#Strategy for SWE after getting a PhD

2 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

spark knoll
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Hey. I'm soon starting the final stretch of my PhD. It's mostly in applied CS and AI. I expect my publications to be fairly okay, good enough in my niche but nothing in the big AI conferences (ICML, CVPR, NeurIPS...). My strategy going into this PhD was always to go for an SWE position afterwards if my work during the PhD wasn't enough to realistically get a research position at a big tech company. Before my PhD, my coding skills were very good. During the PhD it was mostly Python and PyTorch stuff. So now, I feel like I need to come up with a good plan to be ready for applications and interviews. I have 1.5 years left in the PhD, and I expect the last 6 months to be quite busy. Thing is, I have no idea when I should be ready to interview, when I should apply, etc... I also feel like, because of no involvement in open source projects, and as my projects on my current resume are mostly AI projects from my MSc. days, I should work on that. Can anyone give me any tips about what the timeframe to apply is, how early it should be to start working at the end of 2024/beginning of 2025, what I should specifically be aiming for in terms of interviews (since it's after a PhD, I assume it'll be for L4 position at Google for instance, so anything special to prepare about those interviews ?), how I can meaningfully upgrade my "projects" section in the CV, etc... ?

digital quail
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Realistically, probably you just need to make sure you're good at leetcode. Then make sure your ML/AI fundamentals are good for interviewing.

Given that you will have a PhD in AI, with CS background, projects/open-source outside your research isn't strictly necessary (and honestly you don't have that much time for that probably?). Internships can be helpful, but it's probably too late for this year.

Not sure how this holds up in the current economy, but I think AI is still in demand for these big companies. Start applying ~10 months before you graduate -- fall is typically when new grad job postings are out, for folks who graduate in May. Probably aim to have all that settled ~3-4 months out from graduation if not sooner (leaving time to prep for your thesis/defense/etc.). If you're mostly applying to the really large companies, their timelines generally match this. Smaller companies will have shorter timelines.