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🍿 He left physics for serving tables. Now what?

Applied to physics jobs for 6 months. Nothing. Now he’s back to serving and wondering if his degree was a waste of time.

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CareerSnacks Team
August 07, 2025

Inside today’s Insider exclusive snack: He bailed on a physics job, bounced through AmeriCorps and serving, and now he’s stuck between grad school or starting from scratch. Today’s Snack Drop pays up to 85K and is ideal for people who love fixing broken systems without needing a master’s.

🎁 Snack Drop is UNCOMMON.

🎟️ Pickle Draw odds: 1 in 13 (7.69%).

🥒 Today’s pickle

I’m a 24M with a BS in Physics and minors in Math and Robotics. I graduated in 2023 and worked as an analyst at a government contractor. I absolutely hated it, so I quit and started doing seasonal odd jobs like AmeriCorps and serving. My goal now is to find a more career-oriented job. I was unemployed for 6 months applying to radiation safety positions but only got around 5 interviews and ended up rejected. I had to go back to serving at another seasonal job.

I would like to get into finance or medical physics. For medical physics, I know I need to apply to grad school, but I don’t have much confidence I’ll get in with my work experience. I haven’t had any luck yet with finance analyst positions, but I’ve just started applying.

I’m wondering if I need to get into grad school or take courses or certifications just to get a job. Was my physics degree a mistake? Will I ever get out of the service industry?

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