PHY600A/PHY400A: Third assignment for ”Introduction to Profession”
Rohan Kumar, 2108691
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Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India
(Dated: November 22, 2023)
In this assignment, we explore your vision of being a physicist.
I. QUESTION 1
Question:– What are the current challenges that you
are facing as a physicist? List the top three of them.
What are the potential solutions to these issues for you?
What small steps can you take to solve these issues sys-
tematically?
Answer : The current challenges that i am facing as a
physicist:
• I am not able to score good marks in exams and
maintain a good CPI.
• I am not able to focus on skills related to research
work.
• Physics is all about tedious mathematics at this
time and I am weak at it.
The potential solutions to these issues for me are to
work harder, focus on concepts not marks, be motivated
and calm, learn mathematics and research based skills
slowly.
These are the small steps I can take to solve these
issues systematically:
• I should work harder and smartly, follow a routine
strictly for study, reduce entertainment and extra-
curricular activities and take courses which have
decent grading with less load like courses in CGS,
SEE, and HSS department.
• I should take a research project in a field of my
interest under a professor or an UGP course to
broaden my research skills range.
• I should study mathematics from some books cov-
ering basic algebra, calculus and problem solving
techniques and practice a large number of numeri-
cal problems.
II. QUESTION 2
Question:– What is your vision of yourself as a per-
forming and professional physicist in the near future?
Specifically, write paragraphs for your five-year vision,
ten-year, and 20-year vision of yourself as a physicist.
Answer : My vision of myself as a performing and pro-
fessional physicist in the near future is not self-satisfying.
I will stick to research work at least for next decade. I
will be look at discovering something that can help our
society for well-being.
• five-year vision : I will work under a good professor
deepening my knowledge of the subject which i will
continue in the future. I think I will be able to make
significant contribution in the field with him.
• Ten-year vision : I will have my own well developed
laboratory and I will have good knowledge and ex-
perience of the field. I may have some world rec-
ognized work and research papers. I may a good
scientist working in an institution like ISRO and
DRDO.
• 20-year vision : I will a good scientist in a insti-
tution famous for its high quality research. If not,
I may have quit physics profession and working as
an IT professional.
III. QUESTION 3
Question:– What are the challenges you are facing in
developing the following skills? How do you plan to set
up an improvement plan with a quick feedback loop to
reinforce the things that are working for you?
• Reading and understanding papers.
• Defining potential problems at the boundary of
what you can do and what is interesting? Defin-
ing potential and interesting problems that are cur-
rently beyond the reach of your current strengths?
• Improving your technical and academic writing
skills?
• Improving your presentation skills?
• Improving your self-assurance, ”If I work honestly
and systematically, things will work out.”
Answer : Reading and understanding papers are te-
dious tasks for me. However, when I read a research pa-
per 2-3 times, it becomes much easier for me. But I am
not able to apply this knowledge in other fields smoothly,
so I revisit it when required.

• I know how to find interesting problems related to
fields of my interest and start searching for its so-
lution. There are always some problems which are
currently beyond the my reach of current strengths.
Therefore, I note them in my diary and mind, hop-
ing that when i will have developed knowledge and
techniques to solve such problems, I will start work-
ing on them.
• I think i am good at writing. Even if I am not, there
are few good software and Editors for helping you
at technical writing and editing. So, I should focus
on my research based skills and problems in my
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field.
• Making a presentation seems easy to me. I have
made at least 10-20 presentations till now in a short
time. They are well structured and easy to under-
stand.
• I have been working on improving self-assurance,
”If I work honestly and systematically, things will
work out.” That’s why, I never look for cheating in
exams even if I know i will not get good marks. This
has always worked for me from my schooldays. I
am happy that i have continued it so long and hope
that i will continue it forever.