So you’ve got a Ph.D.

Troels Damgaard (troels.damgaard@edlund.dk)

Edlund A/S, DK

ITU, March 17th, 2011

1

Now what?(*)

(*) Title borrowed from presentation by Scott MacLachlan, Tufts University, 2008

Who am I? – Career headlines• Ph.D. from PLS group, ITU (advisor Lars Birkedal), Dec. 2008• Dissertation: ”Developing Bigraphical Languages”

• A meta-language for DSLs for mobile and distributed systems• Studied applications in cellular biology

• Software Developer, Edlund A/S, March 2009• Started in ”Core” department working with

• Core modules of Edlund’s application(s), e.g., custom Database layer, custom Session-layer, configuration-layer, …

• Build tools, config- and database-setup tools, source control (Mercurial), custom bugtracker, custom semantic patcher, … (we like to roll our own)

• Scrummaster, April 2010 (aka part-time enforcer and secretary)• Right now: Temporary department head (aka ”buried in paper

and meetings”)2

What’s in this talk…And what’s not...• What I’m going to say is• mostly common sense• highly influenced by my own opinions and experience

• I use my history and thoughts to exemplify my general statements• I have tried to hedge against being too one-sided, though…

• focused on career-choices right after the Ph.D., and,• somewhat focused on going to the private sector

• because that’s what I did, and,• because you’re surrounded by clever people who• know a lot about doing a career in academia, and,• have a tendency to become role models…

• Also• No guidelines for formalities such as CV’s, dresscode, etc. 3

About the structure of this talk• There isn’t any• Well…• As preparation for this talk, I did some crowdsourcing • I asked friends and acquaintances with PhDs some questions.

• I decided to (loosely) structure the talk around these questions

• Hence, interspersed across this talk - my opinions as well as selected opinions and points resulting from this little informal survey

• Also, I'll have some sections named FAQ here and there• Topics that I've found myself discussing frequently. • They aren't really questions, but FDT isn't as catchy 4

What do you want do? (1)• Some questions to consider• What would you like to do?

• Elaborate - which kind of tasks?• Start with what you have you experienced.

• What do you want to avoid?• What do you find boring/tedious/trivial/...?

• How do you feel about working abroad?• How does your family, if any, feel?• And for each Q consider both now and later?

• How do you get from where you are now to your career goal in say five years?

• If, e.g., you want to create your company, then a job at McKinsey may be an idea. 5

What do you want to do? (2)• Another angle of attack• What motivates you?• As per McClelland may divide into need for

• Achievement (personal)• Power (influence)• Affiliation (relationships, human interaction)

• Match answers to Qs to different jobs• Requires investigation... (as we'll get back to)

6

An example: What did I want?• I like to build stuff• I like to interact with other people• I like to have influence• about what I do, and,• about what others do

• Personal achievement is important, • but team-achievement is almost as important

• I put great value on fun and intelligent colleagues• I'm generally best at tasks that I find fun• I dislike repetitive tasks• I am willing to accept some, though

• I dislike nepotism and favoritism, in general• (... which I find is endemic in some academic circles...)

7

My career goals• Long: Keep the possibility of a management position open• Short: Balance love for developing with need for influence• On family• Fiancée with career and one small child• Of course, an influence on job options• McKinsey-like consultancy jobs were not an option

• On going abroad• Later maybe, at the time no• Has never been a major priority for me• Also motivated by family-situation• Job content, colleagues much more important for me

8

Selected survey results (1)• Continued in academia• Felt like digging more into the research-topic• Wanted to go abroad• Felt it was easier to go from academia to private sector than the

other way around• Was offered a post.doc. and accepted w.o. much thought• Liked the considerable freedom in choice of work• Didn't like the most obvious private sector options in the field• Didn't like the working climate in a "typical" private sector-job

