The Article makes so many mistaks!
Here is the scenario:
You have an intelligent who just passed out of his undergrad degree.
He has following options:
1. Work in his country for a Max 10k$ Per Year Job (Extremely rare, most pay just 6k$ P.A)
2. Come to USA for PhD, get Paid Double the amount + save around 4k$ per year atleast. Get Prestigious degree after 5 years and then get a job that pays at least 70k$ or Join Academia which pays 40k$ +
3. Go to USA for Masters, Pay fees out of pocket or via loan, so total cost will be ~50k$b- 80k$ Get a job which pays 60k$ P.A. post graduation. And repay the loan in next 3-4 years, after which one can go for an MBA
Now Choice 1 is pointless, Choice 3 requires your parents to be waelthy enough to afford the loan. Hence an overwhelming number of them choose 2. Also there is nothing wrong with it, plus the whole make money instead argument is bullshit.
Unless you have god gifted green card, no one will give you a job in USA, and regarding working in China/India the Minimum Wage here 10404*12 ~ 19k is more than best starting salary in their country
Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely listen to the Merlin Mann/John Gruber talk. I agree that money doesn't come without producing value first. I guess I was just a confused engineer frustrated at the slow growth rate rather than thinking about the value I can produce.
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And he works in an Top SF company probably Google/FB
etc!
I am realizing the same thing before and trying to design an appropriate career path.
An interesting option is MBA-PhD in OR from Stern NYU. Which is something i am seriously considering. I have looked at a profile of a guy there who did MS CS. Worked for topcoder or did research about it. And now studies in Stern. This could be the golden mean which i seem to be looking for.
Thats exactly my problem, I cant start studying economics and finance right away due to financial/immigration reasons. Additionally I do believe I have acquired some skills over last few years in specific areas within cs. I am trying to explore option which would allow me apply those skills for next few years after which I can join a good business school. Certain jobs [Including startup] tend to be favorable if one is planning for business school later in life. I am trying to find those options.
Again you miss my point.
Consider Machine Learning. There is an amazing open source software called as WEKA. however contributing to WEKA isn't as much significant as say presenting a significant work in ICML or NIPS or writing a paper in JMLR.
Open Source is amazing for programmers, but for someone who wants to develop say a novel recommendation system or special Computer Vision algorithm. Open Source participation is secondary. Also in many case ML algorithms tend to be trivial in their implementation.
Also my time is limited, I could try getting involved in Weka and implement recently discovered algorithms in it Or I can read papers, explore different datasets and try to come up with new ideas. Second case makes more sense to me.
All I am saying is that it makes more sense for me to display my capabilities in developing better algorithms rather than ironing out their implementations.
I agree I sound like someone big ego. However all I state in this post are my expectation, probably I will fail or die tomorrow while crossing the road. yet till now setting highest expectations has worked for me.
Scared of Doing PhD:
The scare is due to the bureaucracy involved + unbreakable commitment for four years. One of My best friend got 3rd [last] option as his advisor, which means he will have to work for four years with him. Also being an alien student complicates the matter, you just cant say bye after an M.S. degree. That is my source of fear and not the research it self.
Regarding Solving problem: Sorry but In fact I was talking about people who are naturally drawn to programming the true and best top coders who love to code. [I am not that kind] When I said I wanted to solve problems, I meant that I started with Matlab to perform computation, When I realized its shortcoming, then I moved on to Python and onwards. Thus my drive for coding is generated by problem at hand.
The Way i look at it Programming is a tool but not a pastime, As far as websites. I created a small webapp which was part of my project on Google App Engine few months after it was introduce. Thus i mean no slight to the coders.
Regarding the Greed Part, to be honest yes; I do feel a need for Monetary success.
But I have met few Analyst and People who work in strategy or product development.
And looking at their work I feel that they are much better suited at making significant decisions. A Startup provides similar opportunity, but again being an Alien student it is difficult to participate in the experience.
Regarding the MBA: An Intern from a One of the best business schools works along me at my current internship. When I look at the job she has been assigned. I realize that MBA is essential for getting those kinds of responsibilities.
