or other specialists for programming jobs that require a very specific set of skills and the ability to make an immediate contribution. The abilities of the typical physical scientist match up better to tackling more ambiguous problems on longer time scales. Consider this when deciding which opportunities to pursue.
Becoming a Doer of Deeds
Once you foot is in the door at any organization, it is time to get stuff done. In business, like the Marine Corps, it is results that count. It is important to relinquish your preconceived ideas and focus on what needs doing, especially when the inevitable obstacles arise. The project I was hired to work on at my current company was an excellent fit to my technical skills and experience in particle accelerators. It was also cancelled a couple of months after I started. The end of my project could have meant the end of me at that company if I had taken a ridge view of my role and abilities. Instead, I adapted to a new role in plasma diagnostics and improvised where necessary to get the job done. I overcame that episode of career drama so well that I later received a major company award for my diagnostic work. Other physical scientists I know have much more extreme stories of transitioning to law, management consulting, sales, banking, etc. Every one of them succeeded by leveraging their training and harnessing their will to do extraordinary things.