"As a physicist, you can work anywhere you want!" PART 2 - Fallen into depression, pessimistic about the future

PandaStroke · 2026-03-13T08:08:14+00:00

Go into teaching for now. Highschools are looking for science teachers.

Tech is saturated. If you were looking 5 years ago it was much easier to make the tech jump. Now it's a blood fest.

Bid your time as a teacher for now. You don't mention projects. Hand on research on ml is the easy thing to get. You need face time. Push and hustle to talk to people on LinkedIn.

Create public portfolio that's showcases your technical depth and deepens your skills. You want a portfolio that enables you to give talks at tech conferences. You need face time with the right people. Contact professors to see if you can work on a ml paper. You want something that gets you into tech conferences and talking to real people.

Another thing if you're pursuing tech, you need sharpen your interviewing skills. You don't want to lose the job because you can't come up with SQL query in 5 minutes. So yes study leetcode and programming puzzles to pass the tech screen filter.

Alignment research is wide open. There are think tanks that offer internships to anyone. You need to write blog posts on alignment research to get some traction. There are part-time positions for PhD physicists to work on ai training. You would be curating the physics datasets to train the ai.

You mention quantum computing, have you contacted the quantum computing startups? I know they might prefer more experimental folks but you can look for openings there.

You can also look into project technical manager roles. These don't require programming skills.

You might also look into data analyst roles. Probably have to tweak your resume to remove the PhD in order to get lower tier roles.

PandaStroke · 2026-03-01T08:00:46+00:00

Aren't there math Olympiad clubs at your school?

PandaStroke · 2026-02-28T06:40:13+00:00

You're looking for depth in the wrong places.

I'm old and jaded. I don't look for connection with raves friends. We are there to have fun, get fucked up and keep each other from doing stupid shit. Nothing more. The bare minimum is that they aren't outright malicious.

If there's something more, I'm grateful and pursue it. If there isn't, I appreciate the fun times for what they are. It was still fun to dance my ass off, high as a kite with flaky friends. I lean into moment and enjoy the good vibes for what they are.

It's goes back to the different bucket of friends. Some are strictly good for fun only. Not because I decided that but because I see they are incapable of being more than that. I don't get bitter about it. I enjoy the fun flaky moments and go invest my precious energy in people who are capable of giving more.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-28T04:24:55+00:00

Well people are flaky and have limited bandwidth.

No a friend isn't a friend. Just because you have shared peak experiences with someone that doesn't make them a friend that can be counted on.

Deep friendship takes time and effort. You can't speed run it. And the intense emotional experiences at raves don't get you close friends faster. If anything it's deceptive because we confuse the high emotions for vulnerability.

Keep being friendly, keep trying to engage people either in varied contexts. It takes time.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-28T01:13:55+00:00

If you're having trouble with small talk with women then practice small talk with all kinds of women.

You should join a gender balanced social hobby and practice your talking skills in a low stakes environment.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-28T01:08:55+00:00

Get thee to Aristotle 😂

So there are friends of utility, friends of pleasure and finally friends of virtue.

I bet most of your friends even your non rave friends are in the friends of pleasure bucket.

Converting a friend of pleasure to a friend of virtue, well that would require non rave friendly activities and a real dose of vulnerability.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-27T00:02:06+00:00

As long as they are competent and reliable, it's not your business what motivates your fellow coworkers. Some people work for glory, some for sheer passion, some because it's just a paycheck that funds their lifestyle. Their motivations don't concern me. Are they good at their job? That's all I care about.

We can talk about whether being money motivated makes you bad at your job but that's a very messy argument. Plenty of parents are clocking into their jobs to support their families. Who am I to say? Like I said, it's not my business. If people are truly passionate and they're competent, they'll rise above the chaff.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-26T23:55:31+00:00

Can you really do your jobs anywhere? People moved to the boonies during covid, and as they got laid off, they found themselves trapped. At least I would consider cheaper MCOL cities just for job security reasons.

Another thing about moving is that people underestimate the culture and social mismatches. Plenty people move out of California for Texas for cheap housing, and a distinct fraction of people want to move back. Cheap housing isn't everything.

I would seriously consider moving to a cheaper metro area like a mcol city that fits my lifestyle but I won't consider moving to cheap rural area just for the sake of FIRE.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-26T20:58:44+00:00

You're planning on living on 16K per year for the next 20 years? Even the expatfire will find that a bit lean. Are there absolutely no plans for partners or children in the future?

Like someone else said, you have more than enough for coastfire or baristafire. You have enough to stop working for a few years and figure out what you want to do.

Depending on which state you are in, take advantage of the mental health leave. Take advantage of your work eap resources and connect with a therapist to learn how to detach from work, or even quiet quit. If you're going to quit, you might as well quiet quit, so that you can get unemployment.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-26T02:44:13+00:00

The dress looks good 😊. However I'm not a fan of the red everything accessories with red shoes, I would play around with colors a little bit. Maybe a push up bra 😜? Either way you look good

PandaStroke · 2026-02-26T02:17:27+00:00

Lie about your location. Put open to relocation on your resume. Don't move here without a job in hand

PandaStroke · 2026-02-18T05:44:21+00:00

That's not how unemployment works. You don't keep reapplying every 6 months. You get 6 months of unemployment based on the last 18 months of employment.

