How to leave academia (for science PhDs) • Hacker News Board

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#51

Post by dude_abides » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:35 PM UTC

Here's a simple checklist for all you CS (Systems) PhDs not sure what to do next. When writing a paper, which section of the paper are you most excited by?

A) Introduction (big picture/motivation/related work): You should remain in academia where you will enjoy writing grant proposals, or be a senior exec (not hands-on) in industry.

B) Design/Implementation: Academia is not for you. Join a cool startup or Google/Facebook/... (or of course start your own venture)

C) Experimental Evaluation/Results: Join industry (tech or finance) in a quantitative role.

YMMV. Also, this is not applicable to PhDs in Theoretical CS or in other Sciences.

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#52

Post by hogu » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

ckas wrote: post #4

Which EE specializations are generally best for maximizing backup options in industry in govt/finance/data science?

whatever makes you good in software and statistics. I did a PhD in signal processing (statistical reconstruction for medical imaging) worked as a quant for 2 years, and then sofware contracting for another 2. I'm now doing some other startup stuff.

the top fields that come to mind that would be good on the EE side are machine learning, signal processing, control theory, communications/information theory. machine learning is probably the best.

and also - don't just be a matlab jocky, matlab is used heavily in industry, but if I had to do it again, i'd have learned more C++, python, and R

R and matlab are both problematic when you need to integrate with production systems, but at least R is free. Python, in my opinion is best

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#53

Post by VMG » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

robertskmiles wrote: post #25

> 100 passengers have queued up to board a plane, and are lined up in the order of the seats on the plane (n=1..100). However, the first person lost his ticket and selects a random seat. The remaining passengers will occupy their assigned seat if it is available, or a random seat otherwise. What is the probability that passenger 100 sits in seat 100? It really worried me that I couldn't figure out how to work that ou…

I think this is more slightly more on-topic as a reply here

> Consider the integers from [0,1000]. Suppose a particle starts at position n. At discrete instants of time t=0,1,2,…, the particle moves up or down with p=0.5. What is the probability that the particle reaches 0 before t=1000?

The answer is 50%, right? I can't explain it properly, but my thinking is that the random walk is symmetric and 0 and 1000 should have equal weights. Maybe a good explanation is harder than the correct answer in this case.

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#54

Post by eshvk » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

bearmf wrote: post #42

eshvk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they might not be hired to do just web development but I think learning about the web stack is incredibly useful because it helps you get your work out to people. This is important especially in a (early stage) start up where you might have to rapidly prototype solutions and you can't have your own pet designer to whip up visualizations for you. In fact, if you read the blogs of some of the data scientists at tw…

You do not need to be a web developer to write a blog. R, MatPlotLib and Matlab make pretty pictures.

Not saying you need to be a web developer to write a blog. All, I am saying is that the web provides a way to do interactive visualizations in a manner not provided by Matlab/R/matplotlib. For example, colleague at Mozilla did this: http://skedasis.com/d3/smoothers/

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#55

Post by gammarator » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:52 PM UTC

PhDs interested in data science job may find the Insight Data Science Fellowship a good opportunity:

http://insightdatascience.com/fellowship.html

It's a paid six week post-doctoral training fellowship in SV that ends with interviews with companies looking for data scientists.

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#56

Post by robrenaud » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:53 PM UTC

hogu wrote: post #44

telemachos wrote: post #19

> Also, if your degree is in English, the best I can do is point you here (link to Starbucks job page). I know it's supposed to be funny (i.e., it's "just a joke") and I grant I may be sensitive since I have a BA in Comparative Literature (a graduating class of 1 in my major) and a PhD in Classics, but this came across as completely obnoxious and unnecessary. Don't know anything about Humanities? Fine. Don't talk abo…

And also wrong. My wife left academia from philosophy and is pulling in north of 100k right now doing project management stuff. She got there within 3 years, though we're in NYC so it's easier to get more cash here. It was a hard to transition, most employers don't know what to do with a humanities degree, but she was able to do it. A programmer coworker of mine also worked in philosophy, and transitioned to programm…

Philosophy majors tend to be a lot smarter than the rest of the humanities.

http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended... http://www.umsl.edu/~philo/ETS%20LINK.pdf

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#57

Post by yummyfajitas » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 5:59 PM UTC

VMG wrote: post #53

robertskmiles wrote: post #25

> 100 passengers have queued up to board a plane, and are lined up in the order of the seats on the plane (n=1..100). However, the first person lost his ticket and selects a random seat. The remaining passengers will occupy their assigned seat if it is available, or a random seat otherwise. What is the probability that passenger 100 sits in seat 100? It really worried me that I couldn't figure out how to work that ou…

I think this is more slightly more on-topic as a reply here > Consider the integers from [0,1000]. Suppose a particle starts at position n. At discrete instants of time t=0,1,2,…, the particle moves up or down with p=0.5. What is the probability that the particle reaches 0 before t=1000? The answer is 50%, right? I can't explain it properly, but my thinking is that the random walk is symmetric and 0 and 1000 should h…

The particle doesn't necessarily start out in the middle.

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#58

Post by kentonwhite » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

kmm wrote: post #32

kentonwhite wrote: post #20

I received my PhD (Physics) in 1999 and went directly to industry. At that time I saw industry as a well paid post doc. My intention was to work a few years and then seek an academic position. In 2001 I had an offer from a top engineering school in Canada to join their faculty. And I said no. Academia attracted me with the promise of intellectual freedom -- the ability to work on what ever problems I wanted to. This…

I'm doing a Masters in theoretical physics and I've got to ask, is it common to first go work a few years before going into academia? It surprises me how little we are informed of these things. Being locked in is my biggest fear for going for a PhD. I don't want to spend the rest of my life on a single topic, perhaps I don't even want to stay in theoretical physics.

Most graduate selection committees will look favorably on a couple of years industrial experience between doing a Masters and doing a PhD. This is irrespective if you continue in physics are switch to a more applied discipline such as engineering. Following the 2008 recession, many people who lost their jobs went back to school to pursue masters and PhD degrees, so this is now quite common.

My opinion is if you are afraid of being locked in, then industry is better place. If you are willing to trade job stability and short term income to not be locked in, then learning how to start and build your own company around your ideas is the best way to retain flexibility.

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#59

Post by eli_gottlieb » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 6:27 PM UTC

sunahsuh wrote: post #14

I recently left my PhD program too (I'm "mastering out" in local parlance ;)) and what this post doesn't address is what I found to be the hardest part: making a decision to leave a world where people that leave are construed as a failures (note: contrary to my expectation, I've only received support in my decision from my awesome and anomalous department.) (Also, I should note that I left a software industry job to…

Do keep in mind, while we're all bashing academia, that there are those who go the opposite direction. I finished a researchy undergrad, went to industry, basically got miserable, and have gone right back to apply for PhD programs. I'm incredibly happy to know I have at least the one admission, even if it doesn't have guaranteed funding!

Re: How to leave academia (for science PhDs)

#60

Post by yummyfajitas » Thu, Apr 05, 2012, 6:27 PM UTC

evoxed wrote: post #35

He's using Hyde and recommending the article's audience to use Django or Rails? If he's going to point out webdev with only some fleeting interest it might be more helpful just to say something like, "HTML/CSS is your new weekend project. Hardcode it in a couple hours or use whatever system gives you the least pain: SSG, framework, blog-based, etc."

Clearly you haven't bothered to look me up.

Do you believe I should have used Django or Rails for my personal website? Was Hyde the wrong tool for the job?