[RK]

No write-up, but people I know have left physics for:

* Quantitative finance

* Insurance (working on models that were beyond what the actuaries were trained to do)

* Data science

* Scientific equipment R&D

* Scientific equipment sales

* Popular science writing (this is a bit of an outlier!)

* Defense contracting (engineering, "scientific" programming, etc)

* Programming

* Door-to-door insurance sales (no joke)

I usually tell people to brush up on their programming skills as much as possible. If you're a theorist who only does pencil + paper or maybe Mathematica, it might be hard to find a decent job. Also, it never hurts to talk to / network with any industry people that are related to your field (software or hardware vendors, etc).

I'm now doing data science, but have also done hardware development and electrical engineering related things (signals). When I was transitioning to data science I also did some very specialized consulting related to my PhD. A few people paid me to do simulations and/or help then implement some techniques that I worked on as a grad student.

Also: I had a very supportive advisor, who encouraged me to accept a job offer before I graduated.