Ok, cool cool. These decisions are a while off, so I have a bit of time to think.

I live in Perth.

I'm never offended by intelligent questions asked politely by inquisitive people. No worries mate.

I do not think that a Master's degree is your only choice. It's just a useful qualification- provided you do it in a field that is actually in demand. I did a Master's degree because:

a) I really liked Maths (still do)
b) I was good at it
c) I actually wanted to do it

One of the best choices of my life. That doesn't mean EVERYONE should do it. It just happened to work for me. If you want to do a Master's, by all means go ahead, but do so for the right reasons- because you want to, because it'll make you highly employable, and because you won't graduate with lots of debt.

If you're after a computer language, I recommend Javascript, Python, or VBA. MATLAB and R are also great scripting languages which I imagine you'll pick up pretty quickly, they are very easy to learn. I love R, for instance- fantastic language for statistics, mathematics, and graphics. VBA is a toy language and bloody dangerous in the wrong hands, but very much in demand; it's also extremely easy to learn. And the great thing about learning programming languages is that once you pick up one, you'll find others very easy to learn.

BTW where in Oz are you? I used to live in Sydney, years ago.

I don't know if I was too rude in changing the subject from what you do for a living onto this topic. If I caused offence, I apologies.

So, basically, Masters is the only real way to progress? If I am going to do Masters I was thinking of Geophysics/Geology/Hydrophysics – I live in Aus, so the mining industry is big (well, it's going down the shitter – but it should pick up in 20-30 years after the second Great Depression, FML).

I will start learning a computer language or three, now-ish. When I finish up I will try and find a computer programming gig, while assessing further education from there.

I just like the idea of fixing problems, whatever they are. That's the main reason why I chose physics to begin with. I didn't want to box myself into a single profession.