This document provides career advice for those with a PhD, summarizing Troels Damgaard's career path and insights. It discusses investigating career options through networking and informational interviews. Troels investigated both academia and private sector roles, ultimately choosing a software developer role where he could build things and work with others. The document offers tips for pursuing roles in either sector, noting the importance of publications and funding for academia versus proving development skills for the private sector. Scenes from Troels' day-to-day work are presented for comparison.

1. So you’ve got a Ph.D. Troels Damgaard (troels.damgaard@edlund.dk) Edlund A/S, DK ITU, March 17th, 2011 1 Now what?(*) (*) Title borrowed from presentation by Scott MacLachlan, Tufts University, 2008

2. Who am I? – Career headlines Ph.D. from PLS group, ITU (advisor Lars Birkedal), Dec. 2008 Dissertation: ”Developing Bigraphical Languages” A meta-language for DSLs for mobile and distributed systems Studied applications in cellular biology Software Developer, Edlund A/S, March 2009 Started in ”Core” department working with Core modules of Edlund’s application(s), e.g., custom Database layer, custom Session-layer, configuration-layer, … Build tools, config- and database-setup tools, source control (Mercurial), custom bugtracker, custom semantic patcher, … (we like to roll our own) Scrummaster, April 2010 (aka part-time enforcer and secretary) Right now: Temporary department head (aka ”buried in paper and meetings”) 2

3. What’s in this talk…And what’s not... What I’m going to say is mostly common sense highly influenced by my own opinions and experience I use my history and thoughts to exemplify my general statements I have tried to hedge against being too one-sided, though… focused on career-choices right after the Ph.D., and, somewhat focused on going to the private sector because that’s what I did, and, because you’re surrounded by clever people who know a lot about doing a career in academia, and, have a tendency to become role models… Also No guidelines for formalities such as CV’s, dresscode, etc. 3

4. About the structure of this talk There isn’t any Well… As preparation for this talk, I did some crowdsourcing I asked friends and acquaintances with PhDs some questions. I decided to (loosely) structure the talk around these questions Hence, interspersedacross this talk - my opinions as well as selected opinions and points resulting from this little informal survey Also, I'll have some sections named FAQ here and there Topics that I've found myself discussing frequently. They aren't really questions, but FDT isn't as catchy 4

5. What do you want do? (1) Some questions to consider What would you like to do? Elaborate - which kind of tasks? Start with what you have you experienced. What do you want to avoid? What do you find boring/tedious/trivial/...? How do you feel about working abroad? How does your family, if any, feel? And for each Q consider both now and later? How do you get from where you are now to your career goal in say five years? If, e.g., you want to create your company, then a job at McKinsey may be an idea. 5

6. What do you want to do? (2) Another angle of attack What motivates you? As per McClelland may divide into need for Achievement (personal) Power (influence) Affiliation (relationships, human interaction) Match answers to Qs to different jobs Requires investigation... (as we'll get back to) 6

7. An example: What did I want? I like to build stuff I like to interact with other people I like to have influence about what I do, and, about what others do Personal achievement is important, but team-achievement is almost as important I put great value on fun and intelligent colleagues I'm generally best at tasks that I find fun I dislike repetitive tasks I am willing to accept some, though I dislike nepotism and favoritism, in general (... which I find is endemic in some academic circles...) 7

9. Selected survey results (1) Continued in academia Felt like digging more into the research-topic Wanted to go abroad Felt it was easier to go from academia to private sector than the other way around Was offered a post.doc. and accepted w.o. much thought Liked the considerable freedom in choice of work Didn't like the most obvious private sector options in the field Didn't like the working climate in a "typical" private sector-job 9

10. Selected survey results (2) Continued in private sector Wanted to go abroad Long-term goal: Starting own company Wanted to develop and build more Wanted to work closer to real-life applications/users Wanted to try out a private sector-job Wasn't sure that (s)he could produce something really extraordinary as a researcher Felt family obligations prevented going abroad (and felt that was necessary as post.doc.) Got an R&D job in private sector offer based on research Was turned off by academia because of the growing need for time spent on paperwork (applications, ...) the time-limited positions with fairly low wages the stress around paper-deadlines 10

11. On the major decision: “Academia or not?” Common way of boiling down the choice is: “Research or not?” (Although privately funded research is also a possibility.) What is research, by the way? Wikipedia to the rescue: “... the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, usually using a scientific method.” ... ok. My opinion - suboptimal basis for making an informed decision about your career What I (and others) did: For each job X that you may want to go for, now or later, investigate “How does a common day in the life of an X look?” I’ll tell you about some about my days, later on 11

12. Investigating options. When? When to start? Easy answer: As early as possible For an academical career Part of the PhD-study is about building the needed network for job options later on Some collected advice for building an academic career, later For a career outside academia My opinion: One year before you're done isn't too early However, career change Hence, the need for early investigation maybe not as pronounced Do remember that starting up your own company is also an option 12

13. Investigating options. How? Discuss with your advisor and colleagues Get out there Use your network As PhD – part of a very exclusive network with members positioned in many different jobs A day in the life of an X... What tasks, problems, and events occur? Get as detailed information as possible I prefer examples over overviews and summarizing statements Towards that end – some scenes from the life of me, later Match results with your expectations of a good job Investigate also: Which capabilities and challenges are needed as an X? And how does that match my capabilities? Which career-options does job X provide me? How do you do well in a career as an X? 13

