Physicist-Businessperson Duality

Once you graduate and cease being a student, you will enter the world of business. Here I mean “business” in its fundamental sense: creating something of value and trading it with others for goods, services, or money. This is obviously the case if you take a job in private industry, but it also applies for academia and national laboratories. I know many resist the idea of thinking of academia as a business, but it is just that. Colleges and universities produce classes and research and “sell” them to students and funding agencies. The fact that most of them engage in this business on a non-profit basis simply means that any excess money left over after paying all the university’s expenses must be kept and used by the university rather than being distributed as a dividend or other payment. In the US at least, the national laboratories are increasingly managed by private sector consortia with a more overt “business” flavor. Therefore, once you leave school and start your career you will inevitably exist in a superposition of the physicist and businessperson states. Which has the most sway will vary with time and the career niche you pick.

What does this physicist-businessperson duality mean for your career?  For a start, I suggest that you cultivate three things:

• Business Friendly Mindset – Consider your mindset.  A decade spent in academia earning a bachelor’s degree and a PhD left me with some significant and largely subconscious prejudices towards business.  I had acquired a dismissive attitude towards mere “business” as an occupation for others with less lofty academic accomplishments.  It took me a while to discover how woefully misguided that attitude is.  Likewise, if you harbor any prejudices about business being unsavory or beneath you, I would strongly advise you to get over them.  Everyone must ultimately provide  valuable goods or services to their “customers” (whoever they may be) in order to earn their keep.  Ignore this fundamental rule at your own peril.
• Results Orientation – Understand that no one will ever pay you just because you know physics.  They will, however, pay you to do something with your knowledge of physics.  That something may be teaching the subject, researching new knowledge in the field, developing a product that relies on intricate physical principles, etc.  Whatever the result you are trying to produce is, remember that it is the result that your customers pay for.  If you teach classes, then concentrate on making them great classes.  Likewise, if you develop products, then focus on creating outstanding products.  Make people want what you provide.
• Understanding of Business Mechanics – Generating great results and keeping your customers happy will require an intimate understanding of how your particular business operates.  It is tempting to think of these business mechanics as an afterthought of minor concern compared to your technical knowledge of physics, but that is a big mistake.  The success of a research university professor, for example, will be determined as much (or more) by their ability to get their grant proposals funded as their physics knowledge.  Similarly, it is not enough to create a technically excellent product.  The history of business is littered with impressively sophisticated products that failed because of high costs, poor marketing, bad matching to customer need, and a host of other non-technical issues.  Whatever line of work you chose, it is vitally important to understand the mechanics of how the business successfully operates.

We will further examine the business aspect of various jobs and industries in future posts.