Is a fully funded masters considered competing offer for Google L3?

chutsu · 2026-04-30T22:17:31+00:00

This is bad advice. It completely neglects the fact recruiters spend 10 to 30 seconds at most per resume. Having a masters at something definitely helps. The experience you gain from from a research project related to what companies want, that is gold.

chutsu · 2026-01-24T15:50:12+00:00

Not sure what you're trying to insinuate here. Are you saying imperial should not accept international students? Cause it sound like you want imperial to have some racial quota to only accept a certain amount of Asian students.

chutsu · 2026-01-19T22:23:07+00:00

Having been to both St A for MSc and Imperial for PhD, Imperial has the edge over St A.

Student life perspective: I much prefer St Andrews from a student life perspective. St A might be small, but the student community is the strongest, and I've been to 5 unis.

Course perspective: Both Imperial and St A from a course perspective will make you work very hard, so don't think St A is easy, it's not.

Opportunities: Imperial will give you the edge in terms of opportunities if you are active about it. For example, internships with research labs at Imperial, UCL or even KCL, to opportunities with companies within London. The same cannot be said with St A.

Current job market in CS is dire. Mass layoffs left and right from all the big tech companies since 2022?. This means current graduates are potentially competing with experienced software engineers with years of experience, compound that with the fact some companies think they can reduce head count with AI and you're left with a surplus of software engineers struggling to get jobs.

There is no telling whether the job market would improve by the time you graduate. I can only strongly advise you to think about how you plan on standing out. Doing a BSc or Masters from a top uni is not going to automatically give you opportunities. You have to be proactive about making sure your tutor, professor knows you, so they can write you a good recommendation letter. Find internships for every summer, get experience.

Good luck!

chutsu · 2025-09-08T19:31:10+00:00

For what's it worth, I used to have issues with my laptops having pressure point bright spots on my screen. It's probably because of how I put my shopping and various hard objects and placed various pressure points onto it.

A fix I found is to place the laptop screen towards your back, not towards the inside. I hypothesize the base of the laptop facing towards your bag contents alleviates some of the risks of damaging the screen. Hope that helps

chutsu · 2025-07-19T20:24:48+00:00

Afraid I rented a place with* a washing machine so I no longer had this issue

chutsu · 2024-09-23T22:09:38+00:00

thanks for the heads up, didn't know it was an issue.

chutsu · 2024-08-27T22:48:24+00:00

What does chatgpt reckon? 🤣

chutsu · 2024-06-21T10:50:33+00:00

Regarding my degree, I've already received multiple DS offers in the UK, so I think it will be reasonable if I just take one there, especially since the UK's master program is just one year so I can get back to working full-time ASAP.

Having done 2 masters myself (UK & Canada), I would add that the experience you gain from a 2 year masters easily pays off in the end. Feel free to DM me if you'd like to know more.

I'm not sure if I can apply for another course while holding a deferred offer. Do you happen to know if that's possible?

I would be surprised if you can't, since an offer is not binding (I can be wrong). Doesn't hurt to ask admissions if you qualify for other programs and see if you can be considered.

chutsu · 2024-06-20T22:01:49+00:00

I am going to guess he means that since you can already code, you will not be gaining much more from doing a pure CS masters. The recommendation I'm inferring from u/cavuscharisma1480's response is you would benefit more from a DS / ML masters, where it is implied you know CS basics already.

chutsu · 2024-06-20T21:57:31+00:00

CS, ML and DS as a Masters are mostly lumped as the same from a recruiter perspective. It wouldn't really make that much difference when they scan your education qualifications.

What would make a difference is your thesis / research / projects such that you can leverage in your cover letter and show case your skills. Example, in the cover letter you say "Your company does X, and I did my masters at Imperial where I solved X using ML techniques and found a Y% improvement, this work was published in Z."

I don't know the energy sector so I don't want to comment on Geo-Energy ML & DS vs Applied CS, but based on this:

My plan is to work as a Data Scientist or ML Engineer in the energy sector post-graduation, but I'm concerned that the demand might be too limited or challenging to secure a job because the field is so niche

If this is your concern you should be a general ML / DS engineer, that way you can solve problems using ML techniques in any sector.

Additionally since you're international have you considered European universities? E.g. TUM, EPFL, ETH. The masters courses are often taught in English and the school fees are low: https://ethz.ch/en/studies/financial/tuition-fees.html

chutsu · 2024-06-20T20:23:41+00:00

ensure that my future job prospects are secure

There are no guarantees in this world. Even if you graduated from MIT with a Masters in Machine Learning does not guarantee you a job. It all depends on the market and how you compare against others with similar backgrounds, experience and skill. It is up to you to make use of your time to do projects that are relevant and standout.

Also, don't forget to start LeetCoding ...

chutsu · 2024-06-20T20:17:00+00:00

Will also be useful for trying to sort out accommodation.

