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Jobs that are science based?

How are scientific programming jobs compared to typical programming jobs?

  • I'm  pursuing a MS degree in Physics and wondering about my job prospects  after I graduate. For my master's thesis, I'm currently using C++ and  parallel programming to perform high performance computing. I know that  many physics grad's with solid skills in C++ end up in finance and I've  heard some also go into oil, atmosphere modeling, and other industries,  but I don't know much about that. I just know that C++ developers are in  demand and that for finance at least, they highly prefer those with PhD  degrees, or least those with a Master's I would like to know if physics/math/engineering grads struggle with  getting the science-based programming jobs in, for example oil, since  they have to compete with CS grads? Are these kinds of jobs any more lucrative than the entry-level jobs that CS grads get or more lucrative than data science jobs? If I like math more than data structures/algorithms, should I aim  for data science/statistician roles instead of these scientific  developer roles? Do these jobs use Matlab and numerical analysis algorithms (ex. QR,  LU factorization) alot? I highly prefer that instead of working on  things CS guys like doing, for example making mobile apps. I've also  worked in web development briefly before and did not like it. An example of a science-based programming position is this:https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/20699614

  • Answer:

    it is not a degree level thing it is if you know to think. although education and specialization is important. finance jobs look for sharp minds and preffer high grades, because it is easy to get a passing grade in university. and maskoneself as smart so they filter higher. finane also try to get people without expirience like fresh grad's to pay them less, give them little training and thats all, they take highest grades with lowest pay, it is their best shot. it is good to work where money is flowing in. ever because of investment is growing into some field or a company sold successfull projects to wealthy clients like drappa, nasa, boeing sold to government, or a company sold alot of items cheaply and it has milluons of clients. there is no such competition in jobs as you imagen, also all jobs are taken, every some times businessess expand and need workers they take the one thwy know and probably would it work just enough. the escition maker should know about you like introduce yourself, and leace contacts in hr. maybe something like this. thete is competition of communication on mind share who is more likable person. employers higher people wo they like to be neaer and they guess they could trust. maybe schedule a meeting with potencial manager or hr and talk to them in case they will need to grow so they will know you might be availabile. (excuse me for intended loose inaciricy) there is no math in programming no prooving no theorems no groups theory, no high level math, nothing. just usage of it and measuring. all already programmed because business dont have time to reinvent the wheel with bugs. you just put a matrice and ask for integral using a function. math is more a tool for undetstanding and evaluation, less for programming. eventually phds get more of these jobs. lucrative jobs are jobs with little managment on you and high paying answer on 4: i know one who does on the job: matrices in matlab like calculations,transformations,signal compressions,signal to noise. and writing C++ code for a device. refactoring the software. and plans experiments. every now and than internal clients come and ask for service. they tell they have an idea for experiment and they need help with implementation. she gets paid a low resercher wage in university. little more than to a non university staff teacher. popular things high tech programmers get paid 1.5, 2 times more, i think. i am not sure it is profitable to work as non university member at university at reasesrch. but there is kind of stability and low pressure work. it's not a dream job.

Shimon Doodkin at Quora Visit the source

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Thanks for the A2A.You're going to be in demand *because of* and not in spite of your non-CS background for this kind of role. Most CS graduates do not have deep numerical linear algebra ability, HPC experience, or much quantitative intuition. You're probably positioning yourself well, given your wheelhouse, to be competitive and get the kind of work you're likely to enjoy. Remember that a private sector career is iterative; don't beat yourself up if it takes a few jobs and a few years to get to something that really fits you like a glove. You're on the right track; don't worry too much!Regarding scientific programmer vs. data scientist roles: I'm a data scientist now, and I won't lie that I struggle with the statistics side of what's going on in the business. Statistics is a huge field, and many of my colleagues have spent their whole lives getting good at it (at the expense of many other competencies, like software engineering). I've ended up being basically a self-taught software engineer who has enough math and science chops to talk back to the statisticians. While I work hard to learn statistics whenever I have time to pour into it, the from-the-cradle statisticians will probably always be ahead of me. I think my employer finds this niche valuable, and I certainly have plenty to do. In all cases, I think data structures and algorithms are massively oversold as competencies. It's lovely stuff intellectually, but almost always, if there's a creative algorithm that can solve a problem, someone already open sourced a library that implements it. It's all the other cruft around the algorithm that consumes all the work. Whether you like statistics vs. physical reasoning is maybe a good way to decide whether to try for a data science vs. scientific programmer role. Software engineering chops give you a lot of leverage in either field.That said, you need to be ready to be ruthlessly practical and ready to learn new technology at the drop of a hat and/or patiently do the mundane work to keep crappy existing technology on the rails. You might get to use C++ and/or Matlab. You might not. Are you ready to learn Fortran when a project needs it? Python? An umpteenth obnoxious dialect of SQL? Something insulting like VBA? I've learned all of those. Having the savoir-faire to make it happen and the humility not to turn your nose up at a gross uninspiring mess is the difference, in my eyes, between people who successfully transition to the technical private sector from academic science and those who never seem to be able to.

Raman Shah

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