Stanford/CMU/MIT PhD vs. SWE
Received PhD offers from Stanford CS, CMU Robotics, and MIT EECS. Should I leave my current job to start a PhD? Will it be worth it from a financial perspective? I'm assuming the PhD will take 4-5 years. My research area would be in ML/CV. Have never attended a prestigious school; my undergrad was in a large public school. Currently work as a SWE ~3yoe making ~130k. Very curious to hear your reasoning too! Thanks in advance!! #tech #google #faang #facebook
DAYUM SON.... Can you refer me to Stanford? I'll give you 100% referral bonus.
haha I wish Stanford did referrals
They do, you just need to donate enough
I would do the PhD, it’s a very unique opportunity!
That. Those are the best universities in the world. A degree from one of those can put you on a whole new career trajectory. Don't give up this opportunity just to be yet another swe.
Congrats!!
Wow and yes they are all great. Pick the one that is closely aligned with your interest.
So you don’t have a Masters already? A BS degree to all of these programs. Very impressive.
Thanks! Definitely required a good amount of luck from my side. Strongest part of my application was probably my LORs
I think you'll end up making more TC across your entire career by spending those 4-5 years working as a SWE. I've worked with engineers who have phds (non ML) and they do the same work as engineers like me who don't have phds. Phds can open up new opportunities though and a PhD can be rewarding for non monetary reasons. Congrats!
Well, then don’t become a “normal” engineer if one has a PhD. Pursue an applied research path or go to finance
Many SWE positions at Google, including interns, have PhD at the minimum requirement.
PhD is a big opportunity cost but a learning experience you likely won't regret (well there will days where you curse the day you joined a stupid lab instead of growing that comp but it will pass, especially if you intern every summer, which I feel you would).
Thanks! Yeah I would definitely try to do internships every summer if I were to do the PhD. Sounds exciting to me!
If you plan on coming back into the industry then it’s slightly debatable. But a Stanford PhD puts you in a situation where you have access to some of the best resources in the world. Lot of opportunities for doing a startup. Also being a Stanford PhD is going to be deeply rewarding if you enjoy your field.
Hmm yeah I currently am most interested in AI research at industry labs. Regarding doing a startup, do you think it's possible/worthwhile to try and work on a startup during my PhD?
I wouldn’t even worry about working in the industry. Try to work for professors with labs that’s are doing some interesting research. I’m a masters from Cmu so I can’t help you much with PhD. But research should be the focus imo.
dont do it for Tc bump. phds make same tc as ms grads.
1st question, how did you do it? It’s a great opportunity, take it. But ultimately depends on if you want to learn those things or not, financially you could get much higher TC post PHD. But you could also just leetcode and get a higher TC.
Did a lot of research in my undergrad, so I knew I had excellent LORs. Also continued to do ML competitions and individual research while working full-time
You are being modest. These are the best programs. They don’t just pick anybody with side research projects. What’s your GRE score if they even need that these days