Transition from Circuits/Electronics/Device to Software/Data/ML
Asking for a friend, very smart top notch scientist with PhD in EE focused on electronics, circuits, devices, IC phabrication, etc. Unlike many EEs not much experience in statistics or signal processing or ML. Programming experience with MATLAB and basic python. His TC is about 170k in Boston, and it's pretty good for his level in the company, but growth is very slow and marginal, so if he stays at this job probably can make it to 200k in 3 years. Not many jobs in his super narrow speciality though, so looking at jobs at other companies will not help much, and the pay is more or less the same. Not surprisingly, he is thinking about somehow transitioning to Data Science and Machine Learning and software world in general. 1) Given that he is 35 years old and not much background in coding or ML (has taken some online courses), does this transition as an individual contributor make sense? 2) His main incentive is financial and potential for opportunities, and growing industry, mainly working in top 5 tech companies. What are some other career options? I suggested Program management, but don't know how to break into that, and don't know how good TC will be.
They have those bootcamps specifically for phds to become data scientists. He could try that. Do they like what they do now, because it sounds like they're doing pretty well to me. I get that it can be depressing for someone who has raw computational power to see a bunch of kids making stacks of cash. But this is kind of a new phenomenon and eventually it will probably calm down some. I'm wondering how well people were bring paid at Apple and Microsoft before the Google's and unicorns.
There's enough growth potential in DS/ML and the barrier is not too high, but one thing he has to decide is whether he'll enjoy the actual work. I'm actually facing a similar decision in terms of DS vs PM for future potential, with the same unknowns.
Don’t do it, stay in the field you picked. Nobody wants a “my computer career” unenthusiastic money seeker, I would fire you on the spot on my team.
Your friend is doing something that has a higher barrier than DS/ML just a bit lower TC. But TC isn't everything and he doesn't seem underpaid in his peer group. All that shines isn't gold. Like previous poster said, your friend has real low level understanding that takes aptitude and years of practice to really understand. If he pursues the same path in another place he can make a big difference. Whereas if he makes a switch to DS/ML and whatever is shiny he will be a faceless dude farther away from making a contribution.
Yes it is possible. Friend with a PhD in Physics made the transition from IC fab at Intel to data scientist at a startup then FANG (all within 2 years) and in his mid 30s. Started as L4 at FANG as SWE, TC prob around 200k. But importantly, the career and TC will have a much higher trajectory and ceiling than HW. Many other leading process engineers/ scientists have done the same, maybe that's why our 10nm was delayed so much. Pay up HW companies or suffer a brain drain. Unfortunately the nature of HW is that most of the money goes to big capex stuff like fabs, tools, etc. Less money left over for talent and stock buybacks to appease investors. So HW companies aggressively outsource/offshore to save on talent costs. And that causes another bunch of problems.
Can I dm you ??
He can try kaggle. Many success stories there