3 ms·

I went a very uncommon route in my career: I started phd school after 14 years of industry. My motivation was I was tired of creating new and interesting thing

I went a very uncommon route in my career: I started phd school after 14 years of industry. My motivation was I was tired of creating new and interesting things in industry only to have them be killed by politics. So, my idea never saw the light of day san a few dozen people. My thought was that if i have a phd, I am rewarded in my career for publishing these thoughts. If they are published, maybe some organization smarter than mine would use the ideas. I am a true scientist at heart in that i want to know where my ideas break and a good way to know that is to have a lot of public scrutiny over them.

alexilliamson 6y ago
How has the experience been getting a PhD after so long out of school? I'm quickly approaching 14 years in industry but still haven't ruled out a PhD.
- dhairya 6y ago
  I just started my PhD in AI (specifically NLP). Also took a non-traditional route (creative writing major -> 10 years in industry -> phd). It's interesting so far. Research feels very open ended compared to industry. While I was in industry (AI fintech startup), even though goals were rapidly changing, I had a good idea of what problems to work on and how to gauge progress. In contrast, research is far more undefined. There are days I feel lost and other where I'm chasing rabbits down deep holes. It's been hard for me to figure out if the problems I'm trying to solve are worth exploring (are they good research question? and more importantly are they publishable). But that being said, it's only about 6 months in and I feel like I'm still learning what it means to do research. I've definitely enjoyed having the space to explore problems at my own pace and think deeply about them.
  - jbn 6y ago
    from "creative writing" to AI (industry or academia) sounds like such a wide gap, I did not think such a jump would be possible... congrats!
blackrock 6y ago
So how’s it working out for you?

alexilliamson 6y ago

How has the experience been getting a PhD after so long out of school? I'm quickly approaching 14 years in industry but still haven't ruled out a PhD.

dhairya 6y ago
I just started my PhD in AI (specifically NLP). Also took a non-traditional route (creative writing major -> 10 years in industry -> phd). It's interesting so far. Research feels very open ended compared to industry. While I was in industry (AI fintech startup), even though goals were rapidly changing, I had a good idea of what problems to work on and how to gauge progress. In contrast, research is far more undefined. There are days I feel lost and other where I'm chasing rabbits down deep holes. It's been hard for me to figure out if the problems I'm trying to solve are worth exploring (are they good research question? and more importantly are they publishable). But that being said, it's only about 6 months in and I feel like I'm still learning what it means to do research. I've definitely enjoyed having the space to explore problems at my own pace and think deeply about them.
- jbn 6y ago
  from "creative writing" to AI (industry or academia) sounds like such a wide gap, I did not think such a jump would be possible... congrats!

blackrock 6y ago

So how’s it working out for you?