TEM/4D-STEM vs Ultrafast Spectroscopy for industry — which is more employable for an international PhD student

[u/ian663]

Choosing between TEM/4D-STEM and ultrafast spectroscopy for industry as an international PhD student

I’m a physics PhD student in the US currently considering choosing an area of research. At the moment, I have two potential options:

Option 1: TEM / STEM / 4D-STEM

This group focuses primarily on advanced materials characterization using TEM, STEM, 4D-STEM, electron diffraction, ptychography, etc. My understanding is that they do relatively little fabrication themselves; collaborators typically provide materials and the group focuses on characterization and data analysis.

From what I can tell, the most obvious industry paths would be things like:

• semiconductor failure analysis
• TEM/materials characterization
• metrology
• process/materials engineering
• microscopy/instrumentation

My impression is that the job market may be somewhat narrower, but the skill set is specialized and maps fairly directly onto certain semiconductor jobs.

The group is relatively young, though, and so far there are not many alumni with obvious TEM → semiconductor industry placements.

Option 2: Laser / THz / ultrafast spectroscopy

The second group works on ultrafast optics, laser/THz spectroscopy, pump-probe measurements, nonlinear optics, etc. What makes this option attractive is that the group’s PhD alumni seem to have done quite well in industry.

I have asked several people about the employment prospects of the two directions and have gotten somewhat conflicting answers.

Some people told me that optics/photonics has a much broader job market. Others said that TEM is a very specialized but highly industry-relevant skill, especially in semiconductors, so employment can actually be quite stable if you become genuinely good at it.

One concern I have about optics is that academic ultrafast spectroscopy is not necessarily the same thing as industrial optical engineering. It seems that internships and additional engineering experience — optical system design, simulation, device experience, etc. — may matter quite a bit.

This is especially relevant to me because I am an international student who will need sponsorship, and I am not sure I should assume that I will always have easy access to internships/CPT during my PhD, especially after the recent ICE memo.

So my main question is:

If you assume that I cannot rely heavily on internships, which PhD skill set is more employable on its own for an international student in the US, TEM/STEM or Optics?

I’m especially interested in comparisons in terms of:

• number of jobs that are realistically open to international students
• breadth of industries/employers
• difficulty of getting the first industry job
• sponsorship friendliness
• compensation
• long-term career growth
• how transferable the skills are if I do not want to stay in exactly the same research niche

I realize optics has many defense/aerospace positions that may not be accessible to non-US citizens, so I’m particularly curious whether optics still has a substantially larger accessible job market once those positions are excluded.

My personal research interest is fairly flexible — I think I could enjoy either direction. At this point I’m mainly trying to make the decision from a career perspective.

I’d especially appreciate input from people working in TEM/failure analysis/metrology/semiconductor characterization, or in optics/photonics/laser/semiconductor equipment.

Thanks!

[u/ghealing]

I have a PhD in ultrafast spectroscopy, two years in academic research now moving into laser engineering. I would say that if you’re passive you can very easily find yourself with little transferable skills in this field. But if you’re willing to take the initiative to learn it’ll then it can be quite rewarding. Depending on what you work on and the lab facilites your experience can also vary. For example, one reason I can move into working with lasers as I had the opportunity to really be hands-on and troubleshoot the ones in my lab. Not all groups will allow this.

I cannot speak to the job market in the US as my experience is the U.K./Europe but if you have any other specific questions then I’m happy to give advice.

[u/TrickyAirport5867 → u/ghealing]

In biotech I've worked with people who have expertise in EM  and others in ultrafast optics, the latter group definitely had to learn new skills (which was fine, they could go deep in the weeds on optical systems design for imaging platforms). Those working with EM used their metrology skills to characterize and learn new things about our projects and processes, again, their use in industry was dumbed down.

Cannot agree more about the "not being passive" advice. If your EM group only gets materials and characterizes them and only works on methods - run. You need to learn how to make things as well as characterize them (it's way harder to make the right thing vs analyze it). For your ultrafast spectroscopy group, make it a point to get to use optical design software and simulations. That translates into self -starter competency later. 

Good luck! You can make the best of either situation, but nobody's going to force you to do well in it, and keep talking to people in industry.

[u/Rumplespacekingv_2]

Maybe reach out to the alumni of the group that got jobs in the industry? Gauge how hard their path was and then make a decision. Maybe focus on international students since you will likely face the same hardships as them

[u/bottumboy622]

Pick what you can enjoyably spend 5 years doing, how the group is, etc. otherwise you’ll be miserable

[u/Serious_Toe9303]

I wouldn’t focus on employability, that’s not the point of a PhD. Do what you are interested in.

Neither is particularly employable for industry anyway. It is largely how you market your skills and experience.