I don't see how this article addresses the person's question that if you want to work in machine learning, should you do a PhD? From my experience, companies want a few years(3+) of software engineering experience and a graduate degree of some sort, whether a masters or PhD. From my experience after getting a masters, Ive gone through the hassle of interviewing and be turned down bec they are looking for more experienced people for ML Eng and I only had 1 year of professional eng experience.
What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
171–180 of 195 posts
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you’re well off (from family or something like that) then sure you can of course do it in your own. However I’d rather have a system that would still allow me to get some sort of basic income (to afford a living) while doing, say, archeology studies in Ancient Rome. Such system is academia right now.
> If you’re well off (from family or something like that) then sure you can of course do it in your own. I grew up in a below-average income family in a below-average city in America, and I carved this out for myself despite zero undergraduate degree. This meme that you have to be well off or that everyone who does it had benefactors is kinda silly. I realize I am a sample size of one, but I really don't care for bei…
I was talking about doing things that are not economically viable.
What kind of research do you do?
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#173I have a PhD in aerospace engineering. I loved grad school. Loved loved loved it. I wouldn't give up the worst day I had in grad school for almost anything. And I love having the skills it taught me. I am a much better engineer and researcher than I could possibly have been had I taken almost any other route. I was given freedom in grad school that just would not have been present in most industry jobs. I was given a…
I second (by now probably seventh or eight) most of your post: I loved most of my time in my Math PhD program. > A toxic graduate school environment is worse than most toxic work environments I agree with this 100%. I would even extend this to overall academia pre-tenure (and maybe tenure as well). Moving to a different employer is usually easy and non-traumatic; in PhD program you are stuck -- leaving will mean aban…
> transition from doing great in classes (learning along an externally designed sequence) to planning and doing your own research may not go smoothly
I would speculate that this is largely because students spend most of their attention on pre-planned classroom-like work and do almost no research-like work during the first 16+ years of their formal schooling.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#174I think it's completely and utterly wrong that one person (the advisor) should ever have such absolute power over another (the student).
Just as the OP describes, if the advisor is great, it's fantastic. If they aren't, you are in a world of pain.
I don't regret choosing to do a PhD, but I deeply regret choosing my advisor.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#175I was once told by a professor who I respected very much how he gives advice to prospective PhDs. When someone asks "should I get my PhD?" the answer is always "no". Because the only people who will enjoy grad school are the ones who will do it anyways. I have found this to be good advice for people who are thinking of starting companies too.
I think that's a form of gatekeeping and privileges certain groups of people.
It depends of course in hwo the "no" is worded.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#176I have a PhD in aerospace engineering. I loved grad school. Loved loved loved it. I wouldn't give up the worst day I had in grad school for almost anything. And I love having the skills it taught me. I am a much better engineer and researcher than I could possibly have been had I taken almost any other route. I was given freedom in grad school that just would not have been present in most industry jobs. I was given a…
I only have a bachelors of science, but I went to a top 10 school in my degree field (material science).
The caliber of student and professor was off the charts like you said. Everyone was infinitely smarter than I was. They had some of the nicest equipment available. I worked in a 3 research labs for 3 years in college, under 3 different professors.
My first grad mentor, I took everything for granted. Didn't really realize how great he was and how much of an effort he put foward.
My second mentor ... didn't give a shit about me at all. Actually, this lab was the most interesting too, which made it worse. He saw me just as someone who clearly was wasting his time everyday.
My third mentor, I started to appreciate the value in a good teacher. Not the greatest but made efforts in making the concepts much easier to understand. I cared way more about my final honors dissertation in this lab than previous research I did. I wouldn't even call the other 2 labs research, I just read papers all day and did lab tech work.
In the end I realized research is not for me. Its not fun, and painstakingly slow to see results. Still learned a lot.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've turned down a handful of offers to teach classes at university and I'm about 34 semester credits short of a Bachelor's Degree. So I guess the land you need to be in is the United States of America, at least in my case anyway. Might be true elsewhere but I haven't tested my luck.
Being a professor also involves doing original research, leading and managing larger research projects, advising and mentoring grad students and publishing original work. Teaching undergraduate classes is just one small part of being a professor, and in many cases the part many professors find the least interesting.
I happen to have more than a handful of peer-reviewed papers under my belt, including some first authorship credits. That's pretty much how I got the offers.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've turned down a handful of offers to teach classes at university and I'm about 34 semester credits short of a Bachelor's Degree. So I guess the land you need to be in is the United States of America, at least in my case anyway. Might be true elsewhere but I haven't tested my luck.
Sounds like an Adjunct position which I hate to break it to you is no where near Professor. You will likely make less than minimum wage, I have seen salaries of $3,000 per class taught, and have essentially no room for advancement.This is a common end point for PhDs that didn't get a Tenure track position and have no other choice.
They weren't. But nice assumptions.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How many people you know who don’t have PhD and have freedom to explore at work full time what truely interests them? Author has rather twisted view of the selection bias. I don't have a degree and I have that. Also I know a lot of people with a PhD who do not have anything remotely resembling freedom. The author might be biased but it's good to hear it from that side once in awhile, rather than be deluged with "yo…
> The author might be biased but it's good to hear it from that side once in awhile, In what way is the author "biased" exactly? She did this course, was in both a PHD and tech, and tells people why she thinks it's worth considering not getting a PHD, listing various (valid IMO) reasons. Where does bias come in exactly?
It's selection bias at the very least.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm envious of that. I went through a master's program and I sorely miss that unstructured time to research and genuinely explore a topic. All of the learning I do these days is by force of business. I'm OK with that but it would be cool to get back to learning sometimes. Could you talk about what life is like as a professor? I looked at your research interests and they lean heavily on the applicable-to-industry side…
Thanks for the kind words! My research interests are definitely on the applied side on purpose. Some of the major criticism of research is that it is too theoretical or doesn't help people, so I wanted to do the opposite. I study actual engineers and the problems they face while working. This was actually my interest long before grad school. I wanted to make tools, plugins, and languages that were easier for me to us…
As someone in startup life, that sounds exactly right.