5 ms·

I've got to agree with you. I have a PhD from an British university, and recently moved back to the US. I haven't scored an industry job yet, rather I'm working

I've got to agree with you. I have a PhD from an British university, and recently moved back to the US. I haven't scored an industry job yet, rather I'm working as a postdoc in SoCal. But anyway, I've been trying very hard to engage with industry by attending programming meetups and demonstrating my skills to people who could be involved in hiring. Most of what I've talked to people about has gone over well. Sure it is a different path to go from a PhD to industry than to go in from undergraduate, but you will have developed thinking skills during it that will be valuable to any company. As far as showing that you are up to snuff on "best practices", a good set of github projects will go a long way if you have developed the right connections. I have met a lot of PhDs in computational fields with mediocre coding skills, but if you are in the position of being up with the times it's just a matter of marketing yourself properly. Not easy, but as I like to say, if you can code well your not in danger of starving anytime soon in this day and age.

wavefunction 12y ago
Here's my advice. As a PhD you have access to certain positions that are unavailable to the rest of us. But you're also cut off from the majority of positions in the industry for better or worse. You've got to market yourself on your quality, find a place you can stay with for a while, and build a legacy you can take to your next place. For folks like me, we hop between jobs every 1-3 years because I can come in, understand the rather mundane issues facing a codebase and rectify them relatively quickly from my extensive real-world experience before moving on to the next spot with a modest-to-sometimes-significant bump in pay. But I can never get access to the sorts of positions you will have access to.
- aortega 12y ago
  > But you're also cut off from the majority of positions in the industry for better or worse. Why? do they fire you if they discover that you secretly have a CS PhD?
  - xerophtye 12y ago
    Because you don't need PhD for those jobs. But as a PhD you would be asking a higher salary than a BS(CS). So its simply more efficient for the company to hire an experienced BS(CS). But with a PhD, you can target jobs that the employer feels are too complex and demanding for a simple BS

wavefunction 12y ago

Here's my advice. As a PhD you have access to certain positions that are unavailable to the rest of us. But you're also cut off from the majority of positions in the industry for better or worse. You've got to market yourself on your quality, find a place you can stay with for a while, and build a legacy you can take to your next place. For folks like me, we hop between jobs every 1-3 years because I can come in, understand the rather mundane issues facing a codebase and rectify them relatively quickly from my extensive real-world experience before moving on to the next spot with a modest-to-sometimes-significant bump in pay. But I can never get access to the sorts of positions you will have access to.

aortega 12y ago
> But you're also cut off from the majority of positions in the industry for better or worse. Why? do they fire you if they discover that you secretly have a CS PhD?
- xerophtye 12y ago
  Because you don't need PhD for those jobs. But as a PhD you would be asking a higher salary than a BS(CS). So its simply more efficient for the company to hire an experienced BS(CS). But with a PhD, you can target jobs that the employer feels are too complex and demanding for a simple BS