Last May I started working in a FAANG in western Europe as my first job out of university. Considering the fact that I'm from southeast Europe, the salary and working conditions are amazing, especially for a first job. There's also a lot of promises for career development. At 24, I have the financial freedom to do whatever I want, disregarding covid 19.
I have this itch however which is telling me that this is not what I want after all. Just before getting this job, I was doing my diploma thesis on a framework for creating thread-safe trees. I absolutely adored the process of research and creating something new for the sake of showing that it can be done. Throughout the process, I had to also make presentations of my ideas and concepts to people of different backgrounds, coming very close to teaching and I also felt extremely content while doing it. In general, it felt like an academic career is my calling.
Unfortunately, having heard a lot about the working conditions in PhDs and how hard they can be if there's a bad relationship with a supervisor, I decided to take the opportunity of getting a good job instead of a PhD in parallel systems.
I feel like I'm in a 'the grass is always greener on the other side' situation and I would like some opinions from people who actually did a PhD to get a feel of what it's like. Did you have the opportunity to create something of your own? Was it easy to actually get a teaching position afterwards? Was the investment in years worth it after all?
Once you are there life will be so much easier. Then do what ever you like.
phd in systems engineering is inherently unnecessary unless you want to spend time in academia.
This is my opinion with first hand experience working on a phD and working in a FAANG.
If you want to go deep into systems and make something at it - I would recommend a PhD in.a top tier university like Berkeley otherwise it's not worth leaving your job. A phd from a top tier university is required for a good academic career.
If it's just interesting work-- You can work on far more interesting systems work if you navigate to the right team in google for example.
PhD is a 5 year ish commitment and it's better to do it early in your life if you want to go to academia.
PhD dropout rates are also high, it's okay here too there's a lot that you learn anyway and the FAANG company is not going anywhere :). They're always happy to have you back...
I would wrap this up by reading this article by Prof. DesJardin How to be a good graduate student
https://heibeck.freeshell.org/Grad_Advice/how2b/how.2b.html
Hope this helps
However, the question going through my head as I read this…
why would you leave your fantastic job situation for this? Why not just study the things you're passionate about on your own time AND earn an amazing living?
Keep a blog about what you're learning and write there for impact?
Keep your money instead of spending it on tuition? (if that's a thing in your country, it sure is here!!)
Save yourself the trouble of a potentially bad relationship with a supervisor, and communicate with other experts in that field of study?
Student debt SUCKS. I'm still paying for college tuition more than 10 years after my tuition payments started. My major (business management) was absolutely NOT worth the amount of tuition I'm saddled with paying for it.
You have fantastic earning power. Keep it. Life isn't ALL about money, but you can save yourself a lot of hassle (and potentially, money!) skipping the PhD track.
ADDED: I make a good living now by having studied things that were not part of a degree track, and just doing it on my own.
I have also known people that had multiple degrees and loved every minute they spent studying the subjects they loved.
If you want to get a PhD, do it because it's something you want to do. Having all the material things in the world is worthless if you are miserable. Look at the situation realistically and decide if having a PhD is really something you want and you are ok living a student's life for a while then go for it.
If you have the skills that the job market values then a few years in academia will not hurt you too much. Have fun.
Otherwise, things can be quite undesirable IMHO. I've seen friends at lower-ranked schools struggling with getting money, hiring good students and doing things that industry cares about. Things are unfair at that point.
I have 2 years of work experience as a software engineer and a bachelor (B-/7.2) + master in computer science (A-/8.1). I've applied for years to FAANG companies through their website. Could we have a chat and see if I'm fit for being referred to the FAANG company you worked at? My email is in my profile.
--- More info (albeit redundant) ---
I applied through all the websites, but have always been rejected at the resume stage. I feel it's insane since I:
* Can build web applications in React/NodeJS
* Know a thing or two about web exploitation
* Know a thing or two about binary exploitation (mostly IDA), I once reversed 90% of a whole binary and ported it in C. That 90% compiled to exactly the same x86-64 assembly.
* Have built iOS applications in the past
* Have done hobby projects in: C++ (doing that now, see my Ask HN [1], I'm building something that requires speed), C, C#/Unity3D, PHP, Bash, R, JS, Python, Objective-C and Java (one with OpenGL).
Study on your own time.
I personally know a number in that position.
My observations are:
Teaching is hard work. Preparing lesson plans, drafting assignments and exams, marking assignments and exams and completing the myriad of bureacracy. You can easily spend 2-3 times more time on it outside of the classroom. And you don't get paid for those hours, only the "contact hours".
If you persue an interest from your working career experiences, it might be very hard to get a surpervisor who can relate to the industry side of your work.
Popular research areas form cliques. Negative results are buried, so it's easy to go down the wrong path because it looks obvious, yet nobody has written it up so it's like a bear trap you walk into.
You are expected to publish several papers in "important journals / conferences", the very same ones that seasoned academics have trouble getting published in. Yet, you as a newcomer, are expected to meet the same standards. You might be lucky if your supervisor is well regarded in your field. But second authorship is often not highly regarded.
Publish or Perish - starts from your PhD days and continues until you retire if you choose to go down the path of academia.
There is a great deal of competition for academic jobs, so the chances employment in that area are dismal.
You actually diminish your employment prospects if you decide to return to industry. Being "over-qualified" becomes a very real issue.
Have been an adjunct lecturer (part-time before starting my PhD and during it). It's not well paid for the hours you actually work. And you can have your courses dropped with just a few days notice if enrollment targets are not met. You have to remember that you develop the course material on your own time and without getting paid for it.
Of course, there are existing course materials. The tenured academics tend to grab those courses because they require far less work. The adjuncts are left with the courses that nobody else will touch.
Oh, last but not least, between 50% and 70% of PhDs are abandonded. ABD: "All But Dissertation" is an all too common outcome.
BUT, there are positives:
It is an amazing personal development adventure. As difficult as it is, once you graduate you will feel that it was all worth it for the experience and sense of accomplishment.
As long as you research something that you have a strong interest in, then you scratch a very personal itch and become the world expert (at least for a short-time) on that topic.