changing degree from physics to computer science

**oksana** · 07-30-2009 12:50 PM

Hi everyone!
My husband wants to change his specialty from physics (he got his Ph.D.) to computer science .
We actually want to move to Canada, any suggestions the way he should do it? He things about system administrator. Do you think it is the right choice?

Thanks,

**Kizmet** · 07-30-2009 01:52 PM

Hi Oksana - There are a couple of things that are not clear to me. Maybe you could fill in the blanks. Does he want to shift careers because his interests have shifted or is he doing this strictly for employment purposes?
My guess is that he knows quite a bit about computers, networks, etc. or else he wouldn't even be thinking about it. Could that be true?

This sets up four possibilities

loves computers, knows a lot
loves computers, knows not so much
needs a job, knows computers
needs a job, knows not so much

In some of these scenarios he may not need to do much at all (1&3)
In the other scenarios he may need some additional qualification.

Possibly a post grad diploma or certification would help him to bridge the gap.
Members! Do we know about any such animals?

**Bill Huffman** · 07-30-2009 02:10 PM

I had a friend that had his PhD in physics and was working with a bunch of us geeky computer engineers . He fit in very well and enjoyed his computer work. He specialized in performance analysis.

Here's one of the thought experiments that we worked on while chatting and drinking our morning coffee. (This was goofing off, not work.) You throw a ball off of a cliff and the mass of the ball as well as the kinetic energy gets transferred with 100% efficiency into electricity and then the electricity is transferred back to the top of the cliff and with 100% efficiency is changed back into a ball. We know the laws of conservation of matter/energy. The ball should remain the same size, it can't get bigger at the end. The kinetic energy at the bottom should be exactly equal to the potential energy of the fall when the ball is at the top of the cliff. What happened to the kinetic energy when it was in the form of electricty as it was transferred back up to the top of the cliff so that the ball was the same size at the end of this experiment as it was at the beginning? How about the same question only instead of electricity, the energy is transferred back to the top of the cliff using a solid spinning rod? How about a laser beam. etc.

**paradox** · 08-05-2009 03:06 PM

Systems administration is a trade skill. That's not to say it isn't challenging or profitable. It's just not something that's taught in schools. You rarely learn about backup strategies, firewall theory, or network security in school. When it's taught, it's usually bad. Furthermore, degrees are meaningless. He's already got a PhD. It's in a technical field. Any organization that wants someone with a degree will probably be happy (and even impressed) with his degree. Physics is a catch all field anyway (a little bit of math/statistics, chemistry, electronics , programming ). Heck, physics majors do it all.

Systems administration is a trade skill. It's not really taught in school. I've seen production SAs at the highest level with minimal degrees. While some have advanced training, few have any CS training beyond a BS. Additionally, most MS programs (and graduate research) is focused on programming . Networking research tends to be focused on implementing protocols. Architecture research is geared towards benchmarking and design . Learning the best practices of dealing with high-end production environments is rarely researched at the college level. Getting a couple of the higher end certs like Cisco certification or a CISSP might be helpful. There's nothing wrong with a MS in CS, just don't expect it to get you in the door as an SA. If you play your cards right, it will get you a job in software development. However, like I said, you really don't need the paper.

Avoid desktop support like the plague. Don't take any help desk, desktop support engineer , or network grunt (running cable) type job. If you've got little experience, you want to find work administrating a firewall or doing backups. You want to be in the line of being a production SA. There are many reasons for this. First, help desk jobs suck. You get no respect and are highly replaceable. Secondly, a help desk guy who rambles on about QFT would just scare EVERYBODY. Third, production SAs are collegual (like software developers), you'll enjoy the pace and the work much more.

You may wish to consider a job in acadmic IT. You're degree will carry more weight there. Who do you think some department chair, lab director (etc) would want to administrate their supercomputer? With a PhD you'll be treated as an equal. Heck, you might even get pushed into management. The work will be more stimulating. Astronomers, computational biologists, and supercomputing research would be my first stops.

Have you considered a MS in computational biology? You might actually use some of that physics. Plus, once again the degree is a help, not a hinderance. Once again, if you can work with large scale computing, you could leverage that with into the real world.

Try being a DBA. DBAs come in 2 flavors. They are either application DBAs or system DBAs. They get paid well. Anything above report generation is a good career move. You won't have to worry about being stuck in help desk land.

Have you tried just getting a job at Oracle, Microsoft, or Cisco? They like to hire smart but untrained people. They will often send you to training and after a few years you've got a highly marketable resume. Additionally, they may even sponsor you at grad school or let you do research. Use the PhD to your advantage.

Have you thought about programming . Once again, a PhD is more respected in that area. You might even be able to get a job without the CS education . A MS in CS will be of a lot more use in that field.

If you must go to grad school for CS, try to find a program that will let you do research with supercomputing or network security. Heck, network security is rife with academics who couldn't hack their way out of a paper bag. Degrees are valued in large corporations and a PhD in Physics will be impressive. Any other field of study really won't help you get your foot in the door. I'm sure there are exceptions, but research in compiler design , kernel hacking, software engineering methodologies, and other related areas are of little interest to a SA. They are of interest to programmers.

Lastly, SA work is tradecraft. You won't learn about practical networking , security, and best practices in school. As an experiment, try to find a good solid book on firewalls. I'm not talking about a esoteric chapter from a graduate networking text. I'm not talking about a vendor specific manual. O'Reilly's book is the best and it's lacking. Try to find a book that really dives into networking past the point of demarcation. You've got heavy theoretical books like Tannenbaum's. You've got professional books that are geared towards certs. What kind of texts would you give to a network engineer . There is a reason good SAs make a lot of money. To get to a certain level, you've got to acquire the knowlege yourself. You can't learn it in school. You can learn about design patterns, agile methodologies, and requirements gathering in school. You won't learn about SANs and HA production environments.

I hope I don't sound like a downer. If you really find the work interesting you should do well. Just remember systems administration is very hands on. Use your degree to your advantage.

Thread: changing degree from physics to computer science

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Rate This Thread

Display

changing degree from physics to computer science

systems administration is tradeskill

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions