Dilemma in choosing right industry and location

Jan 18, 2021 10 Comments

I am a PhD student working on reinforcement learning, expecting to graduate in May. I am in a dilemma about which industry to get into:

I was an intern at FB last Summer and I have a return offer as a research scientist from FB Seattle with TC 160-300-100. I am happy with it overall except a little worry about all the controversies around FB about its role on so many things (social, political etc.).

My phd research cares about safety and robustness, which has a pretty good application in autonomous driving industry. I am currently collaborating with an autonomous driving lab and there is potential of getting offers from different autonomous driving companies (currently in talk with waymo and cruise). I do have good interest in this domain, but all these options are from bay area, where I prefer not to go because of cost, even if they beat the FB offer.

So I am in a dilemma about how to navigate and decide, and seeking opinions from blinders.

Current TC as a grad student: ~22k as stipend and ~10k as summer funding.


Plz choose one for industry and one for location

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    You’re asking self-driving cars vs FAANG RS? Why not Waymo RS?
    Jan 18, 2021 3
  • Reddit
    XFcn47

    Go to company page Reddit

    XFcn47
    Seattle if you are ok with the winter weather — folks I know who love Seattle are ok with the weather, others who left Seattle are due to the weather too. So it seems to be the main deciding factor. If you haven’t lived in Seattle in the winter, I recommend giving it a test run first.
    Jan 18, 2021 3
  • I haven't worked in the AV space, but AV sounds like a better fit for you, given the limited info I have.

    If you go to FAANG+, understand that FB is very product-first. FB values quick metric wins, and isn't as good for ML vs G/PINS/Netflix. And I'm not sure if there are any product teams at FB doing RL, but maybe you can try FAIR/AML.
    Jan 21, 2021 1
    • OP
      Thanks a lot for sharing your comment. I agree to what you are saying. In my short time during internship, I kind of realized the product-first and quick-win metrics of FB. It is also unclear if there is any team working on RL.

      But you know what, answers to similar questions for AV companies are also not very clear. May be there is a difference, I am just not confident how big of a difference that is.
      Jan 22, 2021