Possibility of Applied Scientist Role at Amazon?
I currently have a MS from a Top 4 CS School and am really eager to move towards Computer Vision research. Unfortunately, I didn't get much research experience during my MS since the coursework itself was a lot and I also had some health issues. If I go get a PhD it likely won't be from a top tier school considering my lack of top tier publication(s) and low MS GPA. Q1) Should I work hard on my own and try for something like an Applied Scientist position at Amazon (Assuming it's possible) or should I go for whatever's the best PhD program I can get, build my profile, and aim to land Research Scientist roles at top companies later? Q2) Realistically, how hard would it be for someone in my position to land the A.S. position at Amazon without a PhD? On Linkedin, I do see some people without PhD working there. Q3) Are A.S. roles at Amazon proper research based roles (Like Research Scientist at Google) or engineering heavy roles like ML Engineer/SDE in ML? #amazon #phd #Applied Scientist
Even if you get come in as a L4 with a chance to move to L5, what then? Do you want to stagnant forever after that? There is nothing to stop you from moving to L6 of course, but there are tech expectations for a L6 promotion too. You can learn on your own outside of a phd, but in the meantime you are also balancing your life, actual work, and everything else. Just wanted to add another angle for you to think about.
So, I should go for a PhD?
If that aligns with what you want. It is a big investment of your time and life. My take is, don’t do it just because you think it qualifies you for a AS role. Do it because you innately like research. Also, you cannot assume that Amazon will hire you as an AS just because you graduated with a PhD. Nowadays, PhDs aren’t too hard to find, Amazon has quite a good bar for AS. If you invest your time and fail to make the bar, are you prepared for it?
What are the top 4 MS CS schools?
I'm a PhD L6 AS. Q1) don't do the PhD just for the sake of landing a tech job, it's not worth it unless you really want to spend 3+ years diving very deep on a very narrow topic area. You can get hired as L4 without a PhD and get promoted to L5 in less time than it would take to get the degree so it doesn't make sense financially. Only do it if you're really passionate about the specific subject you would be studying. Q2) you can get an L4 position without a PhD. L5 hires are usually PhD in the groups I know of. It's also possible to transition to AS from SDE. Q3) they are less pure research, you likely won't be publishing anything (people are trying to change this but it's slow going). In my experience there is a lot of engineering involved and you'll likely work closely with SDEs
Also, why Amazon specifically? If you're still at Google you could try transitioning to a team that does CV, which would also help you get hired externally with more experience. Then you could find someone to mentor you that has more CV experience