Researcher or Software Engineer?

Mar 16 3 Comments

I focused on IC vs MGMT track a lot but with my PhD another question appears:
At companies like FAANG what are the differences between Research Scientist and SE?
More freedom? Worse TC? Different onboarding?

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TOP 3 Comments
  • Roblox
    fiiiiii

    Go to company page Roblox

    fiiiiii
    Ex Facebook here

    Most "Research Scientists" at Facebook are actually SWEs but with a fancier title. They like to give it to SWEs with a PhD.

    Other Research Scientists have a job that's half exploration and half sales. They explore new stuff and then need to convince product teams to productionize it. It's harder to show impact because they usually don't own products themselves.

    There's also a small number of people who actually publish papers, but most PhDs who are seriously considering SWE as an option would not have CVs strong enough for that type of role.
    Mar 16 0
  • Researchers will have freedom to pursue more-speculative projects and may be evaluated by different criteria, like publication output.

    Engineering is more about building and maintaining large systems with high accuracy and availability requirements.

    Comp can be better on either side; it depends on your ability to achieve business objectives and get promoted. So I would base the decision on how much you enjoy research, not comp concerns.
    Mar 16 0
  • eBay
    NhP75D

    Go to company page eBay

    NhP75D
    I was a research scientist in an industrial lab after my PhD. I liked it, but it wasn’t quite like academic research (I published way less and had to focus more on patents). I eventually switched to engineering and enjoy it. There are many more job opportunities for SWEs compared to researchers (as there are fewer companies hiring researchers). I would guess that it would have been very hard for me to get to the level and TC I currently have if I had stayed in research.
    Mar 16 0