In: Physics
What percentage of physics PhDs leave physics to become quantitative analysts, work in computer science/information technology or business? Is physics that bad that so many people leave? Was it worth it?
Just to note that people could leave research because they may not have "research grant funding" skills or aptitude.
A researcher who has invested a few years in a sub-field X may become almost a world expert in an aspect of X - maybe in one of the experimental/computational/calculational aspects. Unfortunately fashions change in science, in Physics perhaps because experiments are starting to disprove the assumptions/predictions of X.
So our researcher finds no more money to work in sub-field X. Our researcher now faces some stark choices: adapt the experimental/calculational techniques to a popular field like Y; physically relocate to an Institution that still pursues X; or develop a new sub-field; or leave research.
If our researcher stays on and hopes to change sub-field they will now face a research grant procedure, which although not hostile to them, is hostile to sub-field X which becomes a liability from now on. Some individuals have the skills to negotiate this, some dont.