Expert: Daniel Mazur - 8/28/2008

Question
Hi Daniel,
i know , i've askedo too many questions now!! but now the last and final one. I got all your points in your previous answer. Astrophysics is , then not what i actually want to do. And after all this discussion, theoretical physics is basically what i want to do, but still there is quite sometime before i can decide my field of specialisation. But $50k a year is so god damn less!!! is there really no way you can earn a little more than that? Are there no universities where job oppurtunities are better than that? Well if you think that i'm in for money, it's not so. But even a physicist , after studying so much requires some decent pay, and 50k is just too less!!! this is bothering me like anything!! I want to be a theoretical physicist so badly but the pay dissapoints me. I think they deserve more than that. Even an engineer in my country is gonna earn almost double the amount just after four years of his undergrad than what i'm going to earn ten years later!!

Answer
Hi Shikhin,
I know it is frustrating, but these are the facts. Engineers are easily paid double and more, because their work has so many "customers" - people, who buy products with their design ideas. We physicists have only governments as our customers and that is just incomparably weaker market force than a crowd of individual buyers.
Yes, a physicist knows much more about the deep laws of nature than an engineer, yes, a graduate physicist can re-educate to an engineer much faster than vice versa. This is all true, but there is (unfortunately, from our point of view) no *true* proportionality between years of studying and the salary.
I already outlined the ways of getting more money than average in science. Graduating a world famous school, applying for scholarships, working hard every day to have your work recognized around the world. Or getting an additional education in money market and stock trading and learn to generate money by other means than science. Scientists will be paid much less than people actually designing goods of everyday use in every age, in all societies (except maybe if scientist ever design a society that is run to their benefit only :-)).
I very much understand your indignation, I felt it too once upon a time... But then I gradually realized that there is no positive correlation between being wealthy and feeling happy. I am happy with my work, because it is what I love to do and salaries of others don't concern me as long as my paycheck is enough for a decent home, food, occasional vacation... It is similar to being married to a woman you really love - then you don't care that women of many others are more beautiful, sexy or intelligent or anything. It is my ambition to earn as much as possible, but without sacrificing the satisfaction and enjoyment of my work.
Many people around cannot do, what they like to do most, so I consider myself lucky that I can. And I consider the sacrifice of money compared to engineers as a good enough bargain. If you could put a price tag on *happiness*, this would be the value of mine:-).
To tell you the truth, I used to look down upon engineering students, seeing that what they studied required so little effort for me compared to my physics subjects. Later on, though, I learned to realize that to be good at either science or engineering job the most important thing is the ability to work well and with brains. An engineer is not by definition less intelligent or able, he just enjoys a kind of creativity different from ours. Engineering requires a different kind of brilliance than basic research in physics, less abstract thinking and more of the practical considerations. And it pays more, because the results of engineering are much more tangible to the average man in the street...
I don't expect you to start fancying engineering now, I am just giving you my opinion on the matters of science and wealth. You will need to make your own mind about them. I wish you all luck and wisdom in making yours!
Best Regards,
Daniel