E.g. My current work might increase profits by [Best case - Impossible] few percents but her work could open a completely new segment. Now this is possible by gaining experience in a field yet it takes several years and significant office politics is involved.
Regarding the Quant job, it is a last as well as completely unrealistic option.
Thanks a lot for the reply
Yup I did not mean that Non - Commercialized research was unimportant.
Trying to get a job in a good company seems to be the only option for me.
Thanks again for the discussion
Regarding laundry list of jobs: I dont think there is anything wrong in determining what I feel is the best suited job for me (based on my current self (mis-)appreciation.
Plus never have I stated in my post that I am Good enough to become a Google Engineer or
FB Engineer. [I just mention it is really hard]
Finally Open Source is a good alternative to display your capabilities. But the fields in which I currently work [Machine Learning/Data Mining], writing a correct code is just a primary and non-significant step. While coming up with a novel algorithms is considered as a significant contribution.
I recently tried implementing an algorithm which I felt was interesting in my favorite language and distributed on git-hub. however I still felt [note I might be incorrect] that this sort of work was not valuable enough in my area of interest [again not expertise to be humble]. I can try to show my programming skill via my grades. But Open Source isn't that much important in my case.
Sorry for second reply:
When I say Analyst I do not mean I.T. Analyst or Technology Analyst.
It is along the line of Management Consultant Analyst.
Or Business Analyst.
Yeah Startup is interesting prospects. Also my poster was mentioned by a VC in UK in one of his blog posts (After I pointed him out that i had similar published ideas with working code)
However startup as alien student is really difficult, I had talked with professor who teaches entrepreneurship at my school.
1: Regarding PhD Programs, Getting in a good PhD Program wouldn't be that much difficult for me (I have a decent GRE score 1380) coupled with demonstrated research interest (via publication and paper).
However I have closely looked at life in the Academia (all my undergrad friends are doing PhD). And the Advisor problem is really terrible, since a lot is determined by your choice of advisor alone.
Finally regarding working in a Lab of Google/MSFT/ or Academia is what I am trying to avoid.
I have this personal theory that I should couple my technical knowledge with Managerial one to obtain a position where I could solve practical problems.
Research, Conference and Publications are fun, but over the years I have been amazed at large amount of publications that are hardly implemented in real life (if at all they are implementable).
The other Post-PhD issue is that my stipend (with 50% saved) wont be enough to completely pay of my loans (my parents have enough money but I somehow dont wish to burden them), Also the current Visa rules do not allow me to start a Startup post PhD so The employment issue remains.
At best I can hope is to get an Associate level jobs or Qunat ones at consulting firms Post-PhD.
Regarding your comment about Quant jobs being dry (conscientiously), sure they are but they are also exciting in a way You can literally see performance of your algorithms in term of monetary value.
Regarding my publication they were in a journal which is considered top in my field and published by an American non profit academic body, with its first issue being published around 100 years ago.
About my programming skill, well I can tell you that I can understand and write code. Its hard to give out any information here without compromising my privacy.
Regarding 29 months figure, if i have a job for say 2 years I would be able to earn enough to pay most of the debt plus would gain enough experience required for a B-School. That how i did my mental calculation though it is likely wrong.
To summarize 6 years into the future I want to work at a position where I could be making significant decisions that would affect products / Services / lives of people.
A perfect example would be Program/Project Mangers at Google or Facebook.
2. Come to USA for PhD, get Paid Double the amount + save around 4k$ per year atleast. Get Prestigious degree after 5 years and then get a job that pays at least 70k$ or Join Academia which pays 40k$ +
3. Go to USA for Masters, Pay fees out of pocket or via loan, so total cost will be ~50k$b- 80k$ Get a job which pays 60k$ P.A. post graduation. And repay the loan in next 3-4 years, after which one can go for an MBA
Now Choice 1 is pointless, Choice 3 requires your parents to be waelthy enough to afford the loan. Hence an overwhelming number of them choose 2. Also there is nothing wrong with it, plus the whole make money instead argument is bullshit.
Unless you have god gifted green card, no one will give you a job in USA, and regarding working in China/India the Minimum Wage here 10404*12 ~ 19k is more than best starting salary in their country