In today's fast changing and unpredictable global society, the key to a successful and rewarding career is flexibility, the ability to adjust one's career to technological and societal changes. Most of what is learned in a physics program is fundamental and enduring. The enduring values provide greater flexibility in choosing an initial career and in altering the direction of a career, one or more times. Many physicists are employed by educational institutions, industrial firms, government laboratories, or federally-funded research and development centers.
Applied research leads to the solution of problems of national importance or significant value.
Development and Design - Work in this area utilizes both basic and applied research to improve existing products, processes and instruments, and to develop new ones. Teaching - A number of physicists are employed in academic institutions, including high school, community college, college, and university levels. At the college and university levels, research and teaching are often combined, which allows for the greatest possible professional development of the teacher. Moreover, students there receive the greatest possible enrichment in physics through curriculum research. Management and Other Areas - Physicists can be found in a wide variety of areas such as research administration, university administration, science reporting, technical management, and marketing, and in such fields as engineering, communications, industry and manufacturing, medicine, health and radiation safety, environmental sciences, space and earth sciences, energy and resource management, mathematics, biology, chemistry, computer technology, financial services and a broad and continually expanding array of other possibilities.