Switching careers from physics to aviation
It's one of those things about the flying game that the actual details of previous education and experience outside of aviation count for relatively little, other than what they may indicate about someone's personality, worldview and leadership potential going forward.  This is because the knowledge base and skill set are unique to the trade.
I used to know a Capt of a major carrier who was on a selection board, and he told me once that the only real reason airlines expect a university degree is that it provides a higher than average probability that a candidate will be able to handle the firehose flow of information that a pilot has to deal with on an initial type course.  What the degree was actually for was not that important as long it was demanding to some extent (not those &quot;XXX studies&quot; degrees).
If someone is hiring a pilot, they want to know about flying experience, personal attitude, character, and very importantly, leadership potential (since in the long run they are expecting the candidate to be in command of a crew at some point).  Previous non-aviation experience that establishes strong leadership potential (the leadership ideal fostered by Crew Resource Management theory specifically) probably has a stronger effect on your desirability as a candidate that any particular technical background.
Now, if you get into a flying career and at some future point, where you have ample flying experience, you apply for a job posting for, say, a production test pilot with an OEM, or something similar at an airline, which is likely to have a dual engineering/flying function, then the physics/engineering background might count for quite a lot.
But at the start, it mostly indicates to a potential employer that you have an above average ability to absorb information, so it can't hurt, but don't expect much more than that.