Physicist
What the work is
Studies matter, space, time, energy, forces and fields, and the interrelationship between these physical phenomena to further understand the laws governing the behaviour of the universe, and seeks to apply these laws to solve practical problems and discover new information about the Earth, the universe and space weather.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Conducts research to develop and improve theories and laws related to physics
- Develops methods and procedures to study, identify or characterise physical phenomena
- Studies the relationship between place and time related to celestial bodies
- Applies physics theories and techniques in the development and improvement of scientific, industrial and military applications
- Calculates, models and analyses physical and astronomical data
- Develops scientific models or theories to explain properties exhibited by the natural world
- Predicts and monitors solar flares, solar wind conditions, ionospheric irregularities, or geomagnetic and ionospheric storms
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a conservation studio for objects, a weather forecasting centre and a physics laboratory. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A faded banner is stabilised and the colours come back enough to read its story
- Your forecast gives a town enough warning to prepare, and they do
- An experiment that has failed for months finally gives a clean, surprising result
Hard days
- A forecast you agonised over turns out wrong and the public remembers
- An object arrives in worse shape than anyone told you
- Months of careful work that produces a result of no change at all
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 244933, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.