As a 2nd year student studying engineering physics at one of the top Indian Universities (IIT Bombay), what are the various career prospects I have? What should I be focused on during these early years?

A2A "What are the various career prospects I have? " has covered most important areas. "What should I be focused on during these early years?" Just adding a few general things here. I think future opportunities should not be something which should change your passion. But if it is a mild interest and not a passion, I suggest you better pursue this question and try to develop a passion. has  mentioned nice resources to get more information and help you in this regard. If you pursue your passion, then whatever opportunity is there, you will succeed for sure. For better exposition, watch this awesome TEDx Talk: Just to add more weight to the side of Physics, since your question seems to talk about uncertainty in opportunities in Physics, I'd like to add that Engineering Physics has high number of successful PhD applications in past many years. And to answer why you should do it, I'll refer to an answer by one of my seniors: You can refer to other answers on that question as well. From my side, in a typical PhD case, if a University is ready to waive your tuition (say $25,000) and gives you stipend (say $25,000) then you have a "package" of 30 lacs/annum and what you do in return ? You do what you love the most and have been trained to do at IIT-B ! You get to roam around the world for conferences ! To summarize, have fun in whatever you do and learn a lot. Don't bother too much about opportunities; they will come if you are good at what you do, which will happen if you do what you love ! Find your love ! I'll end with some cool quotes I came across in Placement Season. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life !”   -Confucius (At a slide in Optiver PPT) "Taking a job only for money is like marrying a girl only for dowry" (You have to look for other qualities/aspects as well ;) ) - Prof. Avijit Ghosh, Professor in Charge, Placement Cell

I'm not sure if it's worth just broadly asking for career advice without giving many details about your likes and abilities. It might be better to talk to specific people in person There are lots of opportunities for EP students, including: Engineering Physics (obviously!). Talk to about this Pure physics (what seems to happen to many EP students). I suggest talking to , , or one of our many other seniors who are physics-enthu. For Astrophysics, catch hold of (or, again, any of the other seniors doing the same). Electronics: The IITB EP degree is with special focus on elec. This might help you get an elec job in the future, though might know more about this. Finance: A sizeable chunk seem to go into non-core things like finance. I don't know any of these personally, but it seems like an interesting field to get in to. I've heard that physics students are desirable in these fields due to our analytical thinking skills, but I can't verify this. The best thing to do is to gather information about the streams you're interested in, and make the decision yourself :)