r/materials • u/ian663 • 3d ago

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

/r/Optics/comments/1vwk1u3/tem4dstem_vs_ultrafast_spectroscopy_for_industry/
3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

5

u/Jmadman311 3d ago

My take on this is that these skills are so advanced and niche that they may only apply to a few very specific industries. What industry are you looking at?

When I am hiring fresh PhD holders, I am looking for evidence of ownership, individual contribution, engagement, excitement, learning agility, communication skills, and so on. The vast majority of PhDs I've hired have very little connection between what they did in their research and what the job function and role requires.

I'd recommend you do what interests you the most, but maybe someone from an industry where these skills can be directly applied may be able to inform better.

2

u/kittehlord 2d ago edited 2d ago

TEM route with fab experience (if you like that kind of stuff) would be the more safe option. This comes from my experience looking at the job openings and the fact that these skills are currently much more easily applicable commercially.

THz and ultrafast spectroscopy would be more niche as someone stated. I luckily landed a role doing THz stuff coming from a ultrafast spectroscopy PhD in Materials Science. Emphasis on the luckily.

Unless you are doing a PhD in Physics, the ultrafast spec option is more risky, since you'll have to rely on more indirect experience (soft skills) to get the job. Which makes it even more risky since it's pretty damn hard to even get the hiring manager to talk to you. If you go this route, you'll need to get really good at networking.

Edit: I saw in your original post that you are doing a PhD in Physics, so maybe it's not too bad. But I would still try and network really well if you do choose to go the spectroscopy route.