India
8h
569
80L INR Bangalore or 200k CAD Vancouver?
India
1h
172
'Hindutva': The Radical Hindu Ideology That Seeks to 'Push Christianity Out of India’
AMA
Yesterday
679
PM Manager, early 40s, married and ENM (Ethical Non Monogamous) AMA
Tech Industry
Yesterday
2816
What happens when most of your team is Indian?
Tech Industry
Yesterday
1588
Women, help me understand why this is inspirational
Back in 2020, I completed my PhD from a top US university in CS (Applied ML). Have double digit publications, triple digit citations, all in reputable conferences and journals in applied ML. Have over 10 years academic experience in ML. Had to get started with OPT and visa stuff, so took the first job that was offered. Fast forward 3-4 years, I have occasionally tried to apply for ML engineer and research roles in top companies, but keep getting completely ghosted. The only interview I received was from one of the FAANGs for MLE role. Got to onsite, did great in ML Sys design and behavioral (recruiter told me), but messed up one of the coding interviews (some weird LC Hard graph problem). Of course the all important LC hard was integral for the day to day job description and hence I as rejected. It is kind of disheartening that despite having extensive experience in ML, publications ,and a PhD, I keep getting ghosted. At the same time I see these bachelors and masters folks with no experience in ML, working as and getting offers for MLEs and Scientists in top companies (I am sorry if I offended). With this new found fame of chatGPT everyone either wants to, or thinks that they are an expert in DL and ML (kinda similar to that "Data Science" phase that was there in 2015). And that is going to be making it even harder to get my application noticed when a hundred others have applied for the same role.I have been getting more and more bitter day by day. Not sure if any other folks with a PhD have a similar experience, or is it just me. I do know there is my huge ego and maybe a bit of envy behind this bitterness, but at some level, this does seem a bit unfair. It is a vent post, and maybe if anyone, who has been in a similar situation and was able to get out of it, could share their thoughts, it would be nice. #tech TC:200k
Have you thought about going to academia to show off your reputable research experience?
Yah, it was a difficult decision. I wanted to find a balance between applied and theory. Industry seemed a better place to easily get hands on real world datasets and to work on day to day problems.
And I completely get that sarcasm part in your reply. There is my not so small ego behind the bitterness that is coming from my post
A phd doesn’t mean shit in tech if you can’t perform. A ph d is a gold star for everything you’ve learned. Unless you can demonstrate that you can generate money for the business in the interview, then you won’t be hired. What is there to complain about? This is not some horrible injustice. If you were under the impression a ph d would help you get a job in the private sector, then you were mistaken
I’m getting the impression OP feels like they’re entitled to a job in tech because they have a PhD on their resume. They have to go through the interview process like everyone else who also has an impressive resume. I just don’t like entitlement.
Yeah no one in the real world gives a shit about phds.
Similar experience , stopped trying to be MLE and switched to swe
Thanks for the insights. Unfortunately, not very good as SWE. Compared to my friends who work as SWE my SWE skills are mediocre
I’ve worked with and hired people with PhDs, but not anymore. Mostly I need someone to write some code and put something out that can be delivered to clients/customers. I’m sure there are specific orgs that need people with your skills, but when I see PhD on the CV I don’t follow up. Might just be my luck on it, but the output has never been what we’ve needed on the team.
Academic experience doesn't count towards real world experience. Having a PhD and bunch of publications is irrelevant when it comes to actually solving business problems. Have worked with phds before , and they just don't think practically, they want to use a bunch of tools and produce graphs which none cares.
I have had multiple L4 candidates with Masters in CS not be able to solve “number of islands” leetcode 200
There is a huge gap between being a code monkey and having a PhD from a top schools of a field. The crux of the problem for OP is that code monkeys hire code monkeys.
Play the game and not fight the system. Once you enter the system your knowledge and background will help you. But don’t expect that as a given though. I understand it is frustrating but you have to go through the grind.
Play the game, The best comment so far.
Thanks. Joining blind is indeed my first step towards playing the game. Lots of great advice here, if you can tune out the occasional toxicity and single ready to mingle posts.
Wow, that's really a shame. Knowledge, experience and credentials are very much undervalued these days.
1. Not applying for right positions. You’re trained to conduct research. Outside of researcher roles you’re no more qualified than any other BS/MS strong coder 2. When do you get into a proper AI/ML team your ceiling will be higher
Thanks hyb9. Will start looking into which roles are more research oriented. Another person in the thread mentioned RS roles. Will start looking into them. And thanks for mentioning that I was trained in research. Maybe I was thinking about MLE roles as purely ML. Reading through your comment makes me realize that it is both ML and SWE (though the interviews are mostly testing just SWE and surface level ML)
Where are you based? PubMatic is hiring for ML Engineers with PhDs. PM me.
Sure will PM.
With 10+ papers, PhD and few hundred citations, you should target RS roles which in general either have no LC rounds or one simple one.
Thanks. I just started looking into those. Applied for a few at MS and Amazon. So far no response.
With referrals?