14. FAQ: What do private companies think about a PhD? That depends… Needs a combination with some other skills such as good dev skills good communication skills management skills innovation-skills oriented towards products understanding of customer-orientation hard working team-player Then a PhD is a definite plus at companies with characteristics such as High-tech Innovative Non-standard General high level of education of employees 14

15. FAQ: What do private … (cont.) May be obvious: As a developer, you will need to prove that you can develop Don't expect to be hired as an "architect"/"senior developer" based only on your PhD You may advance quickly, though Companies on the look-out for Introvert nerdiness Lack of ambition Lack of ”finishing” skills 15

16. FAQ: “But I can’t use what I did in my PhD..." You're probably right ... But do consider how narrowly you want to define "what you did" Really want to focus on your topic? / Really value the freedom of choosing a topic? Then you probably need to consider research Happy with using a variety of general skills within your field ...and gained just by doing a PhD, Then also consider a career in the private sector Also, applied research does occur in the private sector As a PhD you're well-positioned to take part in such projects Not an everyday occurrence, though Typically requires some level of maneuvering and social engineering May be easier abroad 16

17. How, what, and when did I investigate? Considered academia vs. private sector through the entirety of my PhD studies Compared my qualities and preferences with friends and colleagues Went to seminars like this... During last year - made the decision to go for a private sector job Sought companies and positions where the use for a strong background in comp. science was apparent to me and the employer Around half a year before Visited friends and former colleagues at several companies for informal lunch- or coffee-talk Valuable information just by sitting at a lunch-table listening to the chatter Also investigated opportunities in biotech industry Tried to use every connection I had to get around HR-departments To get to talk to “real people” at the companies (Some HR-departments also understand the importance of this) 17

18. The interviews (1) Sell yourself... DO be frank, but it's fair game to be able to spin your weaknesses (-) "I am easily bored." (+) "I am at my most efficient when given complicated tasks." As a highly educated individual you obviously have some qualities... In the private sector - be prepared for Quirky personality tests. "Which animal would you be on the savannah?" HR on the lookout for potential character problems that hampers ability to work in a team Challenges to your decision to make a career change Prejudices against PhDs Have your elevator talk ready Remember that you are also evaluating them 18

19. The interviews (2) Remember the summary of my Ph.D.? “DSLs for mobile and distributed systems.” “Studied applications in biology.” If you squint that’s what I did.. However, it could also have said: “Axiomatized the structural congruence relation for binding bigraphs” “Developed an inductive characterization of matching for binding bigraphs” ... You see the problem? About the salary... Mainly relevant for private sector, I guess DO make an effort to find your market value (You're devaluating the product of our little club each time you sell yourself short!) 19

20. Where did I apply? And why? I decided early on that my life was too short for classic consultancy work Interviewed at most of the companies, I thought might be interesting in DK Maconomy, Edlund, SimCorp, and Microsoft I viewed the interviews as an another opportunity for me to evaluate those companies Had a wide variety of interview processes After a few interview rounds I had some job offers to choose from Advice: Try to time your interviews to the same period When you have an offer on hand, it's hard to push the decision But don't just accept the first offer that you get... 20

21. Building a career in academia - a collection of advice (1) As a result of my survey, I also got a lot of input on building a good career in academia Here’s some selected hints and opinions (including my own) Create your own research profile You need your own "angle" - also different than your advisor Need to start this during your PhD studies Show that you are good teaching a wide variety of subjects Learn the game Teaching and administrative tasks are part of the job ... but will not get you the permanent positions Publications are key Also understand the ranking of publication venues in your field Understand how the funding-system works Writing and/or participating in research applications is important 21

22. Building a career in academia – a collection of advice (2) Need family-backing Doing a post.doc. is a career job (not 8-16) though not well-paid Networking is very important Basis for cooperation, getting papers published, etc. Network and cooperate with people at different institutions across national borders Working with people that are part of the "in" circles helps getting funding helps getting publications Good guides online - lookup Emigration course guides Guides to new faculty 22

23. FAQ: Going back to academia from the private sector... Can be hard Need to have a well-defined research profile To show that you can start publishing fairly soon With "only" a short (Danish) PhD may be hard to get back Working with topics in extension to your PhD-topics is helpful Is probably a worry that too many PhDs students have... 23

24. As promised: Scenes from the life of Troels (1) As a developer Writing a small parser for our commitlog-wiki plugin Fixing a bug, I introduced on the “New report”-page in our homebrewnbugtracker, when I made added a “Copy-report” button Debugging a unittest-fixture for our CPUAffinity-module that has failing tests when runon our new 24-core machine Extending our custom configuration- and databasesetup-layer to allow SQL Server compression to be used Analyzing a possible race-condition in our SessionStore-module 24

25. As promised: Scenes from the life of Troels (2) As a scrummaster Updating (and harassing) the others for estimates for remaining time on their tasks Planning next sprints Communicating with other groups about the deadline for a task As temporary head of group Discussing with our CPO about our progress (and lack of manpower) Participating in writing documents about our new release-model to our customers Making decisions about which tasks to delay 25

26. More FAQs "How do you use your background in your job?" "Do your job give you something that you (think) you couldn't get in academia?" "Do you use your title to get more interesting assignments? - perhaps with some kind of R&D-like content?" "Does your work revolve more around R&D-like tasks than routine tasks?" ”How’s the division between ‘boring’ vs. ‘interesting’ tasks? 26

27. Thank you for listening! Douglas Adams: “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” 27