Background

Over the past 2 years, I have deliberated too long over my career plans after graduation, in particular, to work in industry or to pursue a PhD to work in research. I have finally decided to pursue a data scientist position with Indeed, instead of proceeding with my plans to apply to UCL and Edinburgh to research on reinforcement learning.

I list all factors I considered that may be unique to my personal situation, then later provide a more general framework for other students in tech to consider between industry and PhD. This list first serves as a personal track to later reflect on, and then to compile a list of considerations to help other students with their decision making.

My possibilities after university are:

  1. Industry - Data Scientist
    • Indeed Singapore, Match Recommendation Platform
  2. (Applying to) PhD - AI Researcher
    • University College London, Deciding, Acting and Reasoning with Knowledge (DARK) Lab
    • University of Edinburgh, Autonomous Agents Research Group

Personal Factors of Consideration

Indeed: Pros

Salary

  • Competitive tech pay
  • Provides masters sponsorship
  • Higher quality of life because of pay
  • Indeed’s business is doing well, important as global recession is coming
  • Help raise financial security for mother and sister, significantly reducing stress for my mother

Work Life Balance

  • Excellent work life balance
  • Free time to focus on other aspects of life (family, relationships, hobbies, goals)
  • Great people culture and nice personalities
  • Workplace is convenient to meet my sister and my girlfriend
  • Less stress thanks to work-life balance
  • Possible to work on side projects

Career progression

  • Match Recommendation Platform team - metrics and achievements have immense technical and business impact
  • Competitive, fair and supportive career progression and compensation
  • One of very few big tech companies to hire fresh grads as data scientists

Industry relevance

  • Already proven myself as a competent data scientist as a fresh grad
  • Industry skills and experiences are useful in any company
  • Learn engineering, business and company organization which Indeed has done well
  • Leverage my strengths in leadership, product dev, data science and engineering that are valued in industry
  • Possibility of publishing at RecSys conferences

Business impact

  • Can attend industry events - PyCon
  • Fly to US/Japan offices for work
  • Significant flexibility to work on my ideas if I want to

Indeed: Cons

  • Sometimes work may be less interesting (admin, dry engineering work)
  • Work in Singapore is stifling and need to squeeze in the MRT
  • Data science is no longer perceived to be as prestigious as AI research

PhD: Pros

Passion

  • Fun work on my interest in reinforcement learning and games
  • AI research is cool
  • Research methodology teaches rigorous analysis and experimentation

Social recognition

  • PhD or Dr title
  • Getting the prestigious university brand
  • Generally perceived as being not dumb
  • Recognition of doing well in studies
  • Can work with the smartest scientists to improve the world

Living abroad

  • Work and live in the US/UK overseas

Industry research

  • Conventional way of being an AI researcher
  • Path into AI research in FAANG

PhD: Cons

Financial

  • $3K to $5K stipend is low
  • High cost of living in US/UK
  • Opportunity cost of $200K over term of PhD (estimated cost of raising a child in Singapore till age 21)

Lifestyle

  • Age 30 when I graduate PhD
  • Postpone or difficult life plans (marriage, housing, long-distance relationship)
  • Need to re-learn to live a new life with new friends in a new environment
  • Being a foreigner in a foreign country subjects myself to potential discrimination

Risk

  • No safety net if wrong or bad PhD advisor
  • Risky as publication record may not be good enough to get a FAANG researcher role after PhD
  • Bet on RL becoming industry-ready and impactful in 5 years may not come true
  • Success in research is very largely a function of pure intellectual horsepower, while my strength is a diversity of competencies

Industry research

  • Begin career progression only after graduating from PhD as a junior researcher
  • Need to prove myself to be a capable researcher in industry
  • PhD is largely powered by prestige - which university, which labs, which advisors and which people you know largely determines your research career trajectory

Questions for Others to Consider

Industry

Salary

  • What salary is suffient for you to feel secure and comfortable?
  • What salary is reflective of the competitiveness of your skills?

Work-life balance

  • Are there other aspects of life that are equally if not more important to you?
  • Is having free leisure time valuable to you?

Career progression

  • What is your “end game” in the peak of your career?
  • How significant is the financial opportunity cost to your personal situation?

Engineering skills

  • How valuable are engineering skills for achieving your career goals?
  • Are your natural strengths in engineering?

Business Impact

  • How important is industry relevance to you in your professional career?
  • Is impact a significant metric to you in a professional career?

PhD

Passion

  • How important is it to you to work on what you love?
  • Can you foresee yourself working in single research topic for the next 5 years?

Social recognition

  • How important is prestige and status to your personal social well-being?
  • How important is it to be able to collaborate with other brilliant scientists?

Living abroad

  • How socially and financially comfortable are you about living abroad?

Research impact

  • How important is making an impactful contribution to the progress of science to you?
  • How confident are you to potentially make a significant intellectual contribution to science?

Industry research

  • Must you work in an industry research lab after graduating from PhD?