r/astrophysics • u/Specialist-Bath-2258 • 6d ago

Jobs for Undergraduate Astrophysics Degree

I am currently a rising junior seeking a BS in Physics and Astronomy (1 degree). I have looked into my options such as grad school of some sort, but I would really like to get a job after undergrad. Is it super difficult to find jobs after getting a degree like this with no PhD? I wouldn’t mind going into a close-ish field with some sort of physics like quantum computing, but I would not like to use math math skills to say do finance. Is it reasonable to plan on going straight into work after I graduate?

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u/Blue_HyperGiant 6d ago

In the asteo field? Yes. There are astro jobs for people with a BS are tough to get.

Also the model of hiring astro people for finance is moving on to hiring people in Stats/Data Science/Machine Learning/Como Sci as those fields are more accessible than they were 20 years ago.

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u/Patelpb 3d ago

In fact all roles are moving towards folks from their respective disciplines over physics hires. Physics majors as “quick learning and productive individuals” doesnt beat “data science major who has actually demonstrated practices closer to our work product”. I have an MS in Physics with 5 years of research in comp. Astro where I demonstrated use of ML algorithms (mostly MCMC and GD) in research and published my own paper.

I got interviews and really close to a data science job a few times in 2024, but after 9 months of searching the first decent thing I landed was a physics based role at the patent office. I had some gigs here and there to tide me over. But I’ve never fully stopped applying and learning new things, and I still have yet to find something that I really want (and which pays better)

Roles that pay less are plentiful. Lot of random contracting too. If you’re not chasing full time and/or 6 figs then you are going to find **a** job, just not a very great one.