Explore career options
School of Science
Physics
Your careers team
Careers Network is here to support you by providing information, advice, guidance, events and opportunities to enable you to secure placements, work experience, self-employment and graduate careers.
Working closely with your academic school, our team of experts ensures that every student has access to careers advice. As well as large careers fairs, we hold sector-specific events, involving employers and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ alumni, to help you make valuable connections and secure high-quality placements and graduate roles.
To find out more about what we do and how we can support you, visit Meet the teams.
Details of the Placements Officers for your school can be found here.
We look forward to supporting you throughout your º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ journey.
Key skills developed during your degree
- problem-solving skills and a pragmatic and analytical approach
- reasoning skills and the capacity to construct logical arguments and grasp complex problems
- research and data analysis
- numeracy skills, helpful for finding solutions to scientific problems mathematical modelling and interpreting and presenting graphs
- practical skills, such as using technical equipment
- the ability to communicate complex ideas and use technical language correctly, discussing ideas and taking on other viewpoints
- teamworkingand project management skills
- Practical skills – such as planning, experimenting and reporting, using technical equipment and paying attention to detail
- effective time management and organisational skills
- competence at using specialist software packages and some programming
Career options
Jobs directly related to your degree:
- Academic researcher
- Acoustic consultant
- Astronomer
- Clinical scientist, medical physics
- Geophysicist
- Higher education lecturer
- Metallurgist
- Meteorologist
- Nanotechnologist
- Radiation protection practitioner
- Research scientist (physical sciences)
- Secondary school teacher
- Sound engineer
- Technical author
Jobs where your degree would be useful include:
Further study
Further study at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ:
º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ’s Physics department is research intensive, actively engaged with industry, and advances knowledge across the breadth of the physical sciences; comprising an international community of respected academic staff and students from around the world. Their research-focused postgraduate programmes combine taught modules with the opportunity to develop research skills and work on an extensive supervised research project alongside experts in the field.
For more information please visit the Department of Physics Postgraduate study page
Further study elsewhere:
Where do graduates go?
What do º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Physics graduates do?
Graduates from this subject area have gone on to destinations where:
Employers included:
NHS, Acturis, Dorset Software, Triumph, Bombardier, Atos, PWC, Jacobs Engineering, Royal Navy, MBDA, Dstl, Microsoft, SportCast, Olympus Technologies, Rolls Royce, Tesco, Science and Technology Facilities council, Catapult, IAG Technology, Home Office
Roles Included:
Game Developer, Data Analyst, Academic Researcher, Accounts Assistant, Pensions Officer, Police Officer, Air Traffic Management Consultant, Civil Project Engineer, Graduate Software Engineer, Management Trainee, Safety Specialist, Investment Analyst, HR Assistant, Quality Inspector, Laser Scientist, Sport Trading Analyst, PhD Student, Venture Development Analyst, Quantitative Analyst.
Further study destinations included:
º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, Cardiff University, Strathclyde University.
Further Information:
For more information on companies graduates work for, industry links and career opportunities, visit the subject area page of the University website. You can also find out what our students say in our student stories of personal journeys through and beyond º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ and track the career journeys and º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ experiences of some of our alumni.
Resources to research career areas
- What can I do with my degree in Physics? Prospects
- Physics World
- IOP.org
- IOP, your future with Physics
- IOP, the career paths of Physics graduates
- The Science Council - Working towards becoming a Registered Scientist
- Operational Research Society - explore careers in Operational Research, analytics, and data science
- Get into Teaching
Resources to find work experience, placements and graduate jobs
Students have the option of taking a year-long placement in industry which provides an invaluable opportunity to develop their professional and technical skills further. You will receive talks in your department and one-to-one appointments to help you with the recruitment process for this.
Additionally, we advertise many opportunities for summer internships and encourage students to gain experience valuable in the workplace through extra-curricular activities such as volunteering, committee memberships, work-shadowing and part-time work.
Find a selection of useful job sites below.
- Target Connect - Our website for vacancies and opportunities and internally through your department.
- TalentMatch – º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ’s own internship programme.
- LinkedIn Jobs
- EDT Year In Industry – This organisation can help match you to industrial placements. It's free to use for our students.
- Gradcracker - Search for internships, placements and graduate opportunities. Search under Science, then Physics
- TargetJobs - Browse opportunities, career sectors, internships and careers advice.
- Prospects - Search for graduate jobs.
- Bright Network - Search for graduate jobs, internships and placements.
- Handshake – Grad jobs and internships
- Milkround – Grad jobs and work experience
- RateMyPlacement – For placements and internships
- Student Circus - For international students - Pre-filtered jobs with UK employers who sponsor a Skilled Worker visa
- STEM Graduates - Search for STEM specific graduate jobs.
- Adzuna
- CareerJet
- Jobs.ac.uk
- Jobted
- TotalJobs
- Reed
Industry specific websites:
- Bright Recruits Graduate Jobs - from Physics World Jobs
- Targetjobs filter by ‘Physics’
- Work Circle - search ‘graduate physics’
- CERN Courier Jobs
- New Scientist – jobs by discipline
- Earthworks Jobs – jobs and PhDs worldwide
- Science Careers
- Space Careers - jobs board
- Access Group – near º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ campus - business management software
- Harwell Science and Innovation Campus jobs
- CWJobs
- Cyber Security Jobs
- CyberSecurityJobsite
- ITJobsWatch
- Technojobs
- Game Developer
- Gamesindustry.biz
- Grads in Games Jobs
- TIGA
There are many specialist recruitment agencies, some of which are listed below:
- Agency Central – for searching agencies by discipline
- Matchtech – STEM recruitment agency
- Jobs in Science
- Graduate Recruitment Bureau
- ECM Selection – high tech recruitment agency
- SRG – recruitment agency for science jobs
- Carbon 60
- N2 Talent - Jobs board
- In Game Recruitment
- Aardvark Swift
You can find information on using recruitment agencies on the Prospects website here.
Professional bodies, sector and labour market information (LMI)
Professional bodies:
- The Institute of Physics
- Operational Research Society - explore careers in Operational Research, analytics, and data science
Sector and labour market information: