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Ask HN: Suggest ways to redeem myself of my poor academic performance

My academic performance has been poor though I have managed to get postgrad (CS) from one of the best (arguably THE best) institute in my country. My academic performance was poor because I generally spent time doing things that interested me but were not related to the curriculum. I have been working with startups, teaching and mentoring budding coders, involved in several management and team building exercises where I organized and managed events, gathered teams to execute short term projects and so on. I feel I have gathered considerable expertise in following areas 1. Team building. 2. Managing projects. 3. Web Development. 4. Giving ideas that add significant value to various startups. ( I have testimonials from my clients which they gave me proactively) 5. I love taking risks. My university culture is to look down upon such skills. However my confidence takes a blow when I look at my grade cards. They are one of the lowest. I have got AA in all management, software engineering, communication & articulation and programming courses but rest everywhere its the lowest. Does that mean I am not capable of making significant contribution to the world of research ?

chalst 15y ago
Does that mean I am not capable of making significant contribution to the world of research? No, it does not, but it does mean that there are few open doors for you to make contributions to research, and it likely means that it will be hard for you to get up to speed on the current literature, something necessary to make a useful contribution in any scientific field. The list of what you think you are good at does not suggest to me that you would be particularly happy in a research environment. Why do you want to do research? It is possible to come back to university from industry, and I am aware of people who have done good Phds that were grounded in their experience of non-academic problems. One of them had started his Phd with the intention of doing pure research for its high intellectual challenge but realised after less than a year that this motivated him less than he had thought and switched to research relevant to his previous job experience.
- digamber_kamat 15y ago
  I feel that building some research profile would give me the confidence that I can excel in some field that requires significant intellectual work.
  - chalst 15y ago
    To do a Phd, you have to find a problem domain you can obsess about for years. Do you have one?

chalst 15y ago

Does that mean I am not capable of making significant contribution to the world of research? No, it does not, but it does mean that there are few open doors for you to make contributions to research, and it likely means that it will be hard for you to get up to speed on the current literature, something necessary to make a useful contribution in any scientific field. The list of what you think you are good at does not suggest to me that you would be particularly happy in a research environment. Why do you want to do research? It is possible to come back to university from industry, and I am aware of people who have done good Phds that were grounded in their experience of non-academic problems. One of them had started his Phd with the intention of doing pure research for its high intellectual challenge but realised after less than a year that this motivated him less than he had thought and switched to research relevant to his previous job experience.

digamber_kamat 15y ago
I feel that building some research profile would give me the confidence that I can excel in some field that requires significant intellectual work.
- chalst 15y ago
  To do a Phd, you have to find a problem domain you can obsess about for years. Do you have one?