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1. If you goal is to work in industry, don't do pure mathematics PhD. What works, and is doable in 20-30h/week is doing an applied PhD in an area related to you

by stared 7y ago

1. If you goal is to work in industry, don't do pure mathematics PhD. What works, and is doable in 20-30h/week is doing an applied PhD in an area related to your work. I know quite a few people who did it with great success. (Quite a few friends, and some accomplished people like https://ruder.io/. https://ruder.io/.) Also, as a person with PhD - spending 4-7 years in an irrelevant field is going to seriously hurt your industry career. (I speak as someone with PhD.) Yes, PhD is worth something - but it won't come in the place of experience. 2. For the second, you need time. On their side, even if they don't need to provide funding, they invest their time. Talk to people at a local department. You may impress them enough that they are going to work with you unofficially - but the bar may be high. For later - what is the exact area you are most interested in?

playing_colours 7y ago
Thank you for your answer and advice! In pure mathematics - I found most interesting topics around algebraic topology. Next year, I plan to look into homology. These fields also have computational aspect and some applicability outside of pure maths: computational homology and Topological Data Analysis. This autumn, I finally looked a bit into category theory (applied) using this good book: https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Applied-Category-Theory-Compositionality/dp/1108711820 https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Applied-Category-Theory-Co..., and, unsurprisingly, found it exciting. Regarding PhD in an applied area: I tend to agree with you, and also keep thinking about focusing more on computational / applied mathematics so that my studies could be somehow related to my work. My tech focus at work is around data processing: with interest in distributed databases and computations. Heh, I see that distributed systems, algebra, topology, and categories are similar in mental representation in my head, they cause same kind of excitement when I study them: visualising, analysing, and playing with the systems of structures, connections, defined rules and operations :)

by stared 7y ago

playing_colours 7y ago

Thank you for your answer and advice! In pure mathematics - I found most interesting topics around algebraic topology. Next year, I plan to look into homology. These fields also have computational aspect and some applicability outside of pure maths: computational homology and Topological Data Analysis. This autumn, I finally looked a bit into category theory (applied) using this good book: https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Applied-Category-Theory-Compositionality/dp/1108711820 https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Applied-Category-Theory-Co..., and, unsurprisingly, found it exciting. Regarding PhD in an applied area: I tend to agree with you, and also keep thinking about focusing more on computational / applied mathematics so that my studies could be somehow related to my work. My tech focus at work is around data processing: with interest in distributed databases and computations. Heh, I see that distributed systems, algebra, topology, and categories are similar in mental representation in my head, they cause same kind of excitement when I study them: visualising, analysing, and playing with the systems of structures, connections, defined rules and operations :)