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AdFew4357 t1_iybkqx0 wrote

I’m an undergraduate. I want and aspire to be in a position like yours. I want to be you. Like my career dream is yours. What can I do right now (applying to PhD programs in statistics ) to get to your spot. What advice do you have for undergrads if they want to break into your field of ML research. I know what I want to research, i have the books and resources and the classes to take. The professors and classmates I will meet in my PhD program. How can I end up in your position.

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ThisIsMyStonerAcount OP t1_iybp1de wrote

So, maybe let's not put the cart in front of the horse, focus on getting through the PhD first. You sound super motivated, but just to be sure, these are your two most important next steps:

  1. If you can, find a good advisor/mentor. They'll introduce you to people and help you develop your research skills. TBH i don't know if the current PhD student job market is more of a "take what you can get" or a "lots of open positions" thing. But if you have several options on where to join, go with the ones that you feel like you can vibe with: they should have experience with publishing on top tier conferences, but also willing to help you succeed. use the search function, lots of advice on this reddit for what makes a good advisor.

  2. Decide on what kind of research you want to do/pick a topic. Would you rather do applied research or theoretical stuff? There's a whole spectrum from maths or learning theory to foundational (e.g. RL or deep learning) to applied (computer vision, NLP, ...). Find a topic that excites you enough that you can dedicate several years to learning it and excelling in a subfield of it. The classes you'll be taking and the conversations with people at your lab/conferences should give you a flavor of what's out there. There's a bit of luck involved with picking a research direction that proves to be relevant, so advise from advisors/mentors helps a ton at that particual stage. One of the most important lesions you should learn in your PhD is how to find and approach good research questions.

Those are the two most important things to optimize your PhD success, which in turn optimizes hireability. In general your best bet at an industry research position is to do work that is meaningful enough that someone notices, in a field that the company (or a reasearch team with headcount) cares about. What that is depends on where you want to go and which field you want to work in. Definitely try to collaborate with industry, apply for internships or similar programs, or try to find other ways to collaborate while you're still in your phd. But like I said: I'd focus more on enjoying my PhD first, everything else should merely be a regularizer. Find a topic that interests you and the rest will follow.

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AdFew4357 t1_iybshr4 wrote

Thanks a lot of the advice. I’ll do some more research on 1), as I’ve applied to schools but I’ve done little screening on the “vibe” of potential advisors and labs.

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ThisIsMyStonerAcount OP t1_iybudxa wrote

Look for someone whose current students seem happy (talk to the students if you can!). The ideal advisor is someone who values work/life balance, yet still manages to do good work, and is willing to talk to you/help you on a regular basis.

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