Career resources
We help you figure out where to get help online, in the local area, and beyond.
Job hunting during COVID-19
With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting almost all aspects of our lives, your job-hunting strategy will likely need some tweaking. To help you along, we're collecting some useful resources on going remote.
- How to Prepare for Video Interviews by Work It Daily on YouTube (2018)
- How Will COVID-19 Affect Your Job Search? by Primal Career on YouTube (2020)
- Job Search During the Coronavirus Outbreak by Self Made Millenial on YouTube (2020)
- Job Searching & COVID-19 by Austin Belcak on LinkedIn LIVE (2020)
- Coronavirus Job Search: How to Network Online for a Job by Self Made Millenial on YouTube (2020)
- Some interesting posts by Ask A Manager related to work during COVID-19
- Pandemic creates hurdles for academic job seekers by Christine Middleton in Physics Today (2020)
- 10 Tips for Video Interviews (COVID-19 Pandemic 2020) — pdf slide deck
- Bonus: How to defend a PhD remotely by Alyssa Frederick in Nature (2020)
Career Management at University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo provides many resources for students to learn about career management techniques, graduate/professional school preparation, work search methods and how to set meaningful and achievable goals, as well as providing support from the early stages of inspiration and discovery to the incubation and acceleration of commercial and social ventures, and linking PhD students with staff on campus who hold advanced degrees.
- Centre for Career Action
- Student Success Office
- Entrepreneurship
- Experiential Job Shadow Program
- GRADventure — professional development resources for graduate students
Entrepreneurship in Kitchener–Waterloo and Toronto
When it comes to the number of technology workers and the density of startups, Ontario is second only to Silicon Valley. The region provides many resources and mentorship for people who want to turn their idea into a company.
- The Accelerator Centre
- Communitech
- Creative Destruction LAB
- The Toronto–Waterloo Region Corridor
- Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence
- Velocity
Recruitment companies for physicists
- Tekna Search (recruiting for quantum computing and AI companies)
- QURECA (Quantum Resources & Careers)
Job boards for physicists
Web resources for physics careers
- Institute of Physics careers information and resources: includes career events, technical routes, career changes, undergraduate and postgraduate information.
- Who's hiring physics bachelors? (AIP) Lists employers in the USA who have recently hired at least one physics bachelor.
- Research University Alliance Faculty job search bootcamp resources
Articles & books on job searching for academics & researchers
- Walking Away from Academia When It Was Your Dream Job By L. Maren Wood in Beyond the Professoriate (2020)
- The road taken: Survey data show that PhD physicists find satisfaction in a wide range of careers, from academia to government to industry by Anne Marie Porter and Susan White in Physics Today (2019)
- Teaching physics for tomorrow: Equipping students to change the world By Crystal Bailey and Douglas Arion in Physics Today (2019)
- Physics at Boeing runs the gamut from lightning strikes to neuromorphic processors, with a dash of metamaterials: Physicists are uniquely qualified to solve problems that require an understanding of the bigger picture by David Kramer in Physics Today (2019)
- From physics to data science by Sarah Charley in Symmetry Magazine (2019)
- A physics master’s degree opens doors to myriad careers by Toni Feder in Physics Today (2019)
- So What Are You Going to Do With That Degree? Physics Majors Get That Question, Too By Beckie Supiano in The Chronicle of Higher Education (2018)
- Switching Fields: The Key to Success for Some Scientists By Suzanne Hagan in The Scientist (1990)
- Physicists with unusual careers By Marian S. Rothenberg in Physics Today (1970) — PDF
- Entrepreneurship for Physicists: A practical guide to move inventions from university to market By Davide Iannuzzi (IoP) (2017)
Research paper on careers for physicists
- Study on the career trajectories of people with a working experience at CERN by C. Bianchin et al. arXiv:1910.05116 [physics.ed-ph]
Talks on careers for physicists
- Career Trajectories — Where Physics Can Take You - YouTube playlist of talks and panels
- Careers in Quantum (CiQ2020) - YouTube playlist of conference talks
Webinars on careers for physicists
- A Mid Career Change No Problems, Only Opportunities by Alaina G. Levine, an award-winning entrepreneur, science journalist, STEM careers consultant, professional speaker and corporate comedian. See also Outstanding Presentations and Networking for Nerds: Create Your Dream Career by Levine.
- Transitioning Your Career Beyond Academia by Physics Today
- I'm About to Graduate – What on Earth Do I Do Now? by AIP Career Network and Physics Today
- Successfully Navigating the International Job Search by Physics Today