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Coming from a final year PhD student (already passed "pre-defence") doing a three year PhD in Japan: Advice I would have liked: Don't do a PhD if you like taki

by flor1s 9y ago

Coming from a final year PhD student (already passed "pre-defence") doing a three year PhD in Japan: Advice I would have liked: Don't do a PhD if you like taking classes and just want to extent that experience, as doing a PhD is very different from taking classes. Also, the classes you are forced to take probably suck. Advice I received but ignored but is probably true: Doing a PhD actually decreases your chance of getting a job (especially in Computer Science) Advice that I would have liked to receive, know now but still ignore: If you are in a foreign country and you don't know the language but you want to stay in the country after you graduate, learn the language! Don't spend all your time doing research thinking that you will somehow compensate for not fluently speaking the language just because you have more research achievements. (Disclaimer: I live in Japan, and most jobs, even academic jobs, require a sufficient level of Japanese language abilities)

luckyt 9y ago
Is it actually feasible to learn Japanese to a professional proficiency level as a foreigner? I've studied Japanese for several years, and can speak Japanese at an intermediate conversational level, but I'm still a long way off from communicating at a native level. So it seems like a tall order, especially given that you're busy with research and can't dedicate time to learning the language.
- flor1s 9y ago
  Starting from scratch is indeed a tall order, and probably not possible if you didn't study it before coming here. Many students spend some time as a "research student" before starting with the PhD, so that would be the best time to get a head start.
KindOne 9y ago
>Advice I received but ignored but is probably true: Doing a PhD actually decreases your chance of getting a job (especially in Computer Science) Can you explain the Computer Science part? Only reasons I can think of are "overqualified" and "X years in college with 0 real world experience".
- flor1s 9y ago
  Its mostly what I hear from the postdocs in my lab. In Japan older companies seem to prefer to hire a more homogeneous work force. Also in The Netherlands some tech companies (including one I interned at) were reprimanded for having a hiring process that discriminated against older applicants. The company I worked for had as requirement in their job ad "graduated less than 3 years ago".

by flor1s 9y ago

luckyt 9y ago

Is it actually feasible to learn Japanese to a professional proficiency level as a foreigner? I've studied Japanese for several years, and can speak Japanese at an intermediate conversational level, but I'm still a long way off from communicating at a native level. So it seems like a tall order, especially given that you're busy with research and can't dedicate time to learning the language.

flor1s 9y ago
Starting from scratch is indeed a tall order, and probably not possible if you didn't study it before coming here. Many students spend some time as a "research student" before starting with the PhD, so that would be the best time to get a head start.

KindOne 9y ago

>Advice I received but ignored but is probably true: Doing a PhD actually decreases your chance of getting a job (especially in Computer Science) Can you explain the Computer Science part? Only reasons I can think of are "overqualified" and "X years in college with 0 real world experience".

flor1s 9y ago
Its mostly what I hear from the postdocs in my lab. In Japan older companies seem to prefer to hire a more homogeneous work force. Also in The Netherlands some tech companies (including one I interned at) were reprimanded for having a hiring process that discriminated against older applicants. The company I worked for had as requirement in their job ad "graduated less than 3 years ago".