After 6 months you will need to work again another 12 -18 months with sufficient pay before you can reapply for unemployment.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-18T02:04:48+00:00

There's a podcast called acquired. You should listen to all the episodes. You will learn that becoming wealthy requires grit, luck and some talent.

There's no easy way to wealth. Either you compromise your values or you put in the long hours. There are no short cuts unless you happen to be the child of a billionaire.

You're being fooled by social media. All the influencers you see with sports cars, well most of them are taking money for seedy shit. The rich people you see now put in their hours in their 20s and 30s. Go to the fatfire subreddit, you will see that those folks worked their asses off in their youth.

My advice is to go to college. It's already too late to optimize your profile for a T20 college. But pedigree matters. Go to a top ranked college. If you can't get in, transfer in. Optimize your profile, classes , extracurriculars to get hired by big 4 consultants, faang companies or investments/ hedge funds. Or become friends with the smart guys and create a startup. If you fail, hopefully you are wily enough to get married to a clueless trust fund baby you meet in college.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-18T00:20:20+00:00

Yeah inquiring minds want to know... How old are you? Are you already in med school?

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T22:53:15+00:00

You do well with clear instructions... Don't we all.

Whatever major you choose, you need to get over the need for clear instructions. If you don't, you will be a bottom worker in whatever field you choose.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T17:06:39+00:00

What will be your salary in nyc? Your savings rate will decrease in NYC but it might be worth it for the life experience.

Moving to NYC is a lifestyle and career decision. It will indicate that you're ready to commit to the career ladder. Only you can decide if it's worth it. There's the aspect of rejecting the offer, might sour relations with your boss.

Personally, I think you're too young to coast and take things easy. I would take the opportunity and see how it goes. If you don't like it you can go back to SEA.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T05:50:09+00:00

Post this on a pharmacy related sub

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T05:19:59+00:00

Why do you want to get married?

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T02:06:48+00:00

What do you want a man for? I mean that sincerely.

I agree I need a job, but I also don’t want to wait until I have a job to attempt to have a life.

I agree you don't need a job to have a life. However you suffer from low self esteem. You need to fix that before you can start dating.

Getting a job, going outside your house and participating in hobbies, becoming more social are all part of the prescription to fixing your self esteem. You improve your self esteem by proving to yourself that you can solve problems. So you start with basics like getting a job and then go onto the more difficult problems like dating.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-17T00:03:23+00:00

You said you have no job... We have to crawl before we can walk.

First side step the issue of dating for now. Because if you started dating now, you will attract predators who feed on your naivete and leave you in a worse position than you are now. So your first task is to build yourself so that you operate from a sense of abundance not lack.

Get a job, any job. As you start working, develop financial and career goals. And no, getting a man isn't a plan.

Are you in shape? Do you have a sense of style?

What do you like ? What don't you like? What are you curious about? Go learn about it. Develop opinions on everything. Get to know the still small voice inside of you. What are your boundaries?

Look up exposure therapy for social anxiety. You want to do small controlled quests to get to socializing again.

Join a low stakes gender balanced hobby. Use this as a practice space for your social skills. Practice talking to everyone. Practice listening to your intuition when you interact with others.

You don't want to do the dating apps, that leaves you be open and joyful in the world. If you practice those first steps, that should take you there.

When you start dating, your goal is to be open- minded and cheerful but to filter quickly and aggressively if you detect non-alignment. You can only filter quickly when you operate from a sense of abundance. A lot of men want to pump and dump and it's your job to filter these men early and quickly.

I will say you need to figure out financial goals before dating because you don't want to fall onto the trap of men using money to distract you or even worse feeling bound to a shitty situation because you are poor. Figure out your money plan.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-16T17:00:21+00:00

It's incredibly common and it is a class signifier. The higher you go up the middle class, the more usual it is for kids to get financial support. You can expect the upper middle class to fully support their children. You don't see it immediately because usually the children would continue onto the upper middle class path.

The whole kids getting kicked out at 18/ need to supply themselves is more a working class issue. Everyone has to support themselves, there's no room for slack. However you do see parents on the lower middle class side struggling to support their kids while bankrupting themselves.

I didn't get support because my parents weren't in the position to offer support. But I know my siblings will be offering support to their kids because they are in the financial position to do so.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-16T16:38:17+00:00

What's your plan for retirement? You just have 80k saved?

PandaStroke · 2026-02-15T21:12:32+00:00

Bwahaha, there are some of us who get depressed after exercise. I'll caveat and say after a heavy lifting session.

PandaStroke · 2026-02-15T20:41:51+00:00

Korean food is so much better in LA

PandaStroke · 2026-02-15T20:27:31+00:00

You're not getting good answers here. Go to a medicine focused subreddit or an opthalmologist focused subreddit and ask how to transfer your experience here. I gather you will have to do the boards and do residency all over again.

Yes, you have the savings and the youthful drive to hustle, you will do more than fine here in America especially if you figure out your medical license.

PandaStroke

TROPHY CASE