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CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
> Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research This is unexpected. What's going on there?
Along with the factors that @zdragnar mentioned, funding for industrial R&D isn’t very stable either. One place I interviewed lost the contract that would have funded my position; another place with a lot of goverment projects decided to freeze hiring due to “political uncertainty.” Neither place was particularly upfront about this, but their decisions do make a bit of sense.
There’s also a ton of misunderstandings between the academic and industrial folks. “Expert in machine learning” in a job posting might mean anything from “a few years experience” to “I literally wrote the book on this topic.” Likewise, it is also hard to present accomplishments in a way that impresses both sides. There’s certainly a lot of currently-empty room for specialized, savvy recruiters (and if you are one, looking for a neuro/ML person, let’s talk!)
Will getting a PhD lead to a more satisfied life?
A have a PhD. I think I can say probaly yes to the first. But: Where others can earn black money next to their work, I can't. So go figure.
For the second: I am certain - no. When others go home and leave their work where it belongs to, I keep on chewing. More responsibolity leads to more stress Imho which colides with satisfaction.
Both answers do not answer the OPs question though.
The growth you do during a PhD is, therefore, mostly on you. If you're not the type who can teach themselves and have fun doing it then, perhaps ironically, you're going to find it extremely difficult in a PhD program.
Given the right company, you may be surprised at the opportunities open to you. Technical people tend to over-rate the "interestingness" of the work being done and under-rate the quality of the work environment when looking for jobs.
Think hard and very honestly about what work environment you'd do best in, work hard to find that environment. If you do, it doesn't sound like you'll miss those three letters that much in a few years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This will sound rude and I’m sorry but there is no way your entire life is ruined because you decided to get a PhD from one of the top 5 most prestigious institutions in the entire world.
As sort of rude as this is I have to agree. If your life can be fundamentally ruined by this then there's a major blindspot in play.
Sometimes it's hard to see very far when you're in the weeds, but once you get to the other side it's easier to look back and realize it was absolutely worth doing, even with the challenges.
CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
Maybe it is a lack of general life experience that is holding you back.
To succeed in life, you will need self discipline. Intelligence isn't bad either.
But most importantly, if it is interesting, gainful employment that you seek, then you must understand that supply and demand drives everything.
People often mistake any level of college as some sort of guarantee of a job or money. But it doesn't. Not even close.. It might be a prerequisite for certain positions, but that's all. To get your dream job, you must supply exactly what the employer needs, or at least convince them that you're the best person to provide it.
With that in mind, you need to design your life:
1. Begin with the end in mind. If you aren't incredibly precise about what you actually want, you'll just be walking backwards in life, and you might get lucky and end up in a nice place, but probably not.
You want a more interesting life. What does that mean? More interesting than your current life? How interesting is that? Do you want to travel? Do you want to hunt spies for a living? What do you actually want to do? Take as much time as you need to precisely answer this question. Seriously. This is critical.
2. Work backwards from this dream life. Let's say you love the ocean, and you have envisioned that your dream job involves sailing on a ship a few months of the year.
Well, you've got a few options: 1. Be a nomadic freelancer with a satellite phone. 2. Work for an oceanic survey or marine biology research outfit. 3. Work for the oil industry and help support oil rigs.
Whichever sounds great at that point. Dig into whatever is necessary to achive your next step. You might need ta phd if you want to do marine biology research. If you want to be a nomadic freelancer, you should work to establish yourself as an expert in a particular field. You can do so without an employer by creating, or contributing to, open source projects.
These are just a few random thoughts, but the point here I want to repeat is:
1. Design your life, don't expect random chance to work out for you. 2. Work towards your design, step-by-step.
I went to a decently paid job and would never go back.
I did, however learn some great things during these years in academia, as I had a great postdoc and a very skillful team.
If you ever want to go back, you surely will find a good position to do your PhD. Professor love cheap labor. It's not hard to find. And PhD students are by far not the brightest people I met. Some are, some absolutely not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
4 years is generous. I know very few people in the states who have gotten their PhD in only 4 years.
That's because in the US, PhD is actually the combination of masters degree (typically 2 years) and PhD (typically 3-4 years) in other countries. At least in sciences, US universities don't typically even offer a MSc program; people can get MSc by enrolling into PhD, which is typically the only available graduate program, and quitting it after completing the coursework.
Some of the more academically-focused (private) schools don't have much of an MSc program but they're atypical, and they don't dominate research like they do in other fields.
You can go into industry and work in that time, and you'll have at least as interesting a life at the end of it. And if industry demand for interactive theorem proving does increase (which it would have needed to for you to get a job in it at the end of a PhD), you will have ample opportunity to learn it on the job instead of in school.