Financial Planning 101 for Career Physicists

The December 2002 issue of Physics Today contained timely reexaminations, by Kenneth Hass (page 54) and Robert Laughlin (page 10), of the university's role in educating physicists for industrial positions. Students do need to be prepared to cope with several realities that they will encounter in nonacademic life.

First, industrial science is not a lifetime career. There is no tenure. Some older scientists will be able to find work in marketing or management in the industries they joined, but most will be eliminated in mid-career due to industry downsizing. They will need to find second careers, yet few employers are comfortable with entry-level workers in their fifties and fewer still pay new hires enough to send children to college or save for anticipated medical expenses. It is better to have a parallel career—or a potentially lucrative hobby—while employed. I recommend that young physicists learn about finance, politics, or real estate, and that they marry well.

A second reality is that institutions are dysfunctional. Every organization has, on one hand, people whose interests would best be served if the targeted problem is never actually solved and, on the other, rivals who want the credit for solving it, whether or not they contribute. Such types often control resources, influence decisions, and act to advance their interests. Scientists are typically rank-ordered in yearly reviews in which groups work to advance their careers and position others for outplacement. I recommend reading the "Dilbert" comic strip daily.

Third, science has incurred a catastrophic loss of prestige over the past 40 years. These days, scientists are perceived as just another self-absorbed interest group, less significant or effective than, for example, the Klamath Valley horseradish farmers. In a company, those who make the sales—not those who make the deliveries—get the rewards. I recommend that students be taught how to write proposals and sell programs as well as how to promote themselves and their scientific fields.

The values and traditions recounted by Laughlin—above all, truth-seeking—enabled the exploration of the universe and the harnessing of knowledge to benefit humanity. Those were remarkable 20th-century feats in which government, university, and industrial science played honorable roles. However, this is the 21st century. Wake up and smell the corruption!