So You Want To Be A Physicist

If you came here from the PhysicsForums website, you would probably have come across the series of essays that I wrote on this topic. If not, then this will be new to you.

I started writing, in installments, a series of essays on my take of the process one goes through in being a physicist. It started out of the discussion I had with members of our #physics channel on the Undernet IRC server. I then realized that were many issues that most undergraduates and graduate students do not know but should know that are not available in their school brochures and program bulletin. There were also many misconception on not only the profession, but also the process.

So I decided to write what I know of the process in becoming a physicist. The original essays were started on the Undernetphysics Yahoo group. Within a few chapters of the essay, I started getting feedbacks from several people that these were becoming something of value, even though my production rate on these essays was rather slow.

Since then, I have also posted a copy of the essay on the PhysicsForums, and have gotten quite a response there. Other than a copy of a few earlier chapters of the essay posted on PhysicsPost, the thread on the PhysicsForums and the Undernetphysics Yahoo group are the only two places that you can read the complete version of the essays so far.

The series is still ongoing, although the ending could be in sight. I am hoping that, once it is finished, I will re-edit the series (correcting spelling and grammatical errors) and find some place to host the complete essay.

Zz.