Landing an industry job as a physics/math major

PhysicsWhy
Fri, 24 Jun 2016 01:00:50 +0000

Hi all,

As the title says, I’m a double major in physics and math trying to break my way into industry. To give a bit more background I’m a rising senior with 1 REU internship and 2 industry internships at prestigious aviation/aerospace firms. I go to a state school that’s pretty good at engineering and physics and I’ve got a 3.8 GPA, although it’ll probably drop once the results for this last semester are in. Although I’ve been fortunate enough to secure some good internships in the past, it didn’t come without many rejections and I feel like most companies in industry are not huge fans of my majors.

So now that hiring season is approaching, I’m not really sure where I stand; with majors that aren’t the most hire-able, but with a good amount of experience in the fields I want to go into (mostly aerospace or CS).
I know physics majors do tend to occasionally secure jobs in engineering, but I’ve heard that often those positions aren’t necessarily equivalent to engineering positions with the same advancement opportunities. To be honest I’m looking to secure a strictly engineering position at a prestigious firm (very preferably on the west coast to stay close to my family/home) and if that doesn’t work out, getting a master’s in engineering seems like a better choice than the alternative.

So my questions are do I stand a good chance to reach that goal or am I better off focusing on grad school and if I do stand a chance, how should I market myself to industry employers as someone who’s got the skills to take on a full time engineering position?

Your thoughts are appreciated.