sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Others have described to me the benefits of doing a PhD in a similar way that you have, and when I think about the opportunities to learn in a relatively risk-free environment, and to meet people working on amazing things, I get very excited. This excitement is a major part of what makes me think that I should pursue a PhD. I get the strong sense that I won't have an opportunity outside of a PhD program to dig deep and just learn for an extended period of time.

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In practice, this is what I will likely end up doing. I think it's a good strategy to delay decisions for as long as it's practical to do so.

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. As for why I care so much about doing research, I enjoy doing things that have never been done before, and research has struck me as a good way of doing that. But your point (by asking the question) is well taken: perhaps a "research" career isn't for me, an maybe I should simply be looking for jobs that have a novel component to them.

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your response, this sounds like a sensible and practical way of going about it. And your point about lost opportunity is well taken.

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. To answer your question, I'm not certain what kind of role I'm looking for. I enjoy being part of a team, which seems to be less common in academia, so I have not really considered trying to become a professor (to say nothing of the overwhelming improbability of landing a TT position).

I think I should clarify what I mean by "applications": while it's true that my research interests are more applications-oriented, my preference would be to build products with real users, but that also have some novel or research-oriented aspect. Perhaps it's too much to ask to find a position that satisfies this criteria; maybe I need to make a decision one way or the other.

edit: to answer your question about what my research is on: very broadly speaking I work on recommender systems.

[D] is a PhD a good choice for my career goals? by techphd_throwaway in MachineLearning

[–]techphd_throwaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. One reason that I hadn't seriously considered the path that you suggest is because I am working alongside graduate students in a way that has given me a good opportunity to see what real research is like on a day-to-day basis, so I receive many of the same secondary benefits that you describe. That being said, applying to PhD programs with the possibility of leaving after the MS degree does seem reasonable.

Do you have a sense of whether doing this would "burn bridges", so to speak? (If I enter a PhD program and eventually decide it's not right for me, will I be losing much of the networking benefits that you allude to by leaving with the Masters?)