Ph.D Employment? 51
Dr. Nik asks: "As a recent Ph.D graduate in EE, I am curious to know where other Ph.Ds are employed. More specifically, I would be interested in knowing if you have moved into careers other than academic. Have you veered from the path? Are you still working in the field, or have you completely changed direction?" A couple of months ago, Slashdot was polled for PhDs in IT. How well do other areas of the workforce compare when it comes to hiring Doctorates?
Re:Starting my phd soon (Score:1)
Way to go!
I tried to add something about software "engineering" having to ship products while lit-crit types don't have to write a novel anyone would ever read. But in the world of ESR and Slashdot, you are free to judge technological matters without ever doing much more engineering than unwrapping boxes from NewEgg. Your logic still defeats me!
Google (Score:2, Interesting)
Go back and get an MBA (Score:4, Interesting)
Having an MBA and a PhD in EE will guarantee you plenty of funding for any idea you have. VCs and Traditional lenders will be knocking down your door to give you money.
heh (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I think if you want to go the entrepreneurship route, you'll learn in 3 years from starting your own business and bootstrapping (even if it ultimately fails) than getting an MBA.
MBAs are for middle managers.
Re:heh (Score:1, Troll)
You may be correct in this, but only in the literal sense. At the height of the dotcom bubble I was contacted by a VC who was interested in offering me "initial funding... of $5M to $15M". (I turned down the offer, since I was more interested in going to Oxford to do my D.Phil.)
Of course, I doubt that would happen now, but this example at least demonstrates that it's not impossible.
Re:heh (Score:1)
These are the things a lender wants to see... they care as much for your idea as how you manage your idea. An MBA should be able to take on any business and make it work... mix that with a PhD in EE and you have both business acumen and technological know-how.... ++
You may learn a lot from starting your own business but i
Re:heh (Score:1)
PhD's with enough real world savvy to make it in business don't need an MBA to learn how to write a business plan. If nothing else, they find an experienced MBA-type to write one.
MBAs with enough technical savvy to make it in high-tech don't want to waste years on a thesis project that has no commercial application. They want to make things happen in the real world.
More likely, PhD + MBA combinations combine the w
Re:heh (Score:2)
Personally I took teh altogether alternate path and didn't get either nor even a degree. However if I was to have gone the route of higher education I would have been interested enough in both disciplines to go after the doublet.
PhD's do not typically have enough real world savvy and I surmise it is because they have
Re:heh (Score:2)
Re:Go back and get an MBA (Score:1)
Re:Go back and get an MBA (Score:3, Interesting)
I spent 4 months in a 3 bedroom apartment working on presentations and demo software with 15 to 20 people in the first months of 2000 putting together a valid business plan for CMGI@Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Lightwave Venture Funds to get 13 million in funding for a software startup company...
Yes there was $600,000
My doctorate is in Mechanical Engineering (Score:4, Informative)
Re:My doctorate is in Mechanical Engineering (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm not sure if this $88,000 per year is for 9 months appointment or 12 months appointment though, since universities usually only pay professors for 9 months (Fall and Spring), unless the professor is teaching for Summer Course. But the point is, if a tier 3 university can pay $88,0
Re:My doctorate is in Mechanical Engineering (Score:1)
Top universities actually pay their professors less! Everyone wants to be a professor at Harvard or Yale. For most people, the prestige of being employed by a top university is more important than the extra money. Top universities receive so many qualified applicants that they can offer a relatively small quantity of money and still get the best out there.
Earlier? (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh...shouldn't you have thought about this a couple years ago?
Re:Earlier? (Score:4, Insightful)
Makes no sense to you, or to most people for that matter. Probably good that there are people out there like this.
What's Your Background? (Score:3, Insightful)
At the end of my degree I had come to the conclusion that academia wasn't for me. Too many long hours with all the ridiculous politics of every workplace. So I joined the industrial workforce and am quite happy working in the general area of my research. But you'll find that wherever you go, it won't be exactly the same thing you've been working on. Nor should it be.
My degree enabled me to pick exactly the kind of job I wanted. I felt completely comfortable turning jobs down if they weren't what I was looking for. Because no matter what else, the fact that you finished a Ph.D. is a big plus in your portfolio when it comes to reliability and dedication.
There are plenty of EE/CS companies looking for Ph.D.'s. But don't go looking on Monster. Talk to your advisor and get "ins" where you need them. That's how it works. No one in H.R. has any idea what you did or how it applies to the company you may be looking at. Get a technical contact and pursue it.
Research Lab (Score:1)
Doctorate? (Score:1)
How the hell do you hire a doctorate?
Do you get your jollies from publishing and? (Score:2)
Go into the private sector if you don't like any of the above reasons
Look for other PhDs (Score:2)
It's not to say that you need any sort of degree at all to succeed in the IT field; indeed, some of the best programmers I have ever met
And here I thought (Score:2)
Re: And here I thought (Score:1)
zerg (Score:2)
If this isn't patently obvious, then your education was a waste and you don't deserve the title Doctor of Philosophy.
Federal government (Score:2)
! job (Score:4, Funny)
if you have a phd in engineering... stop. relax, take 6 months and THINK about what you want to do with the next 30 years of your life. Think really big. Got that? OK next take another 6 months and create a 5-year plan to make the first step of the 30-year plan work. then go do it. When it's done, repeat (but this time use 25, not 30)
Trust yourself. your ideas will be just as good as anyone else's, probably better. DO NOT go look for a job. you will be very disappointed.
in my case I worked 2 years, then 1 more, then started the above plan and I've never had a "job" since.
I've got a Ph.D. (Score:2)
PhD = Permanent Head Damage (Score:2)
Remember:
You get better tips if you wear raggedy clothes and print "god bless you" somewhere on your sign. Doubleplus points if you have a baby carriage (don't get a real baby, or CPS [google.com] will come and get you).
Make sure you stand on the corner just off an off-ramp that leads to an affluent area. Poor people don't give sh~t for "donations."
"Will work for food" is played out; don't use it. Come up with something original & funny and you'll get a laugh and maybe a fiver.
hw/sw boundary (Score:2)
To my experience, there are a number of reasons a prospective employer would hire you:
1. You have specific knowledge, difficult to come by and often (or not) a result of your PhD work. Considering that PhDs are often high level research and often not ready for direct use in industry in the next few years (typical planning of management), you might be out of luck here.
2. He has confidence i
Wall St. (Score:2)
Gov't research (Score:2)
I always knew I didn't want to be tenure-track faculty. It's a lot of things I don't like (teaching, grant writing, committees, trying to churn out papers) and not much time for what I do like (hacking code). As a researcher I ge
Thanks for the responses (this is Dr. Nik) (Score:1, Informative)
My purpose in asking this question was to get an idea of what people with PhD's are doing these days.
As on
Thanks for your responses... (Score:2, Informative)
Move to Syracuse (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for your responses... (Score:1)
Consultancy... (Score:1)
A lot of places (Score:2)
For the record, I have a B.Ch.E. And it says as much on my resume. No idea what the fuck they were thinking. It was an awkward interview. "Soo...uh...I see you don't have a doctorate, or...er...um...any eduction in Electrical Engineering at all...er...I don't know what I'm supposed to ask you."
Andyway, I suggest you look around. Maybe you'll find a company looking for a PhD EE that a
Ph.D. in Physics.... (Score:2)
The pay is better, the hours are better, I'm treated with a degree of respect. Never would have happened if I had stayed in academia.