I'm actually very surprised FAANG doesn't sponsor the PhD, and I'd be surprised if they don't take you back after quitting. Talent is clearly valuable to tech companies.
Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
31–40 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#32Why don't you just do it part-time few extra years but no pay cut and you still learn about whatever interests you. PhD is mostly learning/researching by yourself anyway.
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#33I attempted something similar and I lasted about a day before it dawned upon me that an MS was really what I was after. A PhD is really a young person's game. Just as you don't attend conservatory later in life to become a performance musician, you don't "catch up" on a PhD to become a research scientist -- that boat has sailed. I know it's not what you want to hear, especially since you're already nontrivially inves…
I had a friend in grad school who entered the Ph.D. program after spending four years in industry. He was very passionate about his research area, persistent, a fountain of ideas, and wonderful to talk with. He ended up winning the ACM doctoral dissertation award for his thesis, did research and teaching at a university, and has since returned to industry. This may be the exception that proves the rule. However I jus…
That proves the point he was only mid-twenties so still young
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#34I do not think this is the right question you should be asking.
Your aim should not be to want to do a Ph.D. Your aim should be to want to get involved in a particular research area that you are already interested in, and you see that opportunities at academic institution are better suited to accomplish this goal.
To me it sounds like you just want to do a Ph.d for the title.
When I was contemplating a Ph.d I started out like you, just wanting to do it for a title. But after spending time as a research assistant in my pre-Ph.d phase I realized that just "doing a Ph.d" is not at all what I wanted. I wanted to work on something I was passionate about. Else it was better not to attempt anything at all.
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#35I do not think this is the right question you should be asking. Your aim should not be to want to do a Ph.D. Your aim should be to want to get involved in a particular research area that you are already interested in, and you see that opportunities at academic institution are better suited to accomplish this goal. To me it sounds like you just want to do a Ph.d for the title. When I was contemplating a Ph.d I started…
This is the correct answer. Doing a PhD is about learning how to do solid research, and become a person who can do good research independently.
If you're doing it for any other reason then you're likely going to have a bad time or be disappointed
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#36A doctorate is a nice personal achievement, but the opportunity cost is more than money. A PhD is a ticket that opens opportunities for teaching and research. (Mostly teaching.) You can do research on your own, without the costs of a PhD. You can strike up intellectual relationships with other researchers today. You can invent things and file your own patents. You can create your own businesses, selling products or s…
> You can do research on your own, without the costs of a PhD.
You can, but not if you want to get paid. A PhD is still the union card for research scientists.
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#37There are some things which are hard to do outside a PhD. I knew that I would be better off working in industry after graduating (though I'm in a country where I earn no where near a FAANG salary) but I still cherish the time I spent doing physics research. The cadence, experience and sense of achievement that a PhD can give are hard to find outside of Academia. That said it's always a bit of luck, I know brilliant people that just had bad luck with their research subject or their advisors, so as always there's no guarantee.
I'm not sure about the $1 Million opportunity cost, do you really need that much money? If you can earn that much in a couple of years you will be extremely well off regardless of whether you do a PhD or not. Certain things in life can be bought with money, but time spent can't be bought back with money. Personally I wouldn't trade my PhD time for money even retroactively. The PhD gave me a chance to live abroad, meet many interesting people and mostly set my own agenda.
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you need to be in a program to do research? Are you looking for access to some mentioning that you can’t get by other means.
There are two benefits in doing research at an academic institution: 1. You have access to paywalled papers. The majority of leading edge research is published in high subscription fee journals. 2. You gain a great deal of knowledge and build international network of contacts by attending conferences and collaborating with others. Sabbaticals are another form of leverage.
The paywall can be bypassed by just going to the library or enrollment in a single class. You could probably even buy/rent a students account and use that for remote login.
The latter though you really have to figure out if that’s worth doing unpaid labor for. Seems like you could leverage your existing industry position to network with professors better then you could as a phd student. You could reach out to professors of interest and offer to mentor their phd student in the ways of industry or help them find jobs and use that as leverage to get access to folks you are interested in
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#39Depends on which letter of the FAANG pantheon you are in, but my understanding is that it is much harder (and arguably more prestigious) to get into some of the FAANG companies than most PhDs programs.
Personally, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't bother with a PhD unless we are talking about something MIT level.
Also, I don't know your personal situation and capabilities of course. But all of my friends & colleagues at FAANG level companies swear that they would not be able to pass the coding interviews again if they had to redo it, and even if they could, it would only be after many, many months of hardcore grinding (leetcode, etc) that they'd rather not do again.
Re: Ask HN: Senior FAANG engineer, going back to school for PhD. Is it a bad idea?
#40If "worth" is a financial question, the answer is a clear no. In your situation, it would be a huge financial blunder.