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Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

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Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#11

Post by kespindler »

There's a good chance 115k TC is significantly less than what you could be getting.

I'm currently building a network of domain expert mentors, where companies can connect with experts for advising their existing team to solve business problems. Think of it like very low commitment consulting. It might be a great way to get a better feel for industry (and the salary you can command) before making a hard commitment.

If that sounds interesting, shoot me an email. My email is at gmail dot com.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#12

Post by jraph »

makedecisions wrote: post #10
jraph wrote: post #7

As long as your salary is enough to live comfortably, do what best makes sense for you. You'll probably be happier taking the path that is the most meaningful to you. Now, personally, if you got your motivation back, I'd advise to go ahead and finish this PhD! You'll have plenty of offers in the future, probably including more meaningful ones. We are in a field where job offers are not missing. You only have one PhD…

> You'll have plenty of offers in the future, probably including more meaningful ones. That would be great. I'm sure that one can and will find stimulating and interesting work without the PhD too - sometimes the ivory tower of academia makes it seem different though. What worries me more is the aspect of leaving machine learning for a different field, and then not finding my way back later on. > (and yes, I did decl…

> I'm sure that one can and will find stimulating and interesting work without the PhD too - sometimes the ivory tower of academia makes it seem different though

I know, as a former PhD who is now a software developer :-)

I would not recommend a PhD to everyone, but your message reads like you are enjoying the field and the intellectual challenge, and that's what I'm basing my answer on.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#14

Post by makedecisions »

cm2012 wrote: post #8

If it's a brand name tech company, like faang, it opens up many doors in your future to have the name on your resume. It makes it easier to get grants in the future. You'll also get practical experience that will help your science work. Just make sure to keep living on your PHD salary, put the rest to savings. If you start living on the higher salary you'll never be able to go back to your PHD again.

Not faang but still brand name, like snowflake, databricks, ...

Grants are not really my concern here. I agree that industry experience could be great to increase productivity for a PhD, but I don't think that there will be a way back once I quit.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#15

Post by jfim »

Have you looked into other opportunities that would combine your interests? If not, it's easy to have a "scarcity mindset" where there are only a few options available, and each option seems like a life-changing one.

For example, you mention that your career would involve giving up machine learning. There are definitely jobs in Germany where you could do both, here's an example of one: https://www.argo.ai/careers/open-positions/?gh_jid=3560509 (disclaimer, I work there).

In my opinion, there will always be opportunities for interesting work. There will be opportunities for work if you complete your PhD, and there will also be opportunities if you don't, so pick whichever route you think will make you happiest in the long term. Don't pick an option out of fear of missing out on a job, there will be more in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#16

Post by makedecisions »

jfim wrote: post #15

Have you looked into other opportunities that would combine your interests? If not, it's easy to have a "scarcity mindset" where there are only a few options available, and each option seems like a life-changing one. For example, you mention that your career would involve giving up machine learning. There are definitely jobs in Germany where you could do both, here's an example of one: https://www.argo.ai/careers/ope…

> Have you looked into other opportunities that would combine your interests?

I did. I also got offers in "my" field, just not such good ones. Perhaps got carried away a bit by the other offer i received. I'll have a look at Argo, thanks for sharing!

> Don't pick an option out of fear of missing out on a job, there will be more in the future.

Feels like so much of the career discussion in CS is concentrated on TC optimization - it's good to remember that one can choose to optimize for different things too.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#18

Post by jfim »

makedecisions wrote: post #16
jfim wrote: post #15

Have you looked into other opportunities that would combine your interests? If not, it's easy to have a "scarcity mindset" where there are only a few options available, and each option seems like a life-changing one. For example, you mention that your career would involve giving up machine learning. There are definitely jobs in Germany where you could do both, here's an example of one: https://www.argo.ai/careers/ope…

> Have you looked into other opportunities that would combine your interests? I did. I also got offers in "my" field, just not such good ones. Perhaps got carried away a bit by the other offer i received. I'll have a look at Argo, thanks for sharing! > Don't pick an option out of fear of missing out on a job, there will be more in the future. Feels like so much of the career discussion in CS is concentrated on TC opt…

> Feels like so much of the career discussion in CS is concentrated on TC optimization - it's good to remember that one can choose to optimize for different things too.

It's easy to optimize for total compensation, since that's an easy to measure metric. If job A pays 20% more than job B, then one can easily evaluate that. It's harder to see that job A might be working on ethically dubious projects, may have longer work hours, more stress, or might just be at a company that's more successful than the one that has job B.

Best of luck on your decision, and feel free to reach out if you want.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#19

Post by fancyfredbot »

I'll give a cynical view based only on money. The opportunity to obtain a phd is worth more than 50k. There will always be well paying tech jobs, but although getting a PhD later in life is possible, giving up the salary once you are used to it may be practically impossible. Meanwhile the PhD will likely open up options for you later in your career which might otherwise be closed. You should do it now because otherwise you never will and it'll cost you in the long run. So that's the money grabbing view. If you take into account the satisfaction of doing original research too, it becomes a no brainer to finish the phd, in my view.

Re: Ask HN: Would you give up 100% more salary as a junior SWE/MLE?

#20

Post by mellosouls »

There will be plenty of golden offers in years to come; the PhD is pretty one off, you won't be capable of doing it within a few years, or at least it will be far more difficult intellectually and energy-wise, let alone considering other life commitments you may have. Having a PhD will also be a significant differentiator for some of those golden offers.

That doesn't mean a PhD is right for you, or you shouldn't take a once in a lifetime offer in the unlikely event that is what this is, but FOMO can be a very strong and misleading signal - and fortunately you seem to be aware of that.

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