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A Survival Guide to a PhD

karpathy.github.io

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Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#21

Post by chrisseaton »

shazam wrote: post #11

Does anyone have advice on applying to a PhD from industry & without significant research experience (but a BS + MS degree from Stanford)?

I did a MEng in CS, then went into work in a totally different industry for four years where I hardly touched a computer, and managed to come back in to do a PhD in CS without any research experience.

I literally cold-emailed some potential advisors that I found from looking at university websites and told them what I was passionate about. I got asked in for an interview and pitched what I wanted to work on.

I think if you are grown up and passionate about doing a PhD you are already going to look pretty impressive, as most advisors will usually be dealing with young undergraduates who can often be drifting into a PhD without really knowing what they want.

Someone dumping a paying career they have have already invested most of their 20s into has obviously thought about it very carefully and knows what they want.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#22

Post by gajjanag »

johan_larson wrote: post #16
enmi2015 wrote: post #10

A 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.

> 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.

Do you have any evidence for the minority claim beyond the personal anecdote? Also, this is field dependent, so a mention of the field could be helpful.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#23

Post by fatjokes »

I feel one disclaimer that karpathy modestly left out is that he is perhaps one of the most successful PhD students in his field. This likely impacts his view of a PhD program. I personally survived a PhD myself (also in CS, also in ML, also in Computer Vision!), and I've passed through without so many warm, fuzzy feelings.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#25

Post by aab0 »

All valid advice, but god is some of it depressing. Papers can be evaluated by flipping through and looking for pretty graphs and equations. Incremental, replication, or comparison work is discouraged. Never include the dead ends or what didn't work. Get into only the elite colleges and betwork at conferences as much as possible - it's not what you know but who you know. Hype up and make your paper as sexy and short as possible. Tell a story. Good teaching, blogging, and sharing software probably hurts you.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#26

Post by laxatives »

sndean wrote: post #9

With my own disclaimer [0], a few comments: > Personal freedom. As a PhD student you’re your own boss. Want to sleep in today? Sure. This is largely true, but only if you're on good terms with your advisor and they're happy with your progress. God, I miss being able to sleep in until 2pm. > Personal growth. ... you’ll become a master of managing your own psychology Yes, it's definitely a roller coaster. I know what h…

> > Picking the school. ... your dream school should 1) be a top school

> No, at least, in mine and other's experience, you should go to the best school where you're still capable of being in the top ~1% of your graduating class. You'll feel like you're the best and that's almost all that matters (Malcolm Gladwell's talk [1]).

Isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens after you want to progress to the next environment?

Is it realistic to be in the top 1% anywhere? Isn't that like being the best graduate ever from a small program, or the best in a decade at a larger one? You're not competing with a large population anymore, you're competing with someone who has passed dozens of filter steps in their lifetime and have gotten just as far as you have.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#28

Post by johan_larson »

gajjanag wrote: post #22
johan_larson wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> 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. Do you have any evidence for the minority claim beyond the personal anecdote? Also, this is field dependent, so a mention of the field could be helpful.

My claim is based on my own experience as a CS PhD student and my conversations with other graduate students within the department and outside it during my studies. Christ, there was so much bitching. And it consisted of the kind of grim complaints I never heard during undergrad days or later on the job.

That said, CS PhDs are pretty lucky. The worst case fallback position of a job as a software developer isn't bad. It gets much worse for less commercial disciplines. God help the poor blighter with a PhD in Medieval Literature who doesn't snag an academic post.

Re: A Survival Guide to a PhD

#29

Post by tostitos1979 »

eanzenberg wrote: post #7
JoshTriplett wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Same! I was super-interested in research and that's why I pursued a PhD. I never thought of running a lab or teaching classes.

A friend and I (both PhDs) were just discussing how difficult having a PhD has made getting engineering positions.In the course of interviewing at top-5 companies, we both have experienced a$$hats/interviewers with complexes who seem bent on showing off how they are smarter than the PhD interviewee .. curious if you have run into this as well, and any strategies to guard against this? I've also seen people who think PhDs can't code to save their life (I've seen such people but those are very obvious ... people who couldn't do fizbuzz) or think PhDs would get bored and leave easily. How does a competent PhD job seeker deal with this crap?
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