Does anyone have advice on applying to a PhD from industry & without significant research experience (but a BS + MS degree from Stanford)?
A Survival Guide to a PhD
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Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#12Does anyone have a link to his phd thesis btw?
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Properties you find appealing..." * Freedom * Ownership * Personal freedom ... * Getting into a PhD program: references, references, references * Student adviser relationship * Pre-vs-post tenure * Impressing an adviser * (Topic) Plays to your adviser’s interests and strengths Much of your freedom goes to learning to play politics and manage up to a level employees never have to. Reading this, I'm so thankful I didn…
From my super-limited experience in academia, I found politics is more important at top schools and much less important when you get to ~40-80 ranked US schools for PhD programs.
Having spent time at schools of various "ranks" (whatever that means), "politics" (whatever that means ... that's super vague) is everywhere. It's what you make of it. Whenever you have people, money, and status mixing, there is politics. That's not exclusive to academia. Every company I've worked at also had those dynamics. Want to eliminate politics? Be independently wealthy and work alone :) Otherwise everyone needs to learn to work with and transcend the system in their own unique way.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#14Does anyone have advice on applying to a PhD from industry & without significant research experience (but a BS + MS degree from Stanford)?
If you want a CS Ph.D., demonstrate that you're a REALLY REALLY GOOD programmer; that can make up for lack of significant research experience. I've advised a few dozen students of various ranks, and I still rate programming ability as amongst the top prerequisite ... everything else can be learned more easily in a short time, imho:
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#15Does anyone have advice on applying to a PhD from industry & without significant research experience (but a BS + MS degree from Stanford)?
Find a topic you like and mail some people in the field directly. If you make it personal you'll probably get a response. I've finished one PhD and dropped out of another. In both cases, it started off with a friendly chat with my potential supervisor.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#16A PhD is super fun and super hard. But it is key to be realistic about the outcomes. It is a life changing experience, but definitely have a plan for the end of it. There are so few academic tenure jobs and so it pays to do a bit of research on what you want at the end off it beyond just academic life. If you can do that the experiences are amazing, learning to think and work at the higher level and learning to compr…
> A PhD is super fun
Experiences differ. A lot. Personally, I had an awful time during my PhD, and between the penury and the toil and the bleak prospects afterward, I'd say you're definitely in the minority on this one.
I wouldn't recommend a PhD to anyone who isn't dead set on a job that requires one.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Properties you find appealing..." * Freedom * Ownership * Personal freedom ... * Getting into a PhD program: references, references, references * Student adviser relationship * Pre-vs-post tenure * Impressing an adviser * (Topic) Plays to your adviser’s interests and strengths Much of your freedom goes to learning to play politics and manage up to a level employees never have to. Reading this, I'm so thankful I didn…
From my super-limited experience in academia, I found politics is more important at top schools and much less important when you get to ~40-80 ranked US schools for PhD programs.
I went through a PhD at a non-top-tier school (borderline between second-tier and third-tier). I definitely dealt with politics extensively. A huge amount of people-pleasing, both with your advisor and with others in your chosen research area and the broader field it sits in. A fair bit of funding-related politics. And a fair bit of actual politics politics, if you want to fit in.
There's a lot of in-group / out-group politics in academia; don't make life more difficult for yourself when you know a straightforward way to survive. Learn to deeply bury any opinions you might have that don't completely align with those of people who control your fate, especially in areas fundamental to their in-group identity, and if that fails, lie convincingly. (Remember that dodging a question where enthusiastic agreement was expected is a form of answer, and not the one you want to give.) You might get lucky and work with people accepting of differences of opinion, but I wouldn't recommend risking it when years of your life are on the line.
I don't regret the experience, and quite frankly I learned a few other survival skills in the process that simply hadn't come up as an undergrad, but don't go into it thinking it's a purely technical experience, or that you won't have to deal with a pile of utterly ridiculous BS and unpleasantness.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#18Does anyone have advice on applying to a PhD from industry & without significant research experience (but a BS + MS degree from Stanford)?
If you want a CS Ph.D., demonstrate that you're a REALLY REALLY GOOD programmer; that can make up for lack of significant research experience. I've advised a few dozen students of various ranks, and I still rate programming ability as amongst the top prerequisite ... everything else can be learned more easily in a short time, imho: http://pgbovine.net/prospective-students.htm
They asked linear algebra and probability in the interview for machine learning in my school. Most rospective candidates got asked "what's an eigenvalue?" (among many other questions).
I guess what you should learn depends on the field. But they'll be looking for demonstrable interest and possibly outside learning.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#19"I’ll assume that the second option you are considering is joining a medium-large company (which is likely most common). Ask yourself if you find the following properties appealing: ..." Why is every conversation about PHDs always cast in the light of as-opposed-to-working-for-the-man? I don't see discussions ever bring up the plethora of other life courses one can take. It is though the author sees a very clear bina…
Agreed completely. I did a PhD knowing that I had zero interest in going into academia, and it provided a major boost to my professional career. I find it surprising when people talk about doing a PhD as exclusively useful for academics.
Agreed. The main reason I got my PhD was because all of the jobs I found interesting after finishing my BS said "PhD required" on their application. I never planned on going into academia.
Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD
#20Does anyone have a link to his phd thesis btw?
I happen to :) http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/main.pdf