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On a related topic, I'm graduating with a master's in (computational) physics, and am already incredibly insecure about not having a PhD as many of the data sci

On a related topic, I'm graduating with a master's in (computational) physics, and am already incredibly insecure about not having a PhD as many of the data science positions seem to prefer those. Would a four year PhD, let's say in ML, be a worthwhile investment from a data science career point of view?

disgruntledphd2 9y ago
I would like to say no, but I hear from others that this can be an issue. Honestly, you can probably do a PhD in anything quantitative. FWIW, I hire data sciency people all the time, and I don't care about PhD's. I think that the qualification means that someone was stubborn enough to finish, and can do (some) work independently, and that's about it. The actual skills that I tend to like are the following: - data cleaning experience: this is the majority of the job - scepticism, especially about one's own theories - statistics and experimental design: you don't need to be able to prove theorems, but you should be able to follow them. Experimental design is one of the highest value skills in the world, and a lot of people don't have it. - Communication skills: it doesn't matter what you did if no-one else can understand it - For the avoidance of doubt, programming (not just SQL) experience (on HN, I would probably assume this). Full disclosure: I have a PhD and lots of friends of mine in this area tell me that its very difficult to get the better jobs without it.
arcanus 9y ago
> a four year PhD Those exist? Be careful, very few doctorates are short and well-scoped. Source: three letter, several of my friends were 7+, masters or not.
- scott_s 9y ago
  [raises hand] Including Master's (which was when I did most of my graduate course work), I took about 7.5 for a PhD.
yskmt 9y ago
Doing Phd for the sake of getting hired by specific companies/industries later is an extremely bad idea. Phd is for those who want to pursue research career (although it doesn't work out for more than 50% of Phd's). I myself did Phd and transitioned into data science, but I could have gone better way. Some reasons include: - Getting Phd is a long, unpredictable process that can take anywhere 4~8 years. Data Science may be hot right now, but it is not necessarily true by the time you graduate. - You will pay a ton of opportunity cost doing Phd. For the same amount of time, you can earn so much money and learn on the job. - Phd doesn't give you the real world industry experiences. I know a lot of fellow doctors who are trying to transition to data science but struggling. I would say you should polish your programming skills and get hired as a software engineer in big data related field. Then involve in some internal data science projects and transition into data science.

disgruntledphd2 9y ago

I would like to say no, but I hear from others that this can be an issue. Honestly, you can probably do a PhD in anything quantitative. FWIW, I hire data sciency people all the time, and I don't care about PhD's. I think that the qualification means that someone was stubborn enough to finish, and can do (some) work independently, and that's about it. The actual skills that I tend to like are the following: - data cleaning experience: this is the majority of the job - scepticism, especially about one's own theories - statistics and experimental design: you don't need to be able to prove theorems, but you should be able to follow them. Experimental design is one of the highest value skills in the world, and a lot of people don't have it. - Communication skills: it doesn't matter what you did if no-one else can understand it - For the avoidance of doubt, programming (not just SQL) experience (on HN, I would probably assume this). Full disclosure: I have a PhD and lots of friends of mine in this area tell me that its very difficult to get the better jobs without it.

arcanus 9y ago

> a four year PhD Those exist? Be careful, very few doctorates are short and well-scoped. Source: three letter, several of my friends were 7+, masters or not.

scott_s 9y ago
[raises hand] Including Master's (which was when I did most of my graduate course work), I took about 7.5 for a PhD.

yskmt 9y ago

Doing Phd for the sake of getting hired by specific companies/industries later is an extremely bad idea. Phd is for those who want to pursue research career (although it doesn't work out for more than 50% of Phd's). I myself did Phd and transitioned into data science, but I could have gone better way. Some reasons include: - Getting Phd is a long, unpredictable process that can take anywhere 4~8 years. Data Science may be hot right now, but it is not necessarily true by the time you graduate. - You will pay a ton of opportunity cost doing Phd. For the same amount of time, you can earn so much money and learn on the job. - Phd doesn't give you the real world industry experiences. I know a lot of fellow doctors who are trying to transition to data science but struggling. I would say you should polish your programming skills and get hired as a software engineer in big data related field. Then involve in some internal data science projects and transition into data science.