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Preamble
Why now?
As every September, we got fresh PhD students
I might soon forget my PhD student experiences
Talk applies to any CS PhD student despite influence from personal experiences and systems/networking background Acknowledgment: I admit to stealing advices from many successful people (too many to be listed)
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Outline
The work required to earn a PhD is not worth the effort if you dont intend to do research
You can do better with an MS degree in such a case
Money (i.e., amount of money you make is more important than what you do)
While starting salaries of CS PhD graduates are good, can reach higher salary if you worked since you got your BS/MS degree
Be sure that this is the path you want to follow in life (yes, its normal to have doubts sometimes)
Independence
Its your PhD; you should know what you want to do, how you want to do it, etc.
CS department expectations*
Take qualifying exams after first year and pass them all after second year
Proves that you are good enough to continue in the program
Find advisor and choose thesis topic after second year Defend thesis proposal by the end of third year
Not very strict deadline (depends on progress and advisor)
Take a number of courses and maintain a decent GPA (e.g., 3.5) throughout these years
Advisor expectations
Every PhD student must have thesis/research advisor Advisor decides when student is ready to graduate
Process very similar to apprenticeship Thesis committee makes sure advisors decision is correct and gives feedback to improve work
Each advisor has own requirements, but they can be generalized as:
Have enough background in CS and depth in your research area Work on one or multiple projects and publish the results in several good conference/journal papers
First year
Classes and the qualifying exam are required, but dont spend more time than necessary on them
Nobody cares about the grades of someone with a PhD degree
RAship is better
Can spend time on you research instead of teaching Being awarded an RAship means youre doing well Since RAship comes from a grant, the advisor will ask you to work on the project defined by that grant Advisor can ask you to work on demos or robust implementations as required by grant (which are not necessarily research)
Hard to predict if certain areas that are hot now will still be hot in 4 years
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Choosing advisor
Tenure-track advisors
Will push you hard (their future career depends on your results), but will work with you (i.e., co-authors of thesis) Might have more up-to-date information about job searching
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Its your topic, but the advisor must approve it Its rare to know the topic from the moment you start working with advisor
If work supported by a grant, the general topic is somewhat clearer
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Be proactive!
Dont wait for advisor to push you
Reading papers
Develop critical thinking: identify both strong and weak points Advisor will point you to important papers as well as conferences and journals in your area You responsibility to find more papers starting from these pointers Must read a few papers every week Read outside your area as well Follow technology news to know where the world is going
http://www.cs.njit.edu/~borcea/reading-papers-talk.pdf
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Problem solving/design
Always ask yourself: whats the novelty of my solution?
Dont get upset/discouraged if advisor points out drawbacks in your solutions its technical, not personal 16
Implementation
Except for purely theoretical CS, will have to implement your ideas Every successful project goes through this unglamorous, hard phase Design is more fun than implementing it No magic here: work hard! Dont suffer in silence if you dont know how to implement something or have troubles with a bug ask colleagues or advisor for help
Evaluation
Prove that your solution works as claimed Should know from the design time experiments and metrics Form a hypothesis: what type of results you expect Experiments contradict hypothesis: think of potential reasons and discuss them with advisor
Trust advisor and earn his/her trust (e.g., through good work, reliability)
Advisors, being human, are not perfect, but try their best to help
Almost everyone goes through periods when doubts advisor (the converse holds as well)
Papers getting rejected Different opinions on how to proceed with a project Seemingly advisor cares only about his career
Talks
Presentations of accepted conference papers (or invited talks) Good chance to convince people that you did great research
Successful researchers spend 50% of time writing papers and preparing talks
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Writing papers
Ask advisor for models of good papers Get feedback from advisor early and often; then re-write Read Shrunk and White book on writing One idea per paragraph
Do paragraphs follow one another in a logical structure?
Typical structure: abstract, introduction, related work, design, implementation, evaluation, conclusions Have clear abstract/introduction
If vague or poorly written, reviewers will just look for reasons to reject afterwards
Conference talks
Goal is to make audience read your paper and talk with you
Emphasize the main idea, skip some details Shouldnt follow too closely the structure of the paper Pay special attention to motivation
The more you practice, the fewer surprises during the actual talk
Time management is your responsibility; be prepared to skip slides
Show excitement
If you are not excited, then why would anyone else be?
Attending conferences
People you meet there can hire you, review your papers, or become future collaborators
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Summer internships
Be aware that they can delay graduation as summers can be very productive research-wise
Cant have the cake and eat it too
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Must acquire time management skills Write down your tasks (both work-related and personal), set deadlines, and categorize them function of importance Randy Pauschs graph for task time management: Importance Continue with these tasks
Urgency
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Some personal tasks must have high importance Family/friends help you avoid going nuts According to previous slide, you might end up not doing urgent, but not important tasks; its ok, the world goes on
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When to graduate?
Thesis (1)
Thesis: one sentence to describe your contribution to the progress of humankind Dissertation: the 100s pages that prove the thesis
Thesis proposal
~= thesis without a chapter or two Not as important as you may think because early validation of your research comes from good publications
Contract between you and committee: agree on content to be added in the final thesis
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Thesis (2)
Not a good idea to defend if you dont have a job (especially for foreign students who plan to stay in US)
Unless you dont receive support any longer
Job searching
Once advisor confirms you will be ready to graduate that year, prepare:
CV (long, not the typical 2-page resume)
Research statement (at least 2 pages) outlining your research contributions and future plans
Teaching statement (if applying to academia) outlining your teaching experience, teaching philosophy, etc List of references Have them ready by early December
Have your job talk ready by January Learn about research interviews by January Wait for call/email and hope
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Job in academia
Research universities have similar starting salary with research labs (but doesnt increase at the same rate)
Teaching university have significantly lower salary (and no research)
Can publish and go to conferences more often than in research labs Can make your own schedule
In the beginning, you work more than in industry
Can influence people directly through education Safer job (after tenure)
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Over a number of years, salary will be slightly higher than academia (could go for management positions as well) Can have impact on real world through products incorporating your ideas Research topics need to be in line with companys goals and approved by managers
Short-term profit-oriented research may preclude you from working on fundamental or high risk topics Working in an R&D department is even more about practical research that can quickly turn into profit Still need to worry about funding (convince your managers to invest in your ideas)
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Research contributions
Projects you worked on and their main results Software distributions
List of papers & talks (& patents if any) Teaching experience (for academia) List of references
Reference letters are very important
Job talk
Do dry runs with advisor, colleagues, friends Videotape yourself and try to improve after the shock of watching the recording has passed Practice questions and answers More information on job talks and interviews from Jeanette Wing
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/tips.pdf
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One-to-one interviews
Typically, 30 minutes about your research and everything else They look for
Creativity Brainpower Independence Technical skills Leadership Energy Fitting in
Selecting a job
Congratulations, you got several job offers! Many factors to consider besides money Reputation of the place Can you grow there? Possibilities for promotion? Will you get along well with your colleagues/bosses? Geography Two-body problem Cost of living Quality of schools Are you a city person or more of the outdoor-type?
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Your time in the PhD program is a unique experience: Enjoy it! Good luck and make us proud!
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