What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
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Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#2I have several questions regarding this:
1) Do FAANG companies hire non-PhDs for machine learning positions? Most seem to require a MS or PhD
2) What are the interview questions like at FAANG companies for machine learning positions? Is the interview different if you don't have a PhD?
3) For non-PhDs applying, what are the math requirements for the job?
4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you feel like you use your PhD level skills day-to-day?
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#3A little disappointed with the one-sided point of view here - the author states
"...I deeply admire everyone I’ve listed, and I am not arguing that a PhD is never useful or never works out well" but never really gives examples of skills that PhDs do provide.
And there are absolutely career paths where a PhD is not required, but since many of the practitioners have one, can often be selected for (data science, biotech, biostats, lots of engineering research etc.) So without a PhD you might have a harder time rising as far as you would like in one of these positions (again being realistic that it's not all about talent, it can often be politics/perceived competence, which a PhD can augment).
It's just important to be honest about both pros and cons when writing advice articles like this.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#4This gets it right, I think. And I say that as someone who does not regret taking five years to get a PhD.
A PhD is too long, narrow, and frustrating to do just to get a slightly fatter paycheck.
For some reason, that deep dive clicked with me, and I’m grateful for all the personal growth that came from that. But for the vast majority of people, I think it could easily end as an exercise in frustration.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#5I have several questions regarding this: 1) Do FAANG companies hire non-PhDs for machine learning positions? Most seem to require a MS or PhD 2) What are the interview questions like at FAANG companies for machine learning positions? Is the interview different if you don't have a PhD? 3) For non-PhDs applying, what are the math requirements for the job? 4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you f…
I'd like to know a variation on this:
> 4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you feel like you use your PhD level skills day-to-day?
5) For people who work with a mix of PhDs and non-PhDs in the same field, do you notice a difference in output quality?
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#6This gets it right, I think. And I say that as someone who does not regret taking five years to get a PhD. A PhD is too long, narrow, and frustrating to do just to get a slightly fatter paycheck. For some reason, that deep dive clicked with me, and I’m grateful for all the personal growth that came from that. But for the vast majority of people, I think it could easily end as an exercise in frustration.
Five years is a super long PhD. If you can get it done in two or three years it makes more sense.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#7This gets it right, I think. And I say that as someone who does not regret taking five years to get a PhD. A PhD is too long, narrow, and frustrating to do just to get a slightly fatter paycheck. For some reason, that deep dive clicked with me, and I’m grateful for all the personal growth that came from that. But for the vast majority of people, I think it could easily end as an exercise in frustration.
Five years is a super long PhD. If you can get it done in two or three years it makes more sense.
I assume the 5 years means starting with a Bachelors. At least in the US, it's fairly unheard of to finish a PhD in 3 years or less.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#8This gets it right, I think. And I say that as someone who does not regret taking five years to get a PhD. A PhD is too long, narrow, and frustrating to do just to get a slightly fatter paycheck. For some reason, that deep dive clicked with me, and I’m grateful for all the personal growth that came from that. But for the vast majority of people, I think it could easily end as an exercise in frustration.
Five years is a super long PhD. If you can get it done in two or three years it makes more sense.
There are fields in the sciences (e.g., biology) where the PhD routinely takes 5-6 years on top of a bachelors, and you won't be hirable at the PhD level in academia and some parts of industry until after at least two multi-year postdocs.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#9I have several questions regarding this: 1) Do FAANG companies hire non-PhDs for machine learning positions? Most seem to require a MS or PhD 2) What are the interview questions like at FAANG companies for machine learning positions? Is the interview different if you don't have a PhD? 3) For non-PhDs applying, what are the math requirements for the job? 4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you f…
I work at NVidia as a GPU architect doing ML applied research. I'm not a hiring manager, but I have interviewed a bunch of people.
1) Having a PhD will make it easier to get an interview, but it is not necessary. Relevant experience counts just as much. I only have an MSc.
2) That will vary a ton from one team to another and from one position to another. The interviewers are not going to change their questions depending on your education.
3) The same requirement as for PhDs. It will depend on the role, but in general I expect people value hands-on experience more than theory.
Except for some particular hiring managers with strong opinions, a PhD is not going to be a hard requirement for nearly any job. However, a PhD in a relevant area is going to be useful, just like any other relevant experience you may have.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#10I have several questions regarding this: 1) Do FAANG companies hire non-PhDs for machine learning positions? Most seem to require a MS or PhD 2) What are the interview questions like at FAANG companies for machine learning positions? Is the interview different if you don't have a PhD? 3) For non-PhDs applying, what are the math requirements for the job? 4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you f…
I'd like to know a variation on this: > 4) For people that have a PhD working in ML at a FAANG, do you feel like you use your PhD level skills day-to-day? 5) For people who work with a mix of PhDs and non-PhDs in the same field, do you notice a difference in output quality?
5) No, but I am obviously biased due to not having a PhD. I doubt you are going to get an unbiased answer from anybody; everybody wants to believe they made the right choice.