Dear Blind community Need your strong suggestions; please let us know which path we should choose. We took many wrong decision in our life, that’s why asking your honest and kind feedback. Background: I am 30 year old (F), living in Tokyo; I came to Japan after marriage, got job here, steady life but tired of long working hours, and never ever integrate into society due to the language barrier. Work experience: 4 years in Deloitte Digital (enterprise architecture, tech PMO and some so-called strategy project) 2 year in a weather forecasting Operation consultant. Last year MSc. in Mathematics and Data Science from UK, a tier 3 university (QS ranking 301 ~), got a job in early-stage SME as Big Data enginner ( employee no 10, currently 18), which works in Data engineering, DataOps Machine Learning, MLOps. However, due to covid Came back to japan again and joined Deloitte. At this moment I’ve got 2 options- 1. That SME, London based again asked to join, they will provide relocation and Tier 2 visa, although TC too low ( 35000 gbp, after 6 months 40,000 ##gbp) 2. PhD in University of Alberta (Canada) in Computer Science with minimal funding Why London: 1. My husband is going to a prestigious EMBA , so he needs visa support; without my tier 2 visa, he has to travel every 5 weeks from Tokyo to London and relocation wont be possible. 2. Also after 5 years, we can get ILR. 3. Moreover I like London too much as while I was there I realized I can integrate faster due to its diversity aspects. Why Canada: 1. I want to have a PhD since I was class 6, a nerd student on that time 2. After doing consulting for 6 years, I found that it’s a mediocre job, doing nothing core actually. 3. I want to have more core deep tech expertise NOT just an advisory role and made some meaningless slides 4. My husband also got an offer from Northwestern, its not MBA (a kind of degree mill). Moreover, he likes bay area and wants to start his own company one more time so that he can join with me or we can travel reciprocally. 5. Canadian PR is also a good point we might consider Main goal : 1. Relocation, get out of japan, get some deep knowledge in at least 1 specific area. 2. We don’t like Japan as blind community hate amazon 😊 Although total TC combined : 230K (150K my husband ,80K me) which is relatively high in japan; still we want to get out of japan to get a healthly, peaceful life; and also a better passport which will give us to travel, settle down eventually. Please help us ot find the right way #tech #phd #bigdata
find a better paying job in london
Can U please refer me in any tech company, I am applying through LinkedIn, never ever get any response so far.
Why do you want to get a phd? I have worked with phds in hard-sciences/math who do the same kind of work non-phds do. Meaning it may not improve the quality of your work, it will still be the same boring work you have always done.
Would think very carefully about PhD— it’s a huge time investment w/ high opportunity cost and very low ROI. Source: I have a PhD.
Waooo that’s awesome comment
I have a double masters degree in Engineering one from University of Toronto in Electrical Engineering with heavy on CS subjects.So here are my two cents. 1. I have almost my 1/4 class gone for Phd. Phd is a long road here in Canada Unless you are brilliant and know what exactly you are looking for. You seldom pick your research professor does and that is guided by his grant and funding. Be careful. 2. If you do not want to go into teaching PHD is useless. If you want to do research into something just find online and collaborate with someone. Publish papers and people will be more than happy to put your name with them for help. Outside Uni no one asks phd. 3. Canada is a wonderful country, but boring, cold, flooded with immigrants. Job market is bad in Alberta right now. If you are an introvert good, else you will not like, and living almost a decade in Alberta. Think about it. 4. There are other ways of getting Canadian PR way easier and cheap. Under new scheme you can literally land here and get PR. Find some consultant. 5. This pandemic has changed everything. With all classes online Univ. are losing their monopoly especially in CS. Most profs are temp, competition for faculty position is fierce like hell. If you think you will get teaching position its 20 yrs work !! So go for position in London. Forget PHD. You are above 30. Focus on family and kids. Try for US and other companies from there. A lot easier when you are in job market.
Love this comment 1000x - really appreciate your thoughtfulness and logical comment.
Like this comment, very much constructive feedback
London
Join the startup in London. Change after a year to higher TC in another company. Sponsorship from one company to another company within Uk is relatively easier than sponsorship to come to UK from a different country !
Thank you so much. Seems I am getting vote for London.
Move to London. Once there you will get many opportunities to switch. British citizenship is a 6 year process and very straightforward although has a little less appeal due to Brexit, but nevertheless it’s a very strong passport. A Phd from Canada is good only if you are genuinely interested in research. Keep in mind though if you want a research job outside academia Canada has none. US is the only place where companies have R&D and pay astronomical salary.
And in the U.S., a PhD from a U.S. university is generally more highly valued than a PhD from elsewhere.
Not true. All SV companies hire talent from Canada. I personally know Apple, FB and Google does.
Did you finish the MSc while staying in Japan? If that's the case are we eligible for the work visa in UK in this scenario?
I finished MSc and came back. Yes the company is able to do visa sponsorship