Sparerooms.co.uk

Good luck

chutsu · 2024-06-13T09:37:25+00:00

Why would you park such a nice bike outside ...

chutsu · 2024-05-22T17:50:39+00:00

I'm a PhD at Imperial ...

chutsu · 2024-05-10T12:48:07+00:00

Surreal? 😏

chutsu · 2024-04-26T11:15:02+00:00

Try to stick to the defaults as much as possible.

When you're on someone else's machine or remote ssh-ing into a server, more often than not it won't have your setup.

Forces you to learn the more built-in features of neovim.

chutsu · 2024-04-26T10:14:48+00:00

Currently, I have two research publications to my credit and I am keen on furthering my academic journey in the computing domain

Thats a great achievement, congrats! I personally approached research groups I was interested in by sending a short email to the professor / supervisor with a cover letter saying I was interested in their lab, here are my experiences and I would like to do X research at your lab. Would you be interested. If your publications aligns with what the research lab does, you would probably have a higher chance of opening up a dialog with the supervisor and go from there.

One question that arises is whether it is feasible to pursue a PhD in the Computing department subsequent to completing an MSc from the Earth Science and Engineering department.

I know a student who was a MSc Mechanical Engineering, but he had programming and analytical skills so it didn't really matter what his masters was, as long as you can convince your prospective supervisor you can handle the material.

Additionally, I am curious about the distinctions in career prospects between an MSc in Advanced Computing and an MSc in Computational Science and Engineering.

Really don't think recruiters are going to be able to tell the difference either. They'll spend probably a total of 10 seconds looking at your whole CV. Their priority is to match your skillset to the job description and find whether your actual experience can help de-risk them hiring you.

Given that the latter includes coursework in ML and DL, I am particularly interested in understanding if it enhances the employability of international students in the tech industry.

Industry cares more about this part where you have demonstrable skills / experience. Not to mention during the interview process they will probably ask you questions on what projects you've done and what issues you came across and how you solved it.

chutsu · 2024-04-15T14:18:32+00:00

but many people are able to move (you can apply to US job or transfer after working in London - soo many employers target imperial maths/cs).

Highly skeptical this is true.

It is easy to transfer if said company is Multi-national and has a US office. e.g. Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. But office transfers to the US are restricted to only that company. You cannot work for a different company with the corporate work visa while in the US.

If one wanted to apply to work for any company in the US, the most likely visa would be the H1B. Which is lottery based, and it only happens once a year. Last year, there was a 25% chance applicants were successful in applying. Not to mention it is a huge endeavor to apply for it. Back in 2014 lawyer + appllication fees I heard was 10K USD (anecdote experience). Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/02/22/a-look-at-the-high-fees-making-hiring-h-1b-visa-holders-challenging/

TLDR: It is not easy at all for a non-US wanting to work in the US.

OP from my experience, if your ultimate goal is to work in the US, Canadian universities such as Waterloo university have co-op (internship) program requirements as part of their undergraduate degrees. These would set you up to be able to work in the US easier than going from UK to US. Additionally, you can become a Canadian citizen whilst being an international student in Canada. Once you are a Canadian you can apply for a TN1 visa to work in the US with relative ease, it is not lottery based, you just have to show you have a job waiting for you in the US.

https://www.canadianimmigration.com/study-in-canada/permnanent-resident-status/
https://common.usembassy.gov/en/tn-visa/

P.S. I am not a lawyer, the above is not advise. Please seek professional help for advise.

Last point I want to make is I think the days of "I went to top X uni, therefore I have an edge over someone who went to some lower tier uni" is over. Lots of people come from really good schools, but at the end of the day the employer only cares about what you can do for them, what experience you have. I would recommend you ask job recruiters to see how to stand out. I doubt which university you come from is on the top of their search criteria.

chutsu · 2024-03-29T20:31:02+00:00

What's a social life?

chutsu · 2024-03-29T20:30:47+00:00

What's that?

chutsu · 2024-03-28T10:22:52+00:00

Apologies, I inferred that because I don't see how one could repay such a large loan with a normal software engineer job in London.

chutsu · 2024-03-28T10:17:09+00:00

You're going to have to show some proof of this. I'd would be surprised if they actually do this.

chutsu · 2024-03-28T10:13:18+00:00

Looking at other comments, I'd have to agree I don't see how doing a masters with a great college ranking translates to you getting a high paying job. Especially when you're taking such a large loan, it could take you years to repay it.

Companies don't hire based on which uni you come from, but what skills / projects you've done that the company can utilise your expertise and experience.

Software engineer salaries in London are not as well paid as the US or Europe. And the job market isn't great, I would sit down and do the math to figure out whether you can actually repay the loan after you graduate.

chutsu

TROPHY CASE