Interview with the employers of recent graduates

This is one in a series of interviews with employers that have recently (in the last 5 years) hired staff who have completed a 3 or 4 year or Honours level undergraduate degree with a Physics major or a Physics-based multidisciplinary major. We’d like to gauge your opinions on the value of an undergraduate Physics major as demonstrated by your employee(s).

Could you please provide the following information?

We would like you to think about physics graduates who have worked for you in the last few years. Please try to separate physics graduates early in their employment from those who have worked with you for some time. We would also like to concentrate on graduates with a basic (not postgraduate) degree with a Physics major.

Are there special knowledge, skills and approaches that these Physics graduates have?

• very computer literate

• knowledgeable about using materials-related measurement systems

      - either have experience with or are quick to learn

• on average they are good at working in teams

Please comment on their ability to learn and adapt.

• they are good at learning/adapting as long as supervised properly

• grow and develop an understanding of their role within the team well

How could Physics graduates be better? Do fresh graduates from other disciplines meet these expectations? Is it reasonable to expect university graduates to come with these attributes or are they better learnt/developed at work?

• improve their modelling skills

       - little confidence in using theory to apply to data

• more confidence in “lashing up” experimental setup is needed

       - struggle when need to start from scratch (no pre-prescribed set-up)

       - more instrumentation skills

• literature searching skills is a weakness

• these attributes need to be at least addressed by university if not fully developed

After a couple of years of employment, are Physics graduates different from those from other disciplines? If yes, in what way?

• Physicists are usually

       - more analytical

       - more critical

       - more anti-establishment

• identify themselves as physicists which may be due to the type of personality types that go into Physics

Would you employ a Physics graduate in preference to those from other disciplines? If so why?

• probably would as physicists are trained as scientists

      - usually want to get to core of problem whereas other disciplines are more interested in just solving the problem and moving on

      - key to success is to find deeper understanding not just solving

Graduate attributes table

Please fill in the first four columns of the following table by ticking the box that represents the level to which your employee(s) with a Physics education demonstrated a particular attribute, as gauged at the start of their employment with you, i.e. the attributes they have.

Please say if there was another valuable attribute.

Understanding business issues, IP, commercialisation - medium

Could you now please fill in the last column, this time indicating whether a particular attribute should be present to a greater or lesser extent at the start of their employment, or whether it is about what you require (OK)?