9

Selected survey results (2)• Continued in private sector• Wanted to go abroad• Long-term goal: Starting own company• Wanted to develop and build more• Wanted to work closer to real-life applications/users• Wanted to try out a private sector-job• Wasn't sure that (s)he could produce something really extraordinary

as a researcher• Felt family obligations prevented going abroad (and felt that was

necessary as post.doc.)• Got an R&D job in private sector offer based on research• Was turned off by academia because of

• the growing need for time spent on paperwork (applications, ...)• the time-limited positions with fairly low wages• the stress around paper-deadlines

10

On the major decision: “Academia or not?”• Common way of boiling down the choice is: “Research or not?”• (Although privately funded research is also a possibility.)

• What is research, by the way?• Wikipedia to the rescue:• “... the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation,

with an open mind, to establish novel facts, usually using a scientific method.”

• ... ok.• My opinion - suboptimal basis for making an informed decision

about your career• What I (and others) did:• For each job X that you may want to go for, now or later, investigate

• “How does a common day in the life of an X look?”• I’ll tell you about some about my days, later on

11

Investigating options. When?• When to start?• Easy answer: As early as possible• For an academical career

• Part of the PhD-study is about building the needed network for job options later on

• Some collected advice for building an academic career, later• For a career outside academia

• My opinion: One year before you're done isn't too early• However, career change• Hence, the need for early investigation maybe not as pronounced

• Do remember that starting up your own company is also an option

12

Investigating options. How?• Discuss with your advisor and colleagues• Get out there• Use your network• As PhD – part of a very exclusive network with members positioned in many

different jobs• A day in the life of an X...• What tasks, problems, and events occur?• Get as detailed information as possible

• I prefer examples over overviews and summarizing statements• Towards that end – some scenes from the life of me, later

• Match results with your expectations of a good job• Investigate also:• Which capabilities and challenges are needed as an X?

• And how does that match my capabilities?• Which career-options does job X provide me?• How do you do well in a career as an X?

13

FAQ: What do private companies think about a PhD?• That depends…• Needs a combination with some other skills such as• good dev skills• good communication skills• management skills• innovation-skills oriented towards products• understanding of customer-orientation• hard working• team-player

• Then a PhD is a definite plus at companies with characteristics such as• High-tech• Innovative• Non-standard• General high level of education of employees

14

FAQ: What do private … (cont.)• May be obvious: • As a developer, you will need to prove that you can develop

• Don't expect to be hired as an "architect"/"senior developer" based only on your PhD• You may advance quickly, though

• Companies on the look-out for• Introvert nerdiness• Lack of ambition• Lack of ”finishing” skills

15

FAQ: “But I can’t use what I did in my PhD..."• You're probably right• ...• But do consider how narrowly you want to define "what you did"• Really want to focus on your topic? / Really value the freedom of

choosing a topic?• Then you probably need to consider research

• Happy with using a variety of general skills within your field• ...and gained just by doing a PhD,• Then also consider a career in the private sector

• Also, applied research does occur in the private sector• As a PhD you're well-positioned to take part in such projects• Not an everyday occurrence, though• Typically requires some level of maneuvering and social engineering• May be easier abroad

16

How, what, and when did I investigate?• Considered academia vs. private sector through the entirety of my

PhD studies• Compared my qualities and preferences with friends and colleagues• Went to seminars like this...• During last year - made the decision to go for a private sector job• Sought companies and positions where the use for a strong

background in comp. science was apparent to me and the employer• Around half a year before • Visited friends and former colleagues at several companies for informal

lunch- or coffee-talk• Valuable information just by sitting at a lunch-table listening to the chatter

• Also investigated opportunities in biotech industry• Tried to use every connection I had to get around HR-departments

• To get to talk to “real people” at the companies• (Some HR-departments also understand the importance of this)

17

The interviews (1)• Sell yourself...• DO be frank, but it's fair game to be able to spin your weaknesses

• (-) "I am easily bored."• (+) "I am at my most efficient when given complicated tasks."

