I have a NIPS publication and get calls for sometimes applied scientist and research engineer positions but never research scientist. 1. Is it necessary to have a Phd to be research scientist in say ML? 2. Is there a natural transition from research engineer to a research scientist position in general? Like maybe after some YOE. 3. I have seen a few research scientists at Amazon and Walmart with only Masters. Do other companies like Linkedin, Google, Facebook, Salesforce have different standards? YOE: 1.5 TC: 130K
You can be an Rs but it will always hold you back to some extent. People in the field may not care, they only care about how much you know and your papers but take the case of an average recruiter when you are looking to change companies do you think they are going to spend time to see whether you know more than someone who has a Phd in that field, they probably will never put you in a Rs loop. Also when you are trying to get promoted for a senior L7/L8 position in your RS org in a place other than Google/FB(which are more meritocratic and dont care about degree) do you think people below you will accept you?
You need at least 3 NeurIPS-level publications to be considered for RS in ML at a top industry lab.
Good work on your publication but PhD is all about getting them constantly which shows your research persistence/rigorousness, also are you the first author, that also matters. There are plenty of undergrads that are coauthoring papers by cleaning data and stuff. Not disparaging but it doesn't show a research output. If I were you, I'd try AI residencies.
Unfortunately the supply and demand imbalance in AI field is getting reduced so for the limited number of positions at prestigious research groups, it gets much harder for non-PhD holders to get RS jobs, although not being impossible. Why are you interested in an RS position and why don’t you want to try a PhD?
Research scientist at Amazon is actually just an applied scientist who failed the coding bar and gets paid less
What's the difference between applied scientist, research engineer, and research scientist? Thought these are interchangeable depending on where you work
Research scientist sets their own agenda. Applied researcher solves a business problem. Research engineer productionizes above solution. In order of level of braininess.