Crystal Bailey

In 2012, an Early Career Task Force was established as a part of the APS Strategic Plan, to examine how APS could serve physicists more effectively in the early stages of their careers. One of the recommendations of this group was to offer career and professional development activities at APS annual meetings — particularly ones aimed at increasing awareness of industrial careers among students.

At the APS March Meeting 2014, APS and FIAP teamed up to do just that by offering an increased presence of FIAP members at the popular “Graduate Student Lunch with the Experts” on Tuesday of the meeting, as well as an extremely well-attended Industrial Outreach session, in which John Rumble, Crystal Bailey, and Barbara Jones spoke to students about the employment outlook and the nature of careers in the private sector on Wednesday. Specific topics covered during the 90-minute session included employment and salary information about private sector careers, how to successfully find and apply to careers in industry, and how fundamental physics research is involved in device and product design. Over 280 students and postdocs were in attendance, and though an hour was allowed for open Q&A, many students continued discussion with industrial physicists attending the event afterward, in the hallway outside the meeting room.

This year’s March Meeting also saw the launch of the inaugural Denver Area APS Local Links on Wednesday evening. APS Local Links are locally based, informal networking groups designed to develop mutually beneficial links between industry professionals, early career physicists, and faculty in a given area. Of the 50 attendees at the inaugural Denver Local Links Meeting, roughly 10 of them were from local industries. APS has continued to develop the Local Links program, and currently has five Local Links groups active around the country, each of which include industrial representation on its planning committee to ensure that the groups’ activities benefit representatives from local companies. We hope to see the level of involvement of industry in the Local Links to continue to increase. For more information, please visit the APS Local Links web page.

In addition to these activities, APS also offered a Career Workshop with celebrated science career coach Peter Fiske, who gave detailed advice on career planning and self-assessment, network building, writing a compelling resume, and finally on interviewing and negotiation. APS also hosted its annual Job Expo at the meeting, offering free job posting packages to all registered exhibitors. APS also offered a special series of events for undergraduate students, including a graduate school fair, a resume writing workshop, and special undergraduate research talks.

Plans for the 2015 Meeting include offering the Career Workshop, Job Expo, and networking opportunities for students—as well as another Industrial Outreach session similar to the one hosted last year. APS and FIAP will work together to coordinate early career physicists’ events with the planned Industry Day activities, and to widely advertise these events to APS members and to all early career physicists attending the meeting.

APS is aware that the majority of physics graduates of all degree paths will find rewarding, well-paying employment in the private sector. Therefore, informing students about career options outside of academia — and doing so early on in their undergraduate or graduate education — is essential. We look forward to continuing to partner with FIAP to help increase awareness of the incredible breadth of career options available to physics graduates at APS meetings.

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Opinions expressed represent the views of the individual authors and not the American Physical Society or authors’ employers.