• As a highly educated individual you obviously have some qualities...

• In the private sector - be prepared for• Quirky personality tests.• "Which animal would you be on the savannah?"• HR on the lookout for potential character problems that hampers ability to

work in a team• Challenges to your decision to make a career change• Prejudices against PhDs• Have your elevator talk ready• Remember that you are also evaluating them

18

The interviews (2)• Remember the summary of my Ph.D.?• “DSLs for mobile and distributed systems.” • “Studied applications in biology.”

• If you squint that’s what I did.. However, it could also have said:• “Axiomatized the structural congruence relation for binding

bigraphs”• “Developed an inductive characterization of matching for binding

bigraphs”• ...• You see the problem?

• About the salary...• Mainly relevant for private sector, I guess• DO make an effort to find your market value

• (You're devaluating the product of our little club each time you sell yourself short!)

19

Where did I apply? And why?• I decided early on that my life was too short for classic

consultancy work• Interviewed at most of the companies, I thought might be

interesting in DK• Maconomy, Edlund, SimCorp, and Microsoft

• I viewed the interviews as an another opportunity for me to evaluate those companies

• Had a wide variety of interview processes• After a few interview rounds I had some job offers to choose

from• Advice: Try to time your interviews to the same period• When you have an offer on hand, it's hard to push the decision• But don't just accept the first offer that you get...

20

Building a career in academia - a collection of advice (1)• As a result of my survey, I also got a lot of input on building a good

career in academia• Here’s some selected hints and opinions (including my own)

• Create your own research profile• You need your own "angle" - also different than your advisor• Need to start this during your PhD studies

• Show that you are good teaching a wide variety of subjects• Learn the game• Teaching and administrative tasks are part of the job

• ... but will not get you the permanent positions• Publications are key

• Also understand the ranking of publication venues in your field• Understand how the funding-system works• Writing and/or participating in research applications is important

21

Building a career in academia – a collection of advice (2)• Need family-backing• Doing a post.doc. is a career job (not 8-16) though not well-paid

• Networking is very important• Basis for cooperation, getting papers published, etc.• Network and cooperate with people

• at different institutions• across national borders

• Working with people that are part of the "in" circles• helps getting funding• helps getting publications

• Good guides online - lookup• Emigration course guides• Guides to new faculty

22

FAQ: Going back to academia from the private sector...• Can be hard• Need to have a well-defined research profile• To show that you can start publishing fairly soon

• With "only" a short (Danish) PhD may be hard to get back• Working with topics in extension to your PhD-topics is helpful• Is probably a worry that too many PhDs students have...

23

As promised: Scenes from the life of Troels (1)• As a developer• Writing a small parser for our commitlog-wiki plugin• Fixing a bug, I introduced on the “New report”-page in our

homebrewn bugtracker, when I made added a “Copy-report” button

• Debugging a unittest-fixture for our CPUAffinity-module that has failing tests when run on our new 24-core machine

• Extending our custom configuration- and databasesetup-layer to allow SQL Server compression to be used

• Analyzing a possible race-condition in our SessionStore-module

24

As promised: Scenes from the life of Troels (2)• As a scrummaster• Updating (and harassing) the others for estimates for remaining

time on their tasks• Planning next sprints• Communicating with other groups about the deadline for a task

• As temporary head of group• Discussing with our CPO about our progress (and lack of

manpower)• Participating in writing documents about our new release-model

to our customers• Making decisions about which tasks to delay

25

More FAQs• "How do you use your background in your job?"• "Do your job give you something that you (think) you couldn't

get in academia?"• "Do you use your title to get more interesting assignments? -

perhaps with some kind of R&D-like content?"• "Does your work revolve more around R&D-like tasks than

routine tasks?"• ”How’s the division between ‘boring’ vs. ‘interesting’ tasks?

26

Thank you for listening!Douglas Adams